[nfb-talk] Access to Voting

[tribble]

Hi all --
I was very pleasantly surprised at the access at the polls here in a small 
town in Minnesota. It was completely accessible -- headphones, braill on the 
keys, all down low so I could reach it from a wheelchair.  I have never had 
the ability to cast a private ballot until moving here. Minnesota rocks... I 
only had one problem -- when I was done I wanted to go back and review one 
of the selections but was not able to without clearing the whole thing and 
starting over. But this wasn't an access problem.  The only nuisance was the 
nosy volunteer who kept barging in and asking if I needed help. I finally 
told her i would come out when I was finished and she shouldn't come in 
unannounced.  I was even able to turn off the display so she was not able to 
see.
Of course, when I printed out the ballot  I didn't know that it needed to be 
fed into a machine to tally it.  That required me to hand her the printed 
ballot, and I suppose she snuck a peak...
Oh well.
What a year.
--le

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Meskys" <edmeskys at localnet.com>
To: "NHBLIND-TALK NH Blind/Low Vision List" 
<NHBLIND-TALK at LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG>
Cc: "nfb-talk" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 8:31 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Access to Voting


I had a quite good experience with accessible voting today. I voted in
Moultonboro, NH,  about 11 AM and went right thru, with no delays. When I
requested accessible voting a poll worker immediately took me to the
appropriate booth and sat me down. He asked whether I wanted to use the
telephone machine or have his help filling in a regular ballot. I chose the
machine, and he dialed the special number and handed me the phone. Only
problem I had was getting lost among the VERY large keys. I kept losing the
pimple on the "5" button.

When I finished the fax took about ten seconds to deliver my ballot. The
poll worker said he admired my courage in using the machine. He, like all
poll workers, had to use the machine so that the blind voters would not be
the only ones using it. He said he had a very hard time, and had trouble
hearing the phone without headphones with all the poling place noise.

When I delivered my ballot it was not placed in the standard ballot box
because the scanner would not be able to read it. It was in a special side
box for ballots which had to be hand counted. I am puzzled as I thought the
regularly printed special ballots should be easy for the scanner to read.

Best, Ed Meskys


Edmund R. Meskys
NIEKAS Publications
National Federation of the Blind of N.H.
Moultonboro Lions Club
edmeskys at localnet.com
322 Whittier Hwy
Moultonboro NH 03254-3627
my credo:
Clinton lied, nothing happened
Bush lied, thousands died
and over 3,000 permanently brain injured


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