[NFBMT] Billings Gazette article on Voting

[d m gina]

We worked so hard to gt the machines going,
No matter what else we can do, I will stick with the machine.
There are to many persons who don't have computers.
I would still wish them to vote privately.
Dar
Original message:
> 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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> ml#tracking-source=green-subscribe-button&ir=true> SALE! Subscribe for
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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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