[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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