[nfbwatlk] Fw: Visionary Voting Method

[Mike Freeman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: BlindNews Mailing List
To: BlindNews at FreeLists.org
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 6:11 PM
Subject: Visionary Voting Method


The Columbian, WA, USA
Friday, October 12, 2007

Visionary Voting Method

By Visionary Voting Method

Caption: Ziggy Reinhardt, 14, uses a voting machine for blind people at 
the Washington State School for the Blind. Throughout Thursday, students 
went to the booths to cast their vote for associate student body 
positions. (BEN CAMPBELL/The Columbian)

Lucene Beshinian let her hands travel over the voting machine, taking in 
its grooves and corners.

She then turned to Tim Likness, Clark County elections supervisor.

"OK," she said. "What do I do?"

Beshinian, a polite, dark-haired student at the Washington State School 
for the Blind, was learning how to use a voting machine for blind 
people.

After learning how on the demonstration machine, she walked over to a 
voting booth, where she voted for student body officers.

The idea, Likness said, is to teach the students how to use the 
machines. But it's also to spread the word that the machines exist - at 
the most, only three blind people have voted on the machines in an 
election.

The machines cost $3,500 a piece, plus $2,500 for the control box 
attached to the voting machines. They became mandatory as part of the 
Helping Americans Vote Act of 2002 and were implemented in Clark County 
in 2006.

Now that Washington voters mail their ballots, only the disabled voting 
unit remains at the elections office. Teacher Doug Trimble asked Likness 
to consider moving the booth to the School for the Blind, a place 
familiar to blind members of the community.

Likness said a task force has been formed to explore what to do with so 
few blind people voting.

The machines resemble a cross between an arcade game and the movie 
character E.T.

Voters don headphones and turn a dial that prompts a voice to announce 
each option.

When the desired option is spoken, the voter then pushes down to make 
the final choice.

There's even an option for write-in candidates.

"I love this," Beshinian, a ninth-grader, gushed. "This is so cool."

Until now, the school used Braille ballots in student body elections. 
But those didn't mimic real life, Trimble said.

"We'll do what we can to get our students involved in politics and 
voting and let them know that their vote counts," Trimble said.

The judge at the elections office used to read the options to voters.

Ninth-grader Sarah Bair didn't like that idea.

"If someone is reading to me, they would know who I voted for," Bair 
said. "I wouldn't want people to know."

She believes the machines will increase independence among blind voters, 
and also the chance that blind people will vote.

As for voting in real elections, Bair shrugged.

"I don't like politics," she said. "I think they suck. It's too 
confusing and everybody's always fighting. Put a Democrat and a 
Republican in a room together, and it won't be pretty."

Isolde Raftery can be reached at isolde.raftery at columbian.com or 
360-759-8047.


http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2007/10/10122007_Visionary-Voting-Method.cfm
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-------------- next part --------------
----- Original Message -----
From:
mailto:BlindNews at GeoffAndWen.com BlindNews Mailing List
To:
mailto:BlindNews at FreeLists.org BlindNews at FreeLists.org
Sent:
Sunday, October 14, 2007 6:11 PM
Subject:
Visionary Voting Method
The Columbian, WA, USA
Friday, October 12, 2007
Visionary Voting Method
By Visionary Voting Method
Caption: Ziggy Reinhardt, 14, uses a voting machine for blind people at the Washington State School for the Blind. Throughout Thursday, students went to the booths to cast their vote for associate student body positions. (BEN CAMPBELL/The Columbian)
 
Lucene Beshinian let her hands travel over the voting machine, taking in its grooves and corners.
She then turned to Tim Likness, Clark County elections supervisor.
"OK," she said. "What do I do?"
Beshinian, a polite, dark-haired student at the Washington State School for the Blind, was learning how to use a voting machine for blind people.
After learning how on the demonstration machine, she walked over to a voting booth, where she voted for student body officers.
The idea, Likness said, is to teach the students how to use the machines. But it's also to spread the word that the machines exist - at the most, only three blind people have voted on the machines in an election.
The machines cost $3,500 a piece, plus $2,500 for the control box attached to the voting machines. They became mandatory as part of the Helping Americans Vote Act of 2002 and were implemented in Clark County in 2006.
Now that Washington voters mail their ballots, only the disabled voting unit remains at the elections office. Teacher Doug Trimble asked Likness to consider moving the booth to the School for the Blind, a place familiar to blind members of the community.
Likness said a task force has been formed to explore what to do with so few blind people voting.
The machines resemble a cross between an arcade game and the movie character E.T.
Voters don headphones and turn a dial that prompts a voice to announce each option.
When the desired option is spoken, the voter then pushes down to make the final choice.
There's even an option for write-in candidates.
"I love this," Beshinian, a ninth-grader, gushed. "This is so cool."
Until now, the school used Braille ballots in student body elections. But those didn't mimic real life, Trimble said.
"We'll do what we can to get our students involved in politics and voting and let them know that their vote counts," Trimble said.
The judge at the elections office used to read the options to voters.
Ninth-grader Sarah Bair didn't like that idea.
"If someone is reading to me, they would know who I voted for," Bair said. "I wouldn't want people to know."
She believes the machines will increase independence among blind voters, and also the chance that blind people will vote.
As for voting in real elections, Bair shrugged.
"I don't like politics," she said. "I think they suck. It's too confusing and everybody's always fighting. Put a Democrat and a Republican in a room together, and it won't be pretty."
Isolde Raftery can be reached at mailto:isolde.raftery at columbian.com isolde.raftery at columbian.com
or 360-759-8047.
http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2007/10/10122007_Visionary-Voting-Method.cfm http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2007/10/10122007_Visionary-Voting-Method.cfm
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