[gui-talk] FW: Times/Delta Article On Independent Voting: 06062006

[Joel Deutsch]

I'm fascinated.  Shocked, actually.  I quote from the story below:

"It's extremely liberating," McElroy said. "When you can go to the polling 
place and cast your own ballot, it contributes to our participation in the 
community.

"There was a time when I voted not by what I believed, but by what the poll 
worker would have wanted," added McElroy, a retired Tulare County social 
services employee."

Drake agreed.

Maybe someone else on this list who reads that knows, in a way I can only 
guess, the factors that would result in someone saying something like this. 
since I became unable to read print, around ten years ago, I've voted in 
most state, local and national elections here in my Los Angeles neighborhood 
with the assistance of one of the poll workers.  Never, ever did it even 
occur to me to feel constrained in the slightest by what I might've imagined 
the poll worker's political sentiments to be for that election's slate of 
candidates and issues.  Why would it occur to me?  I was just a person who 
used to be able to vote alone, now had a disability that made it necessary 
to get assistance, and I was a confident, middle aged person who knew his 
own personal, social and political values and studied the issues and 
candidates for himself over time in the news and prior to election day in 
the reports and recommendations articles in several different local 
newspapers.  I wasn't a child, or a recently-freed slave, or whatever kind 
of person would imagine the poll worker as an authority figure as if living 
in a totalitarian society.  I can't even imagine where this is coming from. 
Plus the poll workers treated me respectfully and I could sense without any 
doubt onfusion that they knew that their job was to assist me, not to 
discuss politics nor try to exert any sort of influence over my choices. 
The whole idea is way off the wall, for me.  Now, in all seriousness, and to 
a list that I believe has a number of subscribers, perhaps a majority, with 
longer and deeper connections both to blindness and to the nature of the 
blind experience than I do, I must ask this.  Both these people in the 
article have lived nearly their entire lives sightless.  For anyone here to 
whom it's congenial to think about social and psychological issues, 
especially any with actual educational or intellectual background in such 
things, could this be a psychological characteristic of some or many 
life-long blind people?  To experience a level of intimidation such that 
being able to vote alone would be a meaningfully liberating and even 
astonishing experience, as these two describe it?  I know it wouldn't be 
that way to me, should I ever get a chance to use some new voting ooting 
machine of this sort.  I'll be glad to be able again to perform for myself 
another function that I used to do on my own, as I once could shop for 
groceries without help.  But that will be all there is to it.  It won't be a 
personal or political liberation.  I really find this a disconcerting 
revelation.  I'll bet there's quite a lot I don't know about the blind life 
in this sense.

Please understand that I do not mean this question rhetorically or 
sarcastically, nor am I trying to express anything disparaging about these 
two blind partners in life.  I'm glad the change suits them and increases 
their enthusiasm for voting.  But what I'm looking for would be knowledge at 
the level of blind culture and psychology, at least insofar as what this 
example of it can be taken to mean.

Thanks.  To anyone who would like to discuss this or contribute some 
knowledgeable observations I might learn something from, but doesn't want to 
engage in such a discussion here on the list, please feel free to email me 
privately at jdeutsch at slextrem.com.

thanks a lot.  Please, no flaming.  I repeat that I'm not putting anyone 
down or anything like that.  Thanks for understanding.

