[Ohio-talk] Fw: Article from Columbus Dispatch Ohio Editorials 2010 10 31

[Deborah Kendrick]

Greetings all,
Just passing along my column from Sunday's Columbus Dispatch as a gentle 
nudge to be sure and take time from your busy day to go to the polls!

Deborah

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NFB-NEWSLINE Online" <nfbnewsline at nfb.org>
To: "Deborah Kendrick" <dkkendrick at earthlink.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 8:42 AM
Subject: Article from Columbus Dispatch Ohio Editorials 2010 10 31


Deborah Kendrick commentary: Voting isn't universally accessible, private 
Sunday, October 31, 2010   03:00 AM        By  Deborah Kendrick      The 
Columbus Dispatch                           Initially, I was attracted to 
the story because Genesee County, Mich., is near my Michigan roots. As it 
turned out, the story was about a different Genesee County, the one in New 
York, but the issue was one affecting voters in both states, as well as here 
in Ohio and everywhere else across the nation.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 supposedly ensured that all Americans, 
even those with wheelchairs or who couldn't visually read the ballot, would 
be able to get into the polling place to cast a vote and cast that vote 
independently and privately.

The Genesee County story that caught my attention was the tale of a 
disability-rights advocate, somewhat ironically named Roland Poles, whose 
assignment was to check up on the accessibility of polling places in three 
counties. Regrettably, he's finding the job to be tougher than anticipated 
because of the large number of sites with no ramps, ramps not meeting code, 
insufficient doorways and/or the absence or limitations of signage. Even 
more regrettably, his mission seems to include only the physical 
accessibility of the polling places themselves, since voting machines are 
not even referenced.

For me and millions of other Americans whose visual or learning difficulties 
complicate reading the ballot, the answer to "accessible" voting does not 
involve getting in the door but reading and marking the ballot itself. A 
decade ago, three or four companies recognized the opportunity and began 
developing machines. Some had human voice recordings and some text-to-speech 
synthesizers. Some had more controls than others, affording the voter more 
or less flexibility in listening to the ballot material.

With the passage of HAVA, each polling place was required to have at least 
one accessible machine. Although I have never missed an election, I have yet 
to vote with complete independence and privacy.

You might say I had more independence and privacy before the passage of the 
act than since. With the old punch-style ballots (yeah, the ones subject to 
those infamous hanging chads), I would go into the booth with a friend or 
relative. My companion would read each page of the ballot and, having 
memorized the order of choices down the page, I would count the holes and 
use the stylus to make my selection. No one ever saw my particular choice.

With the advent of the "accessible" machines, I was giddy with anticipation. 
The poll workers at my particular polling place greeted me with some 
giddiness, too.

We've been waiting for you," they said, clearly eager to see the machine 
with recorded voices in action. So eager were they, in fact, that as I sat 
at the machine with headphones listening and selecting my issues and 
candidates, they stood behind me, watching every button I mashed. The screen 
on that particular machine, it turned out, displayed all actions of the user 
and had no screen-off option.

The next year, out of respect to my earlier comments, the machine was in a 
corner, screen discreetly facing no one but me, but we had to make two calls 
to the Board of Elections to get it functioning properly. I'm not 
particularly paranoid, but I lacked a certain confidence that my vote had 
been counted.

In 2008, for the presidential election, I was assured that all the wrinkles 
had been ironed and the poll workers were ready. After an hour of struggling 
to get the machine turned on, I finally took my friend, who was waiting 
patiently, into the booth to read and mark my ballot for me. Since the punch 
cards are gone for everyone, it turned out to be the least private of my 
voting life.

In conversations with voters with disabilities throughout Ohio and other 
states, experiences I've heard about run the gamut. Voters with physical, 
visual or learning disabilities have found completely accessible polling 
places and machines. Some have voted absentee to avoid the frustration. Some 
were told that the machine had not yet been set up. And some preferred using 
the assistance of a friend or relative to admitting that the print was 
difficult to see or decipher.

Clearly, the change intended by HAVA is still a work in progress. As for my 
own experience, well, I've moved to a new district and am optimistic that my 
new polling place will be ready for me. If yours isn't ready for you, don't 
keep it to yourself. Every vote counts.

Deborah Kendrick is a Cincinnati writer and advocate for people with 
disabilities.

dkkendrick at earthlink.net

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