[nfbwatlk] Article about accessible voting in Cowlitz County

[Noel Nightingale]

>From the Washington Protection and Advocacy newsletter

Accessible Voting:
The Cowlitz County Story

by Phil Jordan
September 25, 2006

Sunnie Smith is smiling.  She knows a lot of people who are going to be
able to vote without assistance for the very first time in their lives,
and she
is a big part of making it happen.

Sunnie runs the Cowlitz County office of disAbility Resources of
Southwest Washington.  She has been appointed to the Cowlitz County
advisory board that
makes recommendations about how elections can be more accessible for
people with disabilities.  The board has a big job, because lately,
there have been
many changes in how elections are being conducted.

One of the biggest changes is that  there are new voting machines.
These new machines allow people to vote independently, even if the
person has trouble
reading or seeing a regular ballot or if they are unable to fill out a
paper ballot.  The machines also have detailed, on-screen instructions
which can
be helpful for people who are deaf or have hearing loss.

The machines can really help make voting more accessible, but Sunnie was
concerned that not enough people with disabilities would know that they
were available.
 If nobody knew about them, people would miss out on one of the best
things about living in a democracy - making up your own mind and voting
for the candidate
of your choice.

Sunnie urged the advisory committee to make outreach a priority, and the
rest of the committee agreed.  The Cowlitz County election official,
Sharon Weinhold,
was extremely helpful.  She sent flyers describing the new machine to
every social service agency in the county.  She also thought of some
very creative
ways to do outreach.  The elections office had the machine available at
the County Fair so anyone could practice voting.  Even better, machine
was actually
used at the fair!  Children were allowed to vote for their choice for
County Fair mascot.  This created a lot of positive community feeling
about the machines
and accessible elections.

There were other imaginative outreach efforts.  Sunnie and another
advisory board member, Maurine Coon, each wrote letters to the editor of
the local newspaper
and both were published.  Flyers were placed on buses and connections
were made with organizations that have contact with people with
disabilities.

The election staff and the advisory board are both trying to think of
other ways to bring accessible voting to the people of Cowlitz County.
Many people
with disabilities live in rural areas of the county, or in small towns
like Castle Rock, Woodland or Toutle.  For these people, transportation
is a major
barrier to voting.

Fortunately, the County election staff and the advisory board members
are committed to finding answers to problems like this.  Other places
around the country
have created voting centers in centralized places like malls and town
centers.  Others have begun to take voting machines around the area by
van; bringing
the voting machine to the people, instead of the other way around.

Looking at the experience of Cowlitz County, it is easy to have hope for
the future.  Working together with mutual respect, people with
disabilities and
county officials are finding ways to make voting more accessible.  If
accessible voting is important to you, there is something you can do.
Every county
in Washington state is supposed to have an advisory board like the one
in Cowlitz County.  Call your county elections office and tell them you
are interested
in being on their accessible voting advisory board.

Want to know more about disAbility Resources of Southwest Washington?
Check out their website at:
<
http://www.darsw.com/>