[Ohio-talk] Accessible Elections: A Cause for Worry

Sat May 20 17:12:16 UTC 2017

Hello, this is a issue that I feel we should become involved with
asap. Let's not wait until the system is in place to speak up.
Very soon the state will begin looking for new voting booths and they
need to be aware that the blind community should be very involved in
the selection process. The poll book situation will lay a great
foundation for future decisions that are made on our behalf.

On 5/19/17, Milena Zavoli via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Greetings Friends,
>
> Last Thursday, Shawn and I participated on a conference call with Doug
> Towne, an elections advocate, where he spoke about Cuyahoga County's
> implementation of a new pollbook system.  Why should we worry?  Because the
> City Council chose to ignore the disabled and elderly community.  Read why.
>
> Subject: Ohio Cuyahoga County Council votes to ignore accessible voting
> requirements
> Priority: Normal Date: Friday, May 19, 2017 7:36 AM Size: 11 KB
>
> Colleagues,
> For those of you receiving this information for the first time you should
> know
> that your email was given to me by Cheryl Fields of the NFB because she
> believed
> you would be concerned.
> My Name is Doug Towne and I am the Chairman of Disability Relations Group
> which
> is a disability relations, image management, public policy and social
> Entrepreneur development and consulting firm.
> What does all that mean. I'm an advocate just like you. I have spent the
> last 17
> years working on accessible voting among other issues.
> This email concerns actions being taken in Ohio that put in jeopardy
> accessible
> voting for people with disabilities and the elder community.
> I visited Cleveland the week of May 8--12 because I found that the Cuyahoga
>
> County Council was considering accepting a contract to buy an inaccessible
> poll
> book or voter check in system.
> The pending contract that was discussed by the Council is with Tenex. This
> is
> for a poll book which is a system through which voters check in to identify
>
> themselves to vote.
> They may tell you that their system is accessible and I agree it could be
> because they typically use an iPad mini on a stand that flips back and forth
>
> between the poll worker and the voter. Since Apple products are accessible
> the
> only issue is whether the software running on it was created to also be
> accessible and it was not designed to be.
> As I told the County Council Tenex either is ignoring both the Help America
> Vote
> Act and Title II of the ADA which require that the entire election system be
>
> accessible. This includes poll books.
> If they are not ignoring the law then they don't understand it which is even
>
> more scary.
> When questioned privately about accessibility it has been said that Tenex is
>
> waiting for the feds to provide additional funding before they do anything
> about
> it. What this means is that access should wait for the money and we all know
>
> that is not how civil rights work.
> I believe this means that Tenex knows that eventually the state and county
> will
> be told they have to make their system accessible and then Tenex will be
> happy
> to sell them an expensive upgrade.
> The State of Ohio through the Secretary of States office has certified a
> number
> of poll book systems with out requiring accessibility. I find this
> remarkable
> since just last year they lost a legal challenge over inaccessible absentee
>
> voting systems.
> Only one of the systems has worked to build a system platform that can
> expand to
> include accessibility. This is the VOTEC Designed for All system. In the
> interest of full disclosure I work with VOTEC on accessibility. This is not
>
> about VOTEC though. This is about the state and county doing what the law
> requires so all the companies have to put forward an accessible product. It
> is
> about a level playing field for people with disabilities and elders as well.
>
> The County for its part also failed to require or apparently even consider
> accessibility in their process to identify a new poll book system. I base
> this
> statement on the 89 full color report which does not even mention
> accessibility
> or the disability/elder communities.
>
> Choosing such a system will push accessibility to the back again and then
> the
> county will claim an economic hardship when pressed on the subject later.
> "We
> already spent the money."
> The county could have required accessibility, but simply didn't.
> They may point to the funding circumstances in 2002 under the Help America
> Vote
> Act, but we all know those were unusual and involved the replacement of the
>
> entire nations election system.
> Besides the traditional disability and deaf communities I include the elder
>
> population in my concerns because if not considered many older citizens will
>
> find these new systems difficult to work with.
> The disability and elder communities should speak out on this situation and
> stop
> another mistake from happening.
>
> Cuyahoga County Council meetings are held every other week on Tuesday from 5
> to
> 7 pm.
> People sign up to speak by entering the chambers before 5 where they sign up
> and
> specify their topic.
> People wishing to speak on agenda items get to speak at the start of the
> meeting. This would be the time when the contract for this new voter check
> in
> system should be addressed.
> The consideration of this contract was supposed to have a third hearing date
> on
> the 23rd of May. In what I believe is an extraordinary move the Council used
> a
> emergency rule of some kind to advance the vote and passed it unanimously
> following my addressing the issue before them.
> I'm not sure what the emergency was accept for the fact that they had been
> caught intending to discriminate against people with disabilities, the deaf
> and
> elders.
> At this point we must rally and move to stop this. This is your community
> and I
> am only here to assist. It is my hope that the various disability groups I
> met
> with along with others including elder advocates will come together and
> launch a
> campaign to force the county and state to think again.
> I offer what ever support you feel is appropriate. Technical advice based on
> my
> years of working on accessible voting. Logistical support in the form of
> conference call lines, materials, training or presentations. What ever I can
> do
> to help. This is not about one company it is about the state and county
> following the law so all the companies have to do so as well. If we come
> together to stop the county then perhaps the state will decide that another
>
> legal battle over accessibility is not in the publics best interest and
> choose
> to revise the poll book requirements.
> Please advise how I may be of assistance. Time is wasting. We must move to
> protest quickly to stop the contract from being fully implemented.
>
>
> Appreciatively,
> Douglas George Towne (Doug)
> Chairman
> Disability Relations Group
> 727-452-8132
> dougt at drgglobal.com
>
>
> www.drgglobal.com
>
> Quar Cur Non
> Why Not
>
> References
>
> Aldo Tesi CEO Election Systems and Software
> aldo at essvote.com
>
> Billy W. Altom  CEO APRIL
> bwaltom at sbcglobal.net
>
> David Eggers Pinellas County Commissioner
> cpointe88 at aol.com
>
> Dean Doulou CEO Partners In Business Inc
> dean at doulou.com
>
> Donald Ward VP Hewlett Packard
> dgward14 at gmail.com
>
> Kelly Buckland ED National Council on Independent Living
> kelly at ncil.org
>
> Mariano Tan CEO Prosodica Systems
> mariano.tan at prosodica.com
>
> Sue Buchholtz CEO Evergreen Life Services
> sue.buchholtz at evergreenls.org
>
>  John Medcalf CEO VOTEC Corporation
> john.medcalf at votec.net
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Wishing You All the Best,

Cheryl E. Fields

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human
life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will
never sit.
--D. Elton Trueblood