[NFBMT] Billings Gazette article on Voting

[president at nfbofmt.org]

Hi All,

 

The billings Gazette today ran an article on voting by Montanans with
disabilities.  I tried the Electronic Ballot Request System (EBRS),
Montana's voting alternative for absentee and mail elections.  The article
incorrectly reports I could not complete the process, but it took a couple
of days and required that I use a human reader/scribe.  What we want is an
online option that does not require printing and management of printed
documents so that a blind voter may vote independently and privately.  .  We
need a legislative change for this, and Joy Breslauer and our Advocacy and
Public Policy Committee is on it.  Below my signature is the article.

 

 

Jim Marks

President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana

president at nfbofmt.org

(406) 438-1421

www.nfbofmt.org

 

You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/covid-19-pandemic-highli
ghts-barriers-to-disabled-voters/article_dcb89051-a91a-5257-bd7c-ab2d8d9e87b
6.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1

 

 

 

 


COVID-19 pandemic highlights barriers to disabled voters


.        <https://billingsgazette.com/users/profile/Juliana%20Sukut> Juliana
Sukut

 

.       4 hrs ago

 

.        

 
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Jim Marks, president for the National Federation of the Blind of Montana,
poses for a photograph on Wednesday outside The Rocky Mountain Development
Council where he is the Area 4 Agency on Aging Program Director.

THOM BRIDGE, For the Billings Gazette

 <https://billingsgazette.com/users/profile/Juliana%20Sukut> Juliana Sukut

The June primaries were the first time Jim Marks, a blind man, tried to vote
absentee in a Montana election.

It was an experiment for Marks, who tried using the electronic ballot system
for people with disabilities for the first time.

Montana voters with disabilities can use the Electronic Ballot Request
System to request and fill out an absentee ballot electronically for federal
and special elections with software compliant with the Americans with
Disabilities Act. The system has been in place since 2015.

But Marks wasn't able to cast his ballot with the EBRS system.

The system failed for Marks after a series of glitches that left him
exasperated. He ditched the electronic ballot and asked his wife to help him
fill out a paper ballot instead.

During a normal election, voters in Montana with a physical disability can
find it burdensome, or impossible, to travel to a poll and can rely on
mail-in ballots as an alternative.

But voters with visual impairments or dexterity issues who can't read or
mark a paper ballot independently are left out from voting privately or at
all.


Voting from home


Marks, like most people, would typically vote at a poll. But this year,
that's not an option for everyone.

"People with disabilities are obviously disproportionately at risk for
serious disease if they catch COVID-19, so they're more likely to want to
refrain from going to the polls," Emily Shuman the director of the Rocky
Mountain ADA Center, said.

Most of Montana is voting by mail this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Steve Bullock gave counties the green light to conduct elections by
mail for the primaries in June and again in August for the general election.

Forty-six counties are conducting mail elections, although voters still have
the option to vote in person at county election offices.

Despite that, there's not a good alternative for voters with disabilities
who want to vote from home.

The electronic system has one extra step that makes it inaccessible for
visually impaired voters and for some voters with physical disability:
voters cannot submit the ballot electronically.

"There's that gap," Bret Rutherford, the Yellowstone County elections
administrator, said. "That one last step they would need to completely do it
independent at home isn't there."

Printed ballots must be returned by mail or in person. Visually impaired
voters either has to trust the ballot printed correctly or ask someone else
to verify that the ballot and secrecy envelope printed.

"A lot of blind Montanans don't really have printers," Marks said.

Others with dexterity issues or physical disabilities might need assistance
stuffing, signing or returning the ballot.

"It kind of defeats the purpose of the privacy stuff," Marks said.

The measures that Montana has taken to make voting more accessible for
absentee voters still rely on physical polling stations and paper and need
to be streamlined, said Beth Brenneman, an attorney for Disability Rights
Montana.

"Paper is antiquated," she said.


Voting bloc


What's at stake in Montana is disenfranchising an estimated 143,500 eligible
voters with disabilities, said Dr. Douglas Kruse, a professor and
co-director for the Program for Disability Research at Rutgers University.

Kruse analyzed data from the American Community Survey and projections from
the U.S. Census, and found about 29,300 eligible voters in Montana were
visually impaired and 81,700 had some sort of physical impairment.

That number is likely to grow, in tandem, with Montana's aging population.

Despite the large population, the EBRS system isn't widely used. In an email
to Marks, the Secretary of State's Office noted that so far only seven
people had requested an electronic ballot. In the primaries, no one used the
system to vote.

The Secretary of State's Office did not return several phone calls with
questions on accommodations for voters with disabilities, or to answer
specific questions about Marks' voting experience.

 

Jim Marks, president for the National Federation of the Blind of Montana,
poses for a photograph Wednesday outside The Rocky Mountain Development
Council where he is the Area 4 Agency on Aging Program Director.

THOM BRIDGE For the Billings Gazette

Marks, who lives in Helena, isn't worried about contracting COVID-19, but
this year he's choosing to vote absentee to try and help the state work out
its own kinks in accessible voting.

Tuesday, Marks attempted again to vote using the electronic system. It was
going smoother than in June, but he was still running into issues. Halfway
through completing his ballot he got an error message.

"I marked my presidential race and marked the senate race and I got an error
message saying I couldn't mark two choices within the same race," Marks
said. He works for the Rocky Mountain Development Council Agency for Aging,
and is the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Montana, an
organization that develops policy and advocates for legislature for blind
and visually-impaired Montanans.

