EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Jim Dickson
Organization : | American Assoc. of People With Disabilities (AAPD)
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
General Comments
Comment : | AAPD is the nation's largest disability membership organization. We have over 100,000 members nationwide. AAPD supports secure, accurate and independent voting for all Americans and full implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA, as does every member of the Disability Vote Project Coalition (please see the attached). The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is more than election reform; it's a sweeping piece of civil rights legislation that requires that all eligible voters shall have access to the voting process without discrimination. It means that voter registration, absentee balloting, polling place access, adequate parking and signage, voting instructions, voting machine instructions, candidate selection, receiving trained pollworker assistance, ballot review, official paper records review, and final submission of the ballots all are accessible components of the voting process. The following comments and recommendations represent careful thought and deliberation by the disability rights community at the national, state and local levels. AAPD strongly urges the Election Assistance Commission to give serious weight to each recommendation. The Access Board, which does not have a constituency, does not represent the disability rights community. Our community is represented by independent organizations with large constituencies of people with disabilities, their family and friends, as well as organizations which provide direct services to people with disabilities. In light of the fact it will take years until these guidelines result in the next generation of voting systems, there is no rational excuse for making some accessibility standards optional. Furthermore, weakening existing standards violate the spirit and letter of the Help America Vote Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.