[Ohio-talk] voting issue

Tue Nov 3 20:40:47 UTC 2015

Rachel,
I had a similar experience in Stark County last year; the poll workers 
simply had no idea how to program the card for the one, and only, 
accessible machine at my precinct. They were very apologetic, but it was 
clear that they had never received the proper training. In any event, it 
seems that accessibility of voting is deemed of minimal importance in 
this state. It also strikes me as more than a little odd that any sort 
of special programming has to be done in order to make a machine 
accessible; this would seem to be very poor design, to say the least, 
now that we live in the age of smartphones that are practically 
accessible out of the box.

On 11/3/2015 3:26 PM, Marianne Denning via Ohio-talk wrote:
> Rachel, I am sorry about all of your negative experiences.  I am the only
> one who uses the accessible voting booth in my precinct.  They know me and
> today's comment was "we haven't seen you in awhile."  I haven't voted in
> awhile for several reasons.  One person does know how to work the machine
> and headphones were there.  Everything usually goes very well.  One time
> the machine just wouldn't work and this time there was a problem with issue
> 3.  They were very nice and called for assistance right away.  The problem
> is that nothing could be done except evaluate why there was a problem.
> Well, that didn't help me at that moment.  My husband knows why there was a
> problem because he saw all of my ballot.
>
> On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 3:12 PM, Rachel Kuntz via Ohio-talk <
> ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>> Marianne, your voting experience sounds extremely frustrating and voting
>> results from Hamilton County questionable. I heard that John Husted was in
>> the Cincinnati area today to make sure the new machines work smoothly. It
>> was reported that poll workers received a total of 3 hours training. I know
>> this was not your challenge today but it leads me to my rant from the
>> culmination of voting experiences I have had including this morning.
>>
>> I arrived to vote in Butler County at 6:30 am. My husband and I went early
>> so he could get to work afterwards. I know from previous experience that I
>> don't want to be the first blind person of the day because the poll workers
>> still have to work out the bugs in their limited training. I believe Butler
>> County uses different voting machines than Hamilton County. They were
>> installed after the paper ballot issues in the 2000 presidential election
>> year. Butler county machines have large print, high contrast (note: they
>> claim its high contrast), and speech. They have only one headset for our
>> large voting precinct at one machine. These machines promise to be a great
>> private no assistance voting experience for the blind but I have not to
>> this
>> date been able to vote without assistance.
>>
>> This morning the poll workers did not even notice I was blind despite my
>> joke about giving them an extra challenge first thing in the morning and
>> having a white cane front and center. To use the machine in an accessible
>> manner the voting card must be programmed properly. A more experienced poll
>> worker happened by the check in table after my voting card was in hand and
>> my husband (who is sighted) was checking in. The more experienced poll
>> worker noticed my cane and asked if the voting card was programmed for
>> "hidden ballot." The workers said no. This insider verbiage is apparently
>> the programming option which will enable the speech software to work at the
>> only machine reserved for accessibility. This machine was of course
>> occupied. Knowing my husbands need to get to work, I decided not to make a
>> stink about the error. He read the ballot to me and I told him what to
>> select.
>>
>> This experience is just one of many many times the voting process has left
>> me frustrated. I have yet to experience this so called private voting. I
>> have had to rely on friends or have been escorted by both a Democratic and
>> Republican poll worker to help me cast my ballot. I can only remember one
>> instance when the programming was done correctly and I voted without issue.
>> For this victory, all of the poll workers gave themselves a round of
>> applause.
>>
>> On a side note, I always try to read the actual language of issues
>> appearing
>> on the ballot prior to voting. To do this, I go to the Butler County Board
>> of Elections website. This year it was extra tricky to find. I shifted
>> gears
>> to the state of Ohio website and found that the pdf files were saved as
>> images so Magic screen reading software would not work. I then gave up on
>> figuring this out on my own and called Butler County where they walked me
>> through a series of steps to retrieve a sample ballot for my precinct. It
>> was a frustrating afternoon but I am happy I did this because it would have
>> been an even more frustrating morning at the polls waiting for my lovely
>> assistant to read every detail on the ballot.
>>
>> I don't know how we fix these challenges but I for one am ready to get what
>> is promised to us. That is, a private, secure, reliable, and accessible
>> voting experience.
>>
>> Perturbed Voter in West Chester,
>>
>> Rachel Kuntz
>> 937 245-0547
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ohio-talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
>> Marianne
>> Denning via Ohio-talk
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2015 1:57 PM
>> To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List
>> Cc: Marianne Denning
>> Subject: [Ohio-talk] voting issue
>>
>> I voted earlier today, using the accessible voting machine.
>> Everything went very well until I got to issue 3.  If you have been under a
>> rock for a long time this is the marijuana issue.  It would not let me
>> choose to vote yes or no.  I pushed the button to ask for help.  A poll
>> worker came over and I showed him what was happening.
>> At this point they can see my ballot.  I voted on all other issues and
>> proceeded to submit my ballot.  My husband was looking at my ballot and it
>> indicated I voted for the issue.  He also observed that there was a problem
>> with the way the ballot was set up on that issue.  I have 2 concerns here.
>> First, I was not able to choose which way to vote on the ballot and other
>> people were able to view my ballot.  I have contacted the NFB office to
>> speak to someone about this since they are interested in Ohio right now.  I
>> will keep you informed.
>>
>> --
>> Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
>> Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
>> (513) 607-6053
>>
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