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

[Brent Reynolds]

I guess we in Georgia, despite the state's reputation among many uninformed,
is quite a progressive place.  Thanks in large part to the Georgia Secretary
of State, Cathy Cox, who is now running for Governor in the Democratic Party
primaries this year, we got electronic voting fully accessible to all
disability groups in every voting precinct in the entire state, all at the
same time, back in 2002, in time for the last of the primary runoffs, just
before the general election.

Even before that happened, in this state, poll workers and poll monitors
from the political parties are not allowed to assist people to fill in and
cast their ballots.  The poll workers can help with the registration, ID
verification, and to give you the card that starts the machine, or the paper
ballot if they need to use that for a backup.  Even before the machines were
installed, a blind voter would need to bring somebody along to help with the
filling out of the ballot, or to ask for help from one of the other voters
waiting in line.

Whenever the voting place for my local precinct was in a place difficult to
get to, or when I could not find a friend to go with who would also be
voting at the same time, I would call up the local headquarters of the major
political parties a week or two in advance and ask if they have volunteers
to help elderly people and people with disabilities to get to the polls and
to assist them with voting.

In one presidential term period, I might call the Democrats, and in the next
one, I might call the Republicans.  In 2004 I thought I'd be generous and
expand the reach of my inquiry net, and I called the local Libertarian Party
headquarters.  They informed me in no uncertain terms, and in a very
condescending manner, that they don't do that sort of thing.  I gues with
the LIbertarians, you're completely on your own in that and all other
things, and don't expect any kind of assistance or feelings of empathy from
their quarter.  In the old punch-card and fanfold paper ballot days, I
always had good results with the volunteers, both from the Democrats and
from the Republicans.  With the electronic machine, with its telephone-style
keypad and its understandable, if slightly breathy speech output through the
headphones, we can do it completely independently.  The machines run on
batteries as well as AC power, and a person in a wheelchair can put the
machine on a lap or a tray in front the body, or the machine can be taken
out to one's car or van if the polling place is physically inaccessible to a
mobility-impaired person.  No, the machines are not connected to the
Internet, never were.  At the close of the polls, after everybody in line
has voted, the machines have to be taken to another place in order to obtain
their tallies and results.

As far as I know, Georgia was the first state to do that, and it has worked
surprisingly, very well since.  In the 2000 voting year, we still had the
paper fanfold and the punch card we had to clamp into the holder and punch
out with a stylus thingy that looked something like a sharpened golf tee
tethered to the ballot tray by a coiled plastic cord.  My friend, or my
party-assigned volunteer would position the race in the right place in the
clamp and tell me from left to right which names were by each hole, and I
would then position the stylus and make the punch.  I always told them that
I was an independent voter and the fact that they were volunteers working
with one party or the other would not be influencing how I might vote.  I
remember that in one election, the volunteer from the Democrats was a
retired school teacher, and in another one, the volunteer sent by the
Republicans was a corporate lawyer who drove up in a Mercedes S-class sedan.
 It was too bad that trip was such a short ride.

This year, the precinct is an easily accessible place that is a short walk
from a bus stop, so I will go there on a MARTA bus and vote independently
without calling the party organizations and without needing to find a friend
who might be driving there at the same time to go vote.

It is really nice to be able to have all the same options as any sighted
person in a given area of one's conduct of one's public responsibilities.

Now, as for those electronic voting machines, if you are totally deaf and
blind, you would need to bring your own portable braille display or some
other accessible device to plug into one of the machine's ports instead of
using the headphones for the speech output.  I know the machines have a
standard parallel printer port.  I did not check for a USB port the last
time I voted.  I just used the headset that came with the machine.

Every machine in the system is capable of using the keypad and the headset,
although only one keypad and headset are required to be available at each
precinct.  Fully sighted people interface the machine with its built-in
touch screen and electronic pen to check off the appropriate boxes on the
screen as they scroll the ballot along.  Regardless of the interface, after
you have filled in each race, you can review the whole thing and make
changes.  Once you check the box, or press the button to "cast" the ballot,
you have voted and your entries are final.  This year, the first primaries
are about five or six weeks away.


Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA  USA
Email: jbr53 at bellsouth.net  Phone: 1-404-814-0768

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who
count the votes decide everything." - Joseph Stalin.