[Mt-blind] FW: Mail-in Voting

[Daniel Burke]

Correct, as far as HAVA is concerned.  It may be that your county elections
official wants to use them anyway.  But maybe not, because Vickie Zeier of
Missoula County says that school districts only give her 20 days to get the
ballot ready, and that's not enough time for her to also get the AutoMARK
machines programmed for the school ballot.  So, she won't use them here for
school elections.

Dan
 

-----Original Message-----
From: mt-blind-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:mt-blind-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of dmgina
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 7:18 AM
To: Montana Association for the Blind List
Subject: Re: [Mt-blind] FW: Mail-in Voting

So what you are saying, if we went to do voting for the schools, we would 
have to get someone to help us out correct?
Interesting.
Very interesting.

--Dar
Every saint has a future,
Every sinner has a past
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daniel Burke" <burke.dall at gmail.com>
To: "'Montana Association for the Blind List'" <mt-blind at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 5:20 PM
Subject: [Mt-blind] FW: Mail-in Voting


>I want to update folks on the Missoula situation on mail-in balloting for
> the 2007 primary and general city elections.  There was a public hearing
> last night at the Missoula City Council meeting.  Before that I talked 
> with
> County Clerk and Recorder Vickie Zeier fairly extensively abut the plans,
> which the City Council passed with only one dissenting vote.
>
> Basically, ballots are mailed out about 3 weeks prior to election day. 
> They
> can be voted and mailed back, or dropped off on election day.  On election
> day, there will be about 6 drop-off places around Missoula, and there will
> be AutoMARK machines there and poll judges, so blind voters can use the
> machines to vote privately and independently.  In addition, all ballots 
> will
> be placed back into their envelopes and signed, and all will be counted at
> the same time in the County Courthouse.
>
> Thus, this plan provides for use of the nonvisually accessible voting
> machines for the blind.  It also ensures that we won't be voting in a
> segregated location of blind voters only, or that our ballots could be a
> distinctly identifiable  group of votes, segregated from other voters.
>
> The one down side, of course, is the limited number of drop-off sites as
> compared to the total number of polling places we've had in previous 
> general
> elections.  Transportation could be an issue for blind voters.
>
> One other thing I learned, and this is a correction to what I said in my
> reply to Jim Aldrich earlier -- the nonvisually accessible machines are
> required to be used only in federal primary and general elections under 
> the
> Help America Vote Act.  In other words, local government or school 
> elections
> are not required to use those machines.  Below is an e-mail from Vickie
> Zeier on this subject.
>
> So, in the Legislature there is a bill to study the feasibility of mail-in
> ballots for statewide elections.  We will need to be a part of that study
> process.  It occurs to me that we should be pushing for use of AutoMARK
> machines in local elections regardless, and we will want to be sure that
> enough drop-off polling places are out there so we can get to them.  I bet
> we talk about this more at our convention in September! (grin)
>
> Dan
> *****
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vickie Zeier [mailto:vzeier at co.missoula.mt.us]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 8:13 AM
> To: Daniel Burke
> Subject: RE: Mail-in Voting
>
> Thanks!  Just want you to know that I am committed to using the Automarks 
> in
> all elections with the exception of the School Elections.  School 
> Elections
> only have 20 days from the time I receive the ballot language until we 
> hold
> the election, there isn't time to get the automarks programmed and tested
> before the election.
>
> Talk to you soon!  Vickie
>
> Vickie M. Zeier
> Missoula County Clerk & Recorder/Treasurer
> vzeier at co.missoula, mt.us
>
>>>> "Daniel Burke" <burke.dall at gmail.com> 4/17/2007 7:36 AM >>>
> Thanks again Vickie for taking the time to explain the plan last night - 
> and
> you did a great job presenting to the Council!
>
> One other thing I forgot to say last night - you should be commended to 
> your
> commitment to continue using the AutoMarks in local elections, even though
> they're not required under HAVA.
>
> Best,
>
> Dan
>
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