ershaps (weild aesitaiton espectuflly, and espectuflly, and whoeverhad 
inf0oneighbgorhood e ow, Since>Visually impaired vote on their own
>By Ryanne Persinger
>Staff writer
>Voting is now one less obstacle David McElroy and Pamela Drake will have to
>deal with.
>For the first time in their lives, McElroy and Drake, both blind, were able
>to vote without assistance from friends or poll workers when they used the
>audio option of a touch screen voting machine in Tuesday's election.
>The voting machine at their polling station, Community of Christ Church at
>2127 S.
>Giddings St., allowed them to vote using headphones and a key pad with
>Braille and large buttons.
>"It's extremely liberating," McElroy said. "When you can go to the polling
>place and cast your own ballot, it contributes to our participation in the
>community.
>"There was a time when I voted not by what I believed, but by what the poll
>worker would have wanted," added McElroy, a retired Tulare County social
>services employee."
>Drake agreed.
>"I think [the new system] will make me more interested and more motivated 
>to
>vote,"
>she said. "It means more when you're actually doing it yourself. ... It has
>more of an impact."
>Drake lost her sight at 4 months old, and McElroy has been blind his birth.
>They've been partners for 13 years.
>Both said the new voting machine is the most convenient way they have 
>voted.
>"Before, we had to go down to the courthouse and get an absentee ballot or
>get the help of a friend or the polling place," Drake said.
>Kim Shannon, county elections supervisor, said when a person is using the
>audio voting option on the machine, the screen will read, "audio voting
>enabled."
>That way people walking behind a blind person won't be able to see who he 
>or
>she is voting for.
>She added that voters do not have to be blind or have a disability to use
>the machine.
>One machine was at each of the county's 75 polling stations.
>Cheri Olson, a poll volunteer, said using the machine is simple.
>"It's like playing video games," she said.
>McElroy admitted he was more interested in the voting machine than the
>actual outcome.
>"This is a boring election," he said. "I wasn't sure I would have come out
>to vote if it weren't for that gadget."
>The reporter can be reached at rpersing at visalia. gannett.com.
>Originally published June 7, 2006
>
>Steve R. Fujimoto/Times-Delta
>David McElroy was one of the first blind people in Tulare County to vote
>unassisted.
>They used the new touch-screen voting machines at Community of Christ 
>Church
>in Visalia.
>McElroy writes about what the change means in a column on Opinion/ 6A.
>How it works
>Voters go to polling station, sign roster and indicate they want to use the
>touch screen machine Voters turn in their paper ballot and receive a voter
>card Voter card is inserted into the touch screen Voter uses headphones and
>a key pad with Braille and large buttons The audio lists candidates names
>After voting, a receipt prints
>
>
>
>COMMENTARY
>Technology allows voting independence
>There are certainly challenges to being a blind couple in a seeing world;
>one has just been mitigated.
>Tuesday, June 6, 2006. Election Day in California and Tulare County. Just
>another in a stream of midterm elections similar to many in which we have
>taken part for years. Similar, yes. Exactly the same, decidedly not.
>
>For the first time in our lives, Pam and I have voted independently. For 
>the
>first time, as blind people, our ballots were cast in secret with absolute
>privacy.
>Yes, the long-standing tradition of a secret ballot has now been made
>available to anyone whose physical disability might preclude them from
>marking a ballot in the traditional manner.
>As active participants in civic life, unfettered access to the ballot box
>has always been a problem. We could either depend on a trusted friend to
>read the ballot and mark our choices at the polling place, request the
>assistance of a poll worker or depend on the absentee ballot, again with 
>the
>assistance of another person.
>For me, this issue really hit close to home not too many years ago. A 
>highly
>charged issue was on the ballot, and I was certain that the poll worker who
>assisted me did not share my views on the matter at hand. This made me
>extremely uncomfortable, as I had no wish to offend. Additionally, there 
>was
>always the possibility that others in the room would have heard my
>selection, no matter how quietly I spoke.
>Therefore,
>being relatively certain of the fact that my one vote would have made no
>difference to the outcome, I voted in opposition to my belief. Pam chose 
>not
>to vote at all on that issue.
>In subsequent years, we have completed absentee ballots, initially with the
>help of a dear friend, now deceased and more recently we've gone to the
>elections office to complete this process. But as of June 6, those methods
>have, at least for most elections, been consigned to the history books
>thanks to the federal Help America Vote act and to modern technology.
>On May 30, one week before the election, we went to the Office of Elections
>and were given a thorough demonstration of the machine. A simulated ballot
>was presented, depicting a primary election and listing names of signers of
>the Declaration Of Independence.
>After "voting" for one candidate on the ballot, Pam wrote herself in as a
>candidate for President of the United States, bypassing Benjamin Franklin
>and John Adams. The exercise demonstrated not only our ability to cast a
>private ballot, but also to write in the name of a candidate should the 
>need
>arise.
>How it works: Each polling place will have one electronic touch screen
>terminal, along with the traditional ballots. This terminal can be operated
>via the touch screen or push button panel, depending on one's needs. Anyone
>may request and cast an electronic ballot.
>For our purposes as blind voters, a little box resembling a VCR's remote
>control is attached to the terminal. With the press of a button, vocal
>descriptions of the ballot's choices are presented to the voter via an
>earphone. The screen is blank during the process. Left and right arrows,
>along with a "select" button allow us to move through the ballot making and
>reviewing our selections, and ultimately confirming our desired choices
>before officially casting the ballot.
>The electronic ballots are stored in memory for counting later.
>Additionally, there
>is a paper readout available for hand counting, in the event of a recount.
>It is our hope that this is the beginning of a new era. As active members 
>of
>our community, we look forward to it.
>David McElroy and Pam Drake made Tulare County history on Tuesday as the
>first blind people in the county to cast their ballots on Election Day at a
>polling place without
>The             assistance of another party. They live in Visalia.
>Originally published June 7, 2006

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
Skype:  steve1963
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com

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