EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Jill LaVine
Organization : | Registrar of Voters, County of Sacramento
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Section Comments
Section : | 2.2.7
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Comment : | ALL ELIGIBLE VOTERS SHALL HAVE ACCESS TO THE VOTING PROCESS WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION. B. Not all voters are fully literate in English; there are voters that are able to speak English but are unable to read it. I have seen voters start voting in English and then request to change to Spanish where they are more comfortable. My suggestion is to have Spanish and other, required by law, languages available to the voter at all times through the entire voting process, by means of requiring a toggle feature on the voting equipment which could be accessed at any time. On some voting systems, if the voter wishes to change to another language they must start the voting process entirely over from the beginning. This not only causes the voter to loose what votes they have already cast, it also increases the time the voter takes to cast their ballot which, in turn, adds additional time to the existing long lines at the polls on election day. SUGGESTION: I would encourage all election voting system vendors to incorporate the language, toggle feature, into their systems. [Statements submitted at EAC public hearing, August 23, 2005, Denver]