[nfbwatlk] 2006 Election Marks a New Plateau of Equality for the Blind (fwd)

[Mike Freeman]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 10:08:04 -0500
From: "Lazarus, Jerry" <JLazarus at NFB.ORG>
Subject: 2006 Election Marks a New Plateau of Equality for the Blind

Reminder - call the NFB at 877-632-1940 on election day if you encounter 
any problems while voting.  Also, included below is an NFB press release 
that was distributed on Friday.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE




CONTACT:

John G. Paré Jr.

Director of Public Relations

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314, extension 2371

(410) 913-3912 (Cell)

jpare at nfb.org <mailto:jpare at nfb.org>


2006 Election Marks a New Plateau of Equality for the Blind




Baltimore, Maryland (November 3, 2006): In all that has been said about 
the coming election, one largely overlooked fact is that the voting 
experience of the blind will be private for the first time in history.



James Gashel, Executive Director for Strategic initiatives at the 
National Federation of the Blind, commented, "I have been voting in 
every single election since 1968, and never once have I been able to 
cast a secret ballot in a general or presidential election.  For me, 
voting was never a welcoming experience, but rather tension-filled and 
stressful, as I struggled with the numerous restrictions of being a 
blind voter; from the difficulty of finding a person to accompany me to 
the polling area to wondering how I would be treated upon arrival."



Voting, like so many other interactions with the printed word in the 
life of the blind, required some assistance from a sighted person, or in 
some cases, several sighted people.  Prior to a 1982 federal requirement 
that allowed the blind to take a trusted individual of their choosing 
into the voting booth, blind people who showed up at the polls 
unaccompanied by a family member or trusted friend had to be watched by 
at least three other people.  A supposedly neutral poll worker was 
needed to mark the blind voter's ballot, and one observer from each 
political party went behind the curtain as well to make sure the poll 
worker didn't cheat.  Eileen Rivera-Ley, of Baltimore, once commented 
about her time in the voting booth: "It's like a party in there." 
Obviously, the result of this ritual was that the blind voter's ballot 
was never secret, and sometimes revealed to more than one person, none 
of whom the voter knew particularly well or had any reason to trust. 
And according to some blind voters, poll workers and partisan election 
monitors sometimes took the opportunity to make a last-minute effort to 
influence the blind voter's decision.  "You're voting for who? Are you 
sure?"



The Help America Vote Act, enacted in 2002, mandates that each polling 
place in America have at least one voting device that a blind person can 
use without assistance.  Most voting machines implement this requirement 
with an audio ballot, which reads each contest to the voter, who then 
makes choices by pushing buttons on a keypad instead of touching a 
screen or marking a paper ballot with a pencil.



The opportunity of every American to a secret ballot is not only a 
matter of individual privacy; it is one of the many ways to insulate 
voters from undue influence and to protect the entire election process 
from fraud.  Gashel added, "on Tuesday, November 7, for the first time 
ever, I will proudly go to my polling place to cast my vote 
unaccompanied and unassisted, with the knowledge that a new plateau in 
equality for the blind has been reached."



Reminder - call the NFB at 877-632-1940 on election day if you encounter 
any problems while voting.