[nfbwatlk] My Secret Ballot has been Cast!!

Becky Frankeberger b.butterfly at comcast.net
Wed Aug 3 15:23:40 UTC 2016


Coming soon, is what Kevin and I did, voted on line. We printed both
ballots, Signed them and stuffed it in the envelope from the Auditor signed
the envelope and mailed it away.

Becky 
-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Prows,
Bennett (HHS/OCR) via nfbwatlk
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2016 7:37 AM
To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Prows, Bennett (HHS/OCR) <Bennett.Prows at HHS.GOV>
Subject: [nfbwatlk] My Secret Ballot has been Cast!!

Well, thanks to the postal service and Jacob Struiksma, I voted yesterday
without assistance, (or for that matter interference). For the past few
weeks, I have periodically checked my mail box for the primary election
ballot that was supposed to come from the King county elections office.
Either it somehow didn't get delivered, or it was thrown away with a bunch
of junk mail I summarily dumped. I'm the first to admit that I could have
been at fault. So, when Jacob posted the information about King County
accessible voting locations last week, I decided that I would take the quick
trip to the Union Station in Seattle to use the voting machines with the
audio ballot. I don't know whether it was some sort of unwarranted concern
about finding the place, or just my laziness that caused my mind to resist
the trip, but in the end, I sucked it up and went from my Office on 5th and
Columbia to the 4th and Jackson location by taking a bus the one stop from
the Pioneer Square Tunnel station to the International District Tunnel
station, and going next door to the Union Station. It was pretty easy.

I have never been very private about my voting preferences, but this was
only the second time I have gone to only one of three accessible voting
locations in the Seattle, King County area. The readers I have had over the
years have been trustworthy, either because I knew them well, or because
they were poll watchers at the precinct I used. But the prospect of being
able to vote a secret ballot really got me excited about yesterday's vote.
The experience was quite successful. At one point, my audio ballot wasn't
printing in order for me to complete the process of getting it to the county
elections folks, but we figured out the problem, which was that I was
impatient and didn't listen to all the instructions before pushing buttons.
That was definitely my fault. It didn't take long to remedy the situation,
and I reviewed my ballot and completed the process. I thought it went
reasonably smoothly, the staff was pretty well familiar with the machines,
and I didn't have to wait at all to vote.

The main point though is that it was completely private. No one knew who I
voted for, (or for that matter who I didn't vote for.) And, I could keep it
to myself fir ever if I was not so anxious to be politically involved. I did
leave the voting area  however, very proud that I had been able to vote on
my own without assistance from anyone at all once I learned to use the
voting machine. It was remarkably simple, and I'd recommend it for anyone
who has the time and inclination to try it.

That having been said, if and when in the future I receive my mail in
ballot, I will probably seek out a reader  because there are so few
accessible voting locations. Many of us either can't or won't take the hour
or two time on the bus to get to the nearest one. It is important that we
all keep pushing for many more places that have accessible voting stations,
or for some other method of being able to vote like everyone else, ...
privately from home.

I do want to thank Jacob again for posting the information for King county
at least to the list, and to urge others to look for that information for
your own county.

Remember to vote often. ... Oh, I mean ... ah well, you know what I mean.

Have a great day.

/s/

Bennett Prows
_______________________________________________
nfbwatlk mailing list
nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbwatlk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nfbwatlk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbwatlk_nfbnet.org/b.butterfly%40comcast.
net





More information about the NFBWATlk mailing list