[Nfbmt] HB 400 Online Voting

[Jim Marks]

The Montana House State Administration Committee held a hearing on HB 400
this morning, and I thought we should talk about it.  

HB 400 would permit people with disabilities to vote absentee using an
electronic ballot.  It's not an online vote.  Instead, HB 400 would permit
people with disabilities to request an electronic absentee ballot.  The
ballot consists of an accessible PDF form.  It would be e-mailed to the
voter.  The voter completes the form and prints it.  Then the voter either
snail mails the ballot back or scans and e-mails it back.  It's the same
system currently used for military and other overseas voting.

It's hard to say how the Committee will vote, and there sure were lots of
misguided testimony and questions.  For instance, we know legislation like
HB 400 is about building private voting.  At least one Committee member kept
getting hung up on whether any voters with disabilities were being excluded.
For the life of me, I don't get how our conservative leaders understand
self-determination when it comes to themselves and the powerful, but fail to
realize others merely want the same, the basic human right to
self-determination.  Most of the testimony was very good.  The only bad
testimony I caught was from a county clerk and recorder who said her
county's Automark was never used, so she opposed the bill.  I know, I know.
Lady needs to understand the barriers shut people out.  It just ain't good
enough to rely on others when we have the cheap and easy to use technology
to permit every citizen to vote independently and privately.  It doesn't
matter whether anyone uses the machine.  What does matter is that every
citizen gets to exercise his or her rights just like any citizen does.

I recommend keeping an eye on this bill.  If folks want, I can send out
contact info for the Committee members.  We should speak up on stuff like
this.

All the Best!


Jim Marks
Blind.grizzly at gmail.com