[Tall-Corn] Your Voice is Needed!

[rjray at q.com]

Greetings,

This is a reminder that we need your help to get voting rights updated here
in Iowa. Yes, we have been working on this for some time now but we do have
an opportunity to make a difference. 

 

The Department Of Justice is willing to help  us but these voting issues to
a rest. For them to help us they need examples of things that have happened
to blind persons when they have voted in the past. I know some of our
members have sent in their comments and we all thank you for that.

 

Are we making progress on this issue? Yes, we certainly are. This past week
the Iowa Secretary Of State, Paul Pate, hosted a meeting of Secretaries of
State here in Des Moines to discuss voting. One of the major topics on that
agenda was remote voting and its accessibility for blind persons. Secretary
Pate must be thanked for taking this step. Hopefully good things will come
out of the meeting.

 

Still, we need to get as many examples as possible into the national office
so that a complaint may be filed with Department of Justice. Below is the
email that I sent in on this subject. I think it shows that you don't need
to be fancy, you just need to let them know what your experiences are.  If
you need help putting something together contact any of the officers of the
NFBI or myself and we will help where we can. If you email something in you
might also CC it to 

Svangorp at NFBI.ORG <mailto:Svangorp at NFBI.ORG> 

 

Thanks for your efforts. If you already done this thank you again.

 

Bob Ray

 

 

 

From: rjray at q.com <mailto:rjray at q.com>  rjray at q.com <mailto:rjray at q.com>  
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2021 5:46 PM
To: vyingling at nfb.org <mailto:vyingling at nfb.org> 
Cc: 'Scott Van Gorp' svangorp at nfbi.org <mailto:svangorp at nfbi.org> 
Subject: Voting Issues In Iowa

 

In recent years I have encountered various difficulties in exercising my
right to vote. Below are a list of events that have occurred.

 

First in 2014 when we went to our regular precinct polling we were told that
the accessible voting machine was not working and no one knew how to fix it.
We then had to ask our driver to fill out our ballots. 

 

Next, in 2016 when we went to our precinct polling place we were told that
the accessible machine was not turned on and they didn't know how to
initialize it. We insisted that they find out while we waited. They called
the election headquarters and were instructed in the booting process. An
hour and a half later we were able to vote and went on our way.

 

In 2018 both for the primary election and the general election we decided to
take the voting early option down at the Polk County Election Office in Des
Moines. That way we were confident that someone would know how to set the
machine up for us if it wasn't already. There  were however two new problems
that occurred. First, Polk County had purchased new voting machines and the
speech was not clear on them and the ballots they produced were a different
size than the ones that the other machines were  producing so that our votes
had to be counted separately.

 

In 2020 I did not vote in the primary but for the General Election I chose
to do an absentee ballot. Once more I had to have a reader fill the form out
and help me sign it before I could mail it back. Once more denying my right
to a secret ballot. 

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

Robert J. Ray

3900 76 Street

Urbandale, IA 50322

Phone: 515 334-7231

 

 

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