Problems in NC for blind voter using ES&S touchscreen voting machine

Problems for a blind voter

By Jordan Green, News Editor
Yes Weekly

http://www.yesweekly.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=1877&TM=49981

Counties across the nation tried out new voting technologies - sometimes with reports of difficulties and delays - and Guilford County was no exception as its board of elections oversaw the first election using Electronic Systems & Software direct-record electronic voting machines retrofitted with a paper spools and headphones to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

Dorothy M. Neely, a legally blind woman with limited eyesight who has come into conflict with the board of elections in the past, found the headphones of no use when she arrived at her polling place at the Lindley Park Recreation Center. She had to vote the old-fashioned way: by scanning the electronic ballot and touching the screen, in her case without being able to see the choices clearly.

"When I walked into the polling place, I signed in and got my credentials to vote," she said. "I said, 'I will need the new voting machines. I will need the headphone.' They said, 'Good luck you would do better to just have us read it to you.'"

Neely said at first poll workers couldn't locate the headphones. Then they couldn't figure out where to plug them into the voting machines, she continued, and further they didn't know how to set up the auditory ballot.

When she got the headphones working Neely said the automated voice instructed her that she only had one choice: straight ticket. When Neely, who is not registered with any party, tried to continue she said she was told she could not do so

Joann Davis, chief election judge for Precinct G48, said she reported the problem to the Guilford County Board of Elections.

"The report I received is that it was incomprehensible," said George Gilbert, the county's election director. "It is working…. She had to simply hit the down button and she could have proceeded. I think she simply misunderstood.

He added: "It's not as clear as I would like it to be. [Disabled voters] probably need to come in and practice before the next election. We would be glad to accommodate that."

In the meantime the director wouldn't be sending anybody out to the precinct to fix the machine or provide training on a busy Election Day.

Neely said one of the poll workers offered to cancel her ballot and read the choices to her. She declined, citing her right to privacy.

"I ended up asking them to please cancel the ballot and enter a ballot like it would be for a regular voter," she said. "I just put my nose and eyes close to the screen and voted with the regular touch-screen."

Neely said she knew of no other visually impaired people in the county who had experienced similar difficulties, but many of them have been discouraged from trying to vote.

"A lot of the visually impaired people in this community knew that the DRE machines were not going to work for them," she said. "They thought they didn't even want to bother with it because it was not a reliable choice."

Neely has publicly criticized the election board's use of direct-record electronic voting machines in the past, expressing a preference for optical scan machines.