[Tall-Corn] Voting In Iowa

[iceje89 at gmail.com]

Bob:

 

I voted today.  It was not pretty, but it got done.  Please feel free to
share this with whomever is involved in charting the experiences of blind
voters.

 

Since I moved to a new residence on 22 October I didn't want to risk going
to the polls on 5 November and being turned away because of questions of my
residential status.  My wife and I went to the Linn County auditor's office,
arriving around 2:00.  I filled out and signed my absentee voter form and
was issued a ballot for the "ExpressVote" (an oxymoron if there ever was
one) machine.  I was guided to said machine and a nearby worker got it set
up for my use in very short order.

 

When I got to the state legislature races I noted that my former state rep
(Sami Scheetz) was one of the candidates.  I deduced (correctly) that I was
voting in the wrong precinct, so I noted the nearby official.  She proceeded
to try to cancel my first voting session and start a new one, but got locked
out of the loop and the closure attempt froze.  A higher official got it
fixed and I proceeded to vote the proper ballot for my new precinct.  When I
got to the review at the end I noted that I had not voted in several of the
judicial retention races (my error), so I tried to back into the live ballot
again.  I seemed locked into the summary (left arrow was supposed to get me
back to the live ballot, but that didn't work), so I asked for help.  I had
been using a blacked out screen up to this point, but the official couldn't
tell what was going on without opening the screen again, so I did.  She was
able to get me to the place I needed to go to, and I proceeded to finish my
ballot.  As a result of the two snafus I was at the polls for over an hour,
but I did get the ballot posted, and presumably it will be counted on 5
November.

 

This was no travesty, but neither was it smooth sailing.  Just more
adventures of a blind person exercising his franchise to vote.

Jonathan Ice

Cedar Rapids, IA

 

From: Tall-Corn <tall-corn-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Bob Ray via
Tall-Corn
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2024 3:15 PM
To: tall-corn at nfbnet.org
Cc: bray at nfbi.org
Subject: [Tall-Corn] Voting In Iowa
Importance: High

 

We should remind people about a few things now that we are coming into the
voting season here in Iowa.

 

First, nothing has changed since the last time that we voted except at we
were told at State Convention a few more counties have changed to a
different accessible voting machine.  The most widely used machines of a few
years ago are no longer being supported. There are only three counties using
the Automark system that many of us really liked. Many others are using one
of three other systems that all have strong points and weak ones.

 

Here are some general comments for you to think about since we have heard
from people who did early voting and experienced the same problems they did
in the past. 

 

The system that Polk County and several other counties uses is  probably the
most widely used one at this point. It doesn't have too many problems but as
we mentioned at convention and at least one person has experienced in early
voting the screen may be durned off while you are casting your ballot. There
is a switch right on the screen, I don't know exactly where but it is on the
front of the monitor as I recall to do this. That is thee to be used that it
is available. The machines does have instructions that may play before you
cast your vote. This gives you the opportunity the procedures to handle
normal operation. 

 

Remember, if problems arise while you are voting and you need help ask for
it. If the help you receive doesn't meet your expectations you need to
report this to your County Auditor and  to the voter hotline at the
Secretary Of State's Office on election day itself. They will both need to
know when and where the problem occurred. It is helpful if you let one of us
from our Legislative Committee know too since we work with the hotlines both
at the state level and the national level. 

 

Problems may be solved if we have record of them and they are documented.
Yes, there will always be some problems because we are dealing with people
and some things are going to happen that are not going to be  possible to
plan in advance. 

 

There has not been as much opportunity this year for early voting because of
the changes in the law last year. Election day itself is going to be an
exciting experience. Yes, each county has had more training for pol workers
than they have in the past but remember that most of the people that you
deal with on election Day volunteers and some are going to understand all of
the ins and outs of what they are doing better than others. That means that
the more you know going into the polling place the less likely you are to
have problems. Hopefully you won't have too many things that are unexpected.

 

 

 

Bob Ray, NFBI

Legislative Committee Chair

 

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