 
<https://smlr.rutgers.edu/news/disability-vote-grows-to-38-million-19-percen
t-jump-since-2008> A recent study by Rutgers University researchers Kruse
and Dr. Lisa Schur found that elections conducted by mail translated to a
higher turnout for people with disabilities, especially in states that had
no excuse mail-in ballots.

Mail-in ballots aren't perfect for all people with disabilities, Schur
acknowledged. But the data show that the more barriers are removed means an
increase in voter turnout.

With one in four Montanans having some sort of disability, that represents a
substantial voting bloc. 

"The size of the disability population in Montana means that their voices
make a difference," Kruse said.

People with disabilities are fairly evenly split by partisan lines but tend
to value healthcare and employment issues greater-two key issues in the
federal elections and here in Montana, Kruse said.

Common barriers to voters with disabilities are inaccessible polling
stations, poll workers or election judges that are unfamiliar with
accessible voting technology or accessible voting machines being overlooked,
Shuman said.

In 2016, two-thirds of U.S. polling places had at least one error in
accessibility, and 12% of qualified individuals cited a disability or
illness as a reason they chose not to vote, Shuman said.

"Voting for everyone is going to be difficult (this year)," she said. "It's
important that we not get so caught up in difficulty for general voting that
we forget that voting for people with disabilities is now extra, extra
difficult," she said.

For counties that are conducting the election by mail, like Yellowstone
County, voters still have the option to vote at election offices in person.

"We have (accessible voting) covered in person," Rutherford said.

Accessible voting machines, like the AutoMARK and ExpressVote, are required
by law in Montana to be available at polling stations.

Although accessibility isn't always perfect in-person, either.

Marks has had instances where the accessible machine was not working
properly or set up. One time, he recalls, the machine was still in its box
when he arrived to vote.


Updating the system


On Wednesday Marks successfully voted absentee using the EBRS system after a
back-and-forth with the Secretary of State's office following an initial
glitch. He still needed the help of his wife to ensure the ballot and
secrecy envelope printed correctly.

The easy fix for him to vote independent would be a system where voters with
disabilities could request an online ballot and return it electronically.
That system would require a change to existing legislation.

"The technology is here and easy to use," Marks said.

 

Jim Marks, president for the National Federation of the Blind of Montana,
poses for a photograph on Wednesday outside The Rocky Mountain Development
Council where he is the Area 4 Agency on Aging Program Director.

THOM BRIDGE For the Billings Gazette

Some Montanans overseas can send back ballots electronically through the
Uniformed and Overseas Act, a federal law that allows military or overseas
Montanans to vote either by email, fax or snail mail.

"You could live two miles [over] the Canadian border and vote
electronically, but someone in Conrad with a disability cannot vote
electronically," Rutherford said.

Montana legislature would have to adopt something similar to the Uniformed
and Overseas Act to make the EBRS system truly accessible and independent.

That legislative change might not be likely, Rutherford said, but the
pandemic has further highlighted antiquated election laws and a need to
streamline the process for all voters. 

Opponents think electronic ballots could lend itself to fraud, or that
people who don't have disabilities will take advantage of the option.

"It's a touchy situation," Rutherford said. '"Electronic and elections,' it
raises eyebrows and it'll be a fight in the legislature for better or for
worse."

 

 

Kathy Marks, NCRI, NCRT

Operations Director

Office phone: 406-457-7323

 

 

Rocky is your community resource for vulnerable individuals and families
serving young children during their early childhood and seniors in their
most challenging years.  Rocky ensures that families have safe and warm
homes. Please donate today by clicking on the link.  Thank you.

 

https://www.rmdc.net/how-to-help/donate.html

 

Please remember Rocky Mountain Development Council Inc. in your will or
trust.  For information, please contact me.

 



 

 

 

From: Jim Marks 
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2020 10:08 AM
To: Kathy Marks <kmarks at rmdc.net <mailto:kmarks at rmdc.net> >
Subject: RE: Billings Gazette article that includes Jim

 

Thanks!  I cannot read it.  Can you save to txt and send it to me as an
attachment?

 

Jim Marks

Area IV Agency on Aging Program Director

Rocky Mountain Development Council

jmarks at rmdc.net <mailto:jmarks at rmdc.net> 

(406) 457-7359

www.rmdc.net/areaiv.html <http://www.rmdc.net/areaiv.html> 

 

From: Kathy Marks 
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2020 9:53 AM
To: Jim Marks <jmarks at rmdc.net <mailto:jmarks at rmdc.net> >; Lori Ladas
<lladas at rmdc.net <mailto:lladas at rmdc.net> >
Cc: Schaub, Katelyn <KSchaub2 at mt.gov <mailto:KSchaub2 at mt.gov> >; Christina
<christina.jason18 at gmail.com <mailto:christina.jason18 at gmail.com> >
Subject: Billings Gazette article that includes Jim

 

https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/covid-19-pandemic-highli
ghts-barriers-to-disabled-voters/article_dcb89051-a91a-5257-bd7c-ab2d8d9e87b
6.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1

 

Kathy Marks, NCRI, NCRT

Operations Director

Office phone: 406-457-7323

 

 

Rocky is your community resource for vulnerable individuals and families
serving young children during their early childhood and seniors in their
most challenging years.  Rocky ensures that families have safe and warm
homes. Please donate today by clicking on the link.  Thank you.

 

https://www.rmdc.net/how-to-help/donate.html

 

Please remember Rocky Mountain Development Council Inc. in your will or
trust.  For information, please contact me.

 



 

 

 

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