[Colorado-Talk] Ballots Are Now Available Through Colorado's Accessible Online Ballot Marking System

[Curtis Chong]

Greetings everyone:

 

I am pleased to report that accessible online ballots are now available for
the November 3 general election. The printed ballots for this election are
being mailed even now. Any registered voter in Colorado who has a disability
as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (blindness qualifies) will
be able to retrieve a ballot using Colorado's online accessible ballot
delivery system. This system enables you to mark the ballot online using
your favorite web browser. After you have finished marking your ballot, you
need to print both the ballot and the ballot application and sign the ballot
application. The ballot and signed package are then mailed together to your
county clerk or dropped off at an authorized drop box or polling facility.
For all of this to work, you will need a computer, tablet, or smart phone;
access to the Internet; and a printer that can be reached from the computer,
tablet, or smart phone. Here is the procedure.

 

1.         Send your browser to https://myballot.sos.colorado.gov/app/home.
When the page appears, look for a heading which says, "Vote My Ballot".
Below this heading is a CONTINUE button which you can activate by pressing
Enter.

 

2.         On the following page, enter your first and last name, your date
of birth, and the county in which you are voting. Then, press Enter on the
CONTINUE button.

 

3.         On the next page, you will find a number of Radio Buttons. The
button you want to activate will say, "I am a voter with a disability and am
requesting an accessible ballot". Activate this button and then press the
CONTINUE button to move to the next page.

 

4.         On this page, you need to check the box which verifies that you
are, indeed, a person with a disability as defined by the Americans with
Disabilities Act. Check the box and activate CONTINUE.

 

5.         On this next page, you must enter either your State ID number or
the last four digits of your Social Security number. You do not need to
enter both numbers. This is a one or the other kind of thing. Activate
CONTINUE. You will now be presented with your ballot.

 

6.         On the ballot page, all of the choices you can make for every
contest are listed. You indicate your choices by activating a checkbox using
the Spacebar. You can use this same key to remove a check mark from any
selection you want to change. When all of your choices have been made,
activate the CONTINUE button. You will be presented with a ballot review
page.

 

7.         The ballot review page gives you a final chance to look things
over and make any final corrections that you feel are required. Once you are
satisfied with your selections, find and activate the CONTINUE button.

 

8.         This next page contains a button which says, "PRINT SELECTIONS".
When this button is activated, a standard print dialog appears. On some
computers, you can actually direct the printing to be saved in a PDF file.
This is handy if you do not have ready access to a printer at home. Once
your ballot is printed or saved, Activate the CONTINUE button to move to the
final page.

 

9.         This final page has a button which says, "PRINT APPLICATION TO
SIGN". Activate this button. A PDF will be downloaded and opened. Now, tell
your computer to print the file.

 

10.       At this point, you can press the "END SESSION" button.

 

11.       The ballot application document that you printed in Step 9 above
will have been filled out by the ballot marking system. The bottom third of
the page has been left blank. You must sign your name somewhere in this
blank portion of the page. Failure to sign the ballot application will cause
your ballot to be rejected.

 

12.       You should place both the ballot and the signed ballot application
in an envelope, write "Official Ballot enclosed" on the envelope beneath the
delivery address, and return the envelope to your county clerk either at a
drop box, a voter service and polling center, or through the mail. It is
important that you include the signed application with your ballot; this is
the only way that your county clerk will be able to validate your ballot.

You can insert the ballot and ballot application into the return envelope
that you received in the mail as a part of the regular ballot mailing
process, but if you do this, you must be sure to sign your name on the left
side of the back of the ballot return envelope.

 

13.       You can visit the website www.govotecolorado.com to update your
voter registration information; this information needs to be current in
order to access the online ballot marking system. If your information isn't
current by now, you still have time to correct it, but the option to mail
your ballot in becomes increasingly problematic as the election draws
closer. You can also visit www.govotecolorado.com
<file:///C:/Users/Curtis/Documents/www.govotecolorado.com>  to find the
nearest voter service and polling center and drop box or to check on the
status of your ballot.

 

14.       Finally, if you want to know how to contact your county clerk, you
can download a PDF file containing the complete Roster of County Clerks and
Recorders at this link:
https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Resources/files/CountyClerkRoster
Website.pdf. This file is accessible to screen reading technology for the
blind.

 

Happy voting!

 

Cordially,

 

Curtis Chong

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/colorado-talk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20201009/70507b31/attachment.html>