[IABS-Talk] FW: early voting and the new machines

[davant1958 at gmail.com]

This may be of interest to people who plan to vote early.

See below.

 

 

Denise R. Avant, Esq.

President,

National Federation of the Blind of Illinois

773-991-8050

Live the life you want.

 

For more information about NFBI,

Go to www.nfbofillinois.org

 

From: Amy Peterson <Amy at equipforequality.org> 
Sent: Monday, March 9, 2020 8:34 AM
To: Amy Peterson <Amy at equipforequality.org>
Subject: FW: early voting and the new machines

 

Hello all.  A perspective and some tips on the new voting machines courtesy
of Sharon Howerton, below.

 

Amy

 

From: Sharon Howerton [mailto:shrnhow at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2020 3:17 PM
To: techexchange at lists.second-sense.org; Amy Peterson
Subject: early voting and the new machines

 

WARNING: This email is from an EXTERNAL source. Do not click links or
attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

I voted today and was the first person to use the new audio equipment at the
Edgewater Library at 6000 N. Broadway. One of the people there told me that
it was pretty busy yesterday but not so much today; people may have not
realized that all of the libraries in Chicago are open for early voting only
on Sundays. I don't know if this is true of all libraries, but Edgewater is
open until 7 PM every night this week, maybe for duration of the early
voting but I don't know for sure.

I found the new equipment much easier to use than the old. The controller is
larger and clearly marked in uncontracted braille. The buttons also have
different shapes. I would encourage anyone to listen to the instructions
which last less than a minute before starting. The voter is prompted each
step of the way; however, if you accidentally select the large select
button, that will put you in a new language loop for which I needed sighted
assistance to get out! (Just raise your hand and someone will come over.)
You can review your ballot and change selections, but then I had a hard time
figuring out how to complete the ballot as there were some I did not answer.
Again, request assistance. The ballot is first printed at your machine. It
comes out on a large sheet of paper, like 8x11, and is placed in a folder.
The voter then goes to a scanner where a judge initials the ballot. Then the
voter puts the ballot into a scanner which is just like loading paper into a
printer. Once the ballot gets to a certain point, the machine takes it and
finalizes your vote.

I hope that this information is helpful so don't be afraid to get out and
vote. Everyone counts!

Sharon