[Greater-Baltimore] My In-Person Voting Experience

[Scott Soldan]

All,

If you are voting later today, I wanted to give you a heads up about the automatic marking device.   While I can only attest to my polling place and the machines there, I'm assuming the same type of machines are used elsewhere in Maryland.

Firstly, the actual voting selection process was fully accessible with the audio version.  The issue I experienced was in the initialization of the machine after inserting the paper ballot into the printer.  Due to the different primary ballots for each party, there is an onscreen choice to select which primary you are voting in.  This unfortunately did not have any audio directions to be able to make the selection on the touch screen without some usable eyesight or assistance.

If you are low vision, the screen color of the device can be inverted if a dark background helps or as I did use a handheld magnifier to read the screen.  Of course, you can also ask for assistance from one of the polling place administrators.

I was very fortunate to be the only voter when I arrived bright and early.  They did double check the machine's manual and found a line entry about needing to select the party at the start of the voting process, but it was not in the section about the audio version per my recollection.

If you have assistance to locate the machine, just ask them to help you through the initialization of the primary selection to start the ballot and then from there you should be able to vote independently using the audio feedback and handheld tactile controller.

Hear you tonight at the TLC chapter meeting.

With regards,
Scott Soldan