[NFBNJ] NFBNJ: Time Sensative Accessible Vote Via Mail Letter And Four Addresses

Tue May 26 23:56:39 UTC 2020

>From the desk of NFBNJ President, Joe Ruffalo.
Reviewed by Linda Melendez, NFBNJ First Vice-President and Ryan Stevens, 
NFBNJ, Director of Legislation.
Greetings to all!

I have provided mailing addresses and phone numbers for  the Governor, 
Secretary of State, Attorney General and the Director of the Division of 
elections who need to hear from the NFBNJ membership to contact pertaining 
to the accessible vote via mail issue.

My letter to Governor Murphy is on letterhead pasted below and is attached 
and can be used as a template.

Note: All four were mailed hard copies on Thursday, May 21.  Linda was able 
to email Governor Murphy’s letter by following instructions on the state 
website.

I am requesting the members to personalize letters and mail.

In addition, I’m requesting  all to call each person to present the issue.

Both methods would be great however, phone calls are easier and will also 
work.

Remember, use my letter as a template, please personalize.

Note: There is valuable information in the letter, pasted and attached.

Our voices need to be heard!

Best,

Joe

Joe Ruffalo, President

National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey

973 743 0075

nfbnj1 at verizon.net

www.nfbnj.org

---

The Honorable Phil Murphy

Governor of New Jersey

225 W. State Street

Trenton, New Jersey 08625

https://nj.gov/governor/contact/all/

Honorable Tahesha Way

Secretary of State

P.O. Box 300

Trenton, New Jersey 08625

https://feedback@sos.nj.gov

(609) 777-2581

Gurbir S. Grewal, Attorney General

Office of the Attorney General

Richard Hughes Justice Complex

8th Floor, West Wing

25 Market Street

Trenton, NJ 08625

(609) 292-4925

Robert Giles, Director

Division of Elections

PO Box 304

Trenton, New Jersey 08625

(609) 292-3760

____

May 21, 2020

The Honorable Phil Murphy

Governor of New Jersey

225 W. State Street

Trenton, New Jersey 08625

Dear Honorable Governor Murphy:

I am writing to you on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind of New 
Jersey. The right to vote is our most cherished right. I fought for this 
right, and many have died for it. Voting is the one direct way that citizens 
can decide who makes public policy on our behalf. Voting must also be free 
from outside pressure and intimidation, which is why each of us has the 
right to a secret ballot.

Until the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) passed in 2002, blind people like me 
did not have a secret ballot. We had to disclose our vote to another person, 
albeit one of our choosing, in order to vote at all. New voting technology 
makes it possible for us to vote privately and independently at the polling 
place. HAVA requires that at least one voting machine at each polling place 
be accessible to blind voters. But now, because of COVID-19, going to a 
polling place isn’t an option. New Jersey will conduct its primary elections 
on July 7, 2020 mostly  by mail, and elections may have to be conducted this 
way for the foreseeable future.

Blind voters who are immunocompromised or have health conditions that make 
us more vulnerable should not have to choose between our right to vote on an 
accessible voting machine at the polls and, potentially, our lives.

Prior to recent advocacy by Disability Rights New Jersey and the National 
Federation of the Blind of New Jersey, there was no way for blind voters to 
mark a mail-in ballot privately and independently. New Jersey has now agreed 
to use a system that will deliver an electronic version of the ballot to 
blind voters. We can then use the screen reader technology that we have on 
our own computers to mark the ballot. Screen reader technology converts 
digital content into synthesized speech or Braille, making voting accessible 
to blind and deafblind voters. After marking the ballot, we will then return 
it electronically to our local board of elections, as active-duty military 
and overseas voters have done for ten years.

Some object to this system, claiming it is a form of Internet voting. This 
isn’t accurate. True Internet voting would be a system in which ballots were 
both submitted and counted electronically. This is not what will happen. 
Once I return my ballot to my board of elections, it will be printed out and 
counted with all other mail-in paper ballots. Those who ultimately scan the 
ballots won’t know which ballots were marked by hand and which were 
submitted electronically, nor will the electronic scanners be able to tell 
the difference. All of the mail-in ballots will still be subject to counting 
by hand if needed.

Some still claim that, somehow, the ballot can be changed by a malicious 
hacker as it crosses the Internet from my computer to the Board of 
Elections. But this concern is entirely hypothetical; there’s no evidence 
that it has ever happened in any jurisdiction where this or similar systems 
have been used, and there are safeguards in place to make sure that it doesn’t.

Nonetheless, these advocates say that I must give up my right to a secret 
ballot and have someone help me mark a paper ballot, or else risk my health 
going to a polling center. This not only violates my rights as a voter, but 
also violates state and federal law. Both the Americans with Disabilities 
Act and the Help America Vote Act require that voters with disabilities have 
an equal opportunity to vote to that of non-disabled voters. If my ballot 
isn’t secret, then my rights are not equal to those of other voters. Instead 
I am being treated like a second-class citizen. Merely because I happen to 
have a disability, I don’t get to vote with a secret ballot like everyone 
else. I and the rest of New Jersey’s blind voters will not tolerate such 
treatment, and the law says we don’t have to.

All of us want fair, secure, and verifiable elections. But discriminating 
against one group of voters by stripping us of the right to a secret ballot 
isn’t the way to achieve that laudable goal. Elections must be both secure 
and accessible, and New Jersey must reject a false choice between the two. 
Thank you for your attention to this significant and consequential issue for 
New Jersey Blind Voters.

Sincerely,

Joe Ruffalo, President

National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey

254 Spruce Street

Bloomfield, New Jersey  07003

973-743-0075

Nfbnj1 at verizon.net

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