[Nfbmo] Working at the polls
DanFlasar at aol.com
DanFlasar at aol.com
Wed Mar 16 23:15:10 UTC 2011
Hi all,
I just wanted to let you know that this morning I was trained, and
confirmed, to be an assistant supervisor for the upcoming election in St. Louis
County on April 5th. I was able to successfully request to get an
accessible copy of the training manual for the position as a .pdf file so that I
can study it in preparation for the election. As many of you know, only
federal elections require accessible voting machines so the voiced ballot we
have used for such elections wil not be available. Both paper and touch
screen ballots will be available, and there are both democratic and republican
assistant supervisors available to ensure that if you need assistance from
the election workers to cast your ballot, both must be available to ensure
that your vote is cast accurately. Either that or bring someone with you
who can help you.
And yes, I realize that there are more parties than the Democratic and
Republican parties but that's the
situation embedded in law right now.
My duties will be to arrive an hour before the polls open to set up,
along with the other assistant poll worker, to set up all machines and the
OptiScan system to read the paper ballots, as well as to ensure that both
systems are ready for the voter. We verify the touch screen ballots cast
(but not the specific votes) are recorded at the end of the day before the
machines are packed up to go.
The extent of the assistance your can receive at the polls is too have
the ballot language to be read to you - they cannot be explained in other
terms because that would be considered electioneering which is illegal.
I'm certainly no expert but if you have any questions about voting, I
will do my best to find outthe answer either by referring to the manual or
checking with someone who knows with the election board. Note that my
answers is specific only to St. Louis County so it may or may not be relevant
to your own election entities.
Although there is not a lot of reading to be done, there is some and I
will have to use adaptive technology to perform those duties (magnifiers
to read serial #s, to read screens, etc.
I don't know if there have how many other visually impaired
individuals have been selected for this position so if any of you know of anyone,
please let me know so I can compare notes.
Thanks, and remember -
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS VOTE!!!!!
Dan
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