>The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL)
>Tuesday, September 23, 2003
>
>Trial over new voting machines to begin
>
>By Paul Pinkham
>
>In a case with national implications, a federal judge will be asked to
>decide this week whether Duval County elections officials discriminated
>against blind and other disabled voters when they purchased new ballot
>equipment in 2001.
>
>Testimony begins today in an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit filed
>by three Jacksonville voters and a national disabled rights organization.
>
>They argue that optical scanners purchased by Duval County Supervisor of
>Elections John Stafford in the wake of the 2000 election debacle don't
>allow visually and manually impaired voters to cast a ballot in secret.
>Stafford could have bought touch-screen equipment that reads ballots out
>loud to blind voters and allows manually impaired voters to vote without
>using their hands.
>
>'We were amazed that a county would knowingly buy a voting system that was
>inaccessible when there were accessible systems available to them,' said
>James Dickson, vice president for government affairs at the American
>Association of People with Disabilities in Washington.
>
>Stafford and city lawyers counter that the special equipment was
>impractical, expensive and untested at the time of implementation but that
>there are plans to move to the more accessible technology.
>
>'Supervisor John Stafford has complied with the ADA by implementing a plan
>for a voting system that is readily accessible and usable by voters with
>disabilities . . . and is without unlawful burden to them,' city attorney
>Scott Makar argued in court.
>
>It's the first lawsuit of its kind in the country to go to trial. Others
>settled when elections officials in those cities agreed to purchase
>equipment to accommodate the disabled voters.
>
>Jacksonville was chosen for the lawsuit because 'it is the one large
>county in Florida that stands out for buying equipment that is
>inaccessible,' said Lois Williams of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for
>Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
>
>Fifty-two of Florida's 67 counties use optical scanners like Duval, but
>all the major metropolitan counties chose touch screens, except Duval and
>Orange. In Northeast Florida, only Nassau County uses touch-screen technology.
>
>The evidence will be heard in a non-jury trial by Senior U.S. District
>Judge Wayne Alley of Oklahoma City, working as a visiting judge in
>Jacksonville. The trial is expected to last one week.
>
>Williams said plaintiffs want to force Stafford to have the new technology
>operational by the March 9 presidential preference primary. Federal law
>requires the equipment to be in place by 2006. Stafford has said in court
>documents it would cost about $ 1 million to have one touch screen
>available in each precinct.
>
>'Our clients . . . want to be as independent as they can and know what
>technology can do,' Williams said. 'When you go out and buy new stuff,
>it's like building a new store that's not handicap accessible. That's not
>acceptable.'
>
>Plaintiff Daniel O'Connor said when he and other blind voters show up at
>the polls, they have to rely on someone else to read their ballots and
>cast their votes. That's not fair, he said, because other non-disabled
>voters can cast a secret ballot.
>
>'The technology's there for people to vote independently. . . . They
>should be able to do that,' said O'Connor, blind since 1991.
>
>City lawyers say Stafford has accommodated disabled voters and none were
>prevented from voting in local elections in 2002 and 2003. They said the
>Americans with Disabilities Act applies to structures and ramps, not
>election equipment that is 'an amalgamation of computer hardware [and]
>software, voting booths and other transitory items.' The act has no
>regulatory guidelines for voting, they argue.
>
>'It is one thing to require a simple, inexpensive curb cut or ramp to a
>sidewalk that is being altered; it is another to require the substantial
>and disproportionate cost of . . . additional voting technology,' Makar
>said in court documents. 'A voting system is not readily understood as a
>facility under the ADA.'
>
>
>Staff writer Paul Pinkham can be reached at (904) 359-4107 or
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