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

[Albert Sanchez]

Hi All,
Gerrie and I just returned from casting our votes via touch-screen with 
speech technology here in the Commonwealth of Virginia without difficulty! 
We have had this touch-screen technology for about the last two years and, 
it would seem that it works flawlessly! Its wonderful! It is not Dibold.

A.S.
Albert Sanchez, W A 7 F X B/4
EchoLink: 75,240
IRLP Node: 4000
Al's Piano Tuning & Repair
703-933-9303
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "NFB of Washington Talk" <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 12:18 PM
Subject: [nfbwatlk] 2006 Election Marks a New Plateau of Equality for 
theBlind (fwd)


---------- 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.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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