[nabs-l] Fwd: voting accessibility

[Stephanie Hirst DeLuca]

Sorry about that


Begin forwarded message:

*From:* "Blake, Lou Ann" <LBlake at nfb.org>
*Date:* September 7, 2012 2:27:19 PM CDT
*To:* Stephanie DeLuca <sjhhirst at gmail.com>
*Subject:* *RE: voting accessibility*

Hi Stephanie,

Thanks so much for your e-mail! I am very glad to hear that the members of
the blind students division are interested in accessible voting.

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires that at least one accessible
voting machine be provided in every polling place for all federal
elections. Therefore, there should be at least one accessible voting
machine in every polling place for the upcoming presidential election on
November 6th. However, HAVA does not apply to state and local elections, so
when a blind voter goes to her local polling place for a state/local
election there may not be an accessible voting machine available.

It has been my experience, both personal and from what other blind voters
have told me, that the biggest barrier to a blind voter's ability to cast a
private and independent ballot is the untrained poll worker who does not
know how to set-up or operate the accessible voting machine. In most of
these instances, if the blind voter is patient and politely insist that she
wants to use the accessible voting machine, the poll workers are able to
get the accessible machine operating. When a blind voter is not able to
cast a private and independent vote because an accessible machine is not
present or the poll workers cannot get it operating, she should file a
complaint with her state board of elections.

I have attached The Blind Voter's Guide, which provides additional
information about the rights of blind voters. This guide was prepared under
the Jernigan Institute's 2008-2009 HAVA grant from the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services. Please feel free to distribute this guide to
other blind voters.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,

Lou Ann

Lou Ann Blake, J.D.
HAVA Project Manager and Law Symposium Coordinator
Jernigan Institute
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
200 East Wells Street
   at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
Telephone: (410) 659-9314, ext. 2221
Fax: (410) 659-5129
E-mail: lblake at nfb.org
Web site: www.nfb.org


Text the word BLIND to 85944 to donate $10 to the NFB Imagination Fund via
your phone bill.


-----Original Message-----
From: Stephanie DeLuca [mailto:sjhhirst at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 2:49 PM
To: Blake, Lou Ann
Cc: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: voting accessibility

Dear Lou Ann,

The National Association of Blind Students (NABS) has been discussing
voting accessibility lately, especially since, as students, we are all in a
good place to inform the public about the need for accessible voting and
educating blind/VI voters on their rights and responsibilities.  One key
part of this is that we need to know what exactly ARE our rights and
responsibilities?  Which laws should we read?  Do you know how we can
access that information?  We all feel that this is quite important, as
voting is something that every citizen has a right to do, but several
stories have been shared on the list in which the blind/VI voter was not
able to vote in private using the "accessible" voting machine.  We look
forward to hearing from you soon!  Thanks!

Stephanie DeLuca
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