[Tall-Corn] Voting In Iowa

[bray at nfbi.org]

Thank you, Jonathan. That is the kind of response we like. No, of
course we don't like the problems you ran into but you did a nice
job of describing to us what did happen. Your remarks will reach
the Secretary of State's Office complaint line. 

 

Thank you for sharing this with us.

 

Bob

 

 

From: Tall-Corn <tall-corn-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of
iceje89--- via Tall-Corn
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2024 9:30 PM
To: 'NFB of Iowa Internet Mailing List' <tall-corn at nfbnet.org>
Cc: iceje89 at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Tall-Corn] Voting In Iowa

 

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
<mailto: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 <mailto:tall-corn at nfbnet.org> 
Cc: bray at nfbi.org <mailto: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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