EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | DeAnna Quietwater Noriega
Organization : | American Council of the Blind - Colorado
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
General Comments
Comment : | I am currently Chair Person of the board of directors of The American Council of the Blind of Colorado. I wish to speak today for the seven to ten million blind and visually impaired citizens in the United States. By 2015, that figure is expected to increase by four million as baby boomers continue to grow older and be affected by age related vision loss. Fifteen years ago, I was president of The Oregon Council of the Blind. A member who had flown as a decorated air force pilot in both World War II and the Korean Police Action approached me for assistance. He had purchased a river front home in Southern Oregon only to have his peaceful visions of a contented retirement clouded by macular degeneration. Being a man of great character and courage, he turned to the Veterans Administration to seek training in adaptive skills. He remained active in his community but had one area of dissatisfaction. He had to ask his wife or a polling worker to assist him in casting his vote. We shared a joke over being among a handful of liberal democrats in a conservative republican community. On his behalf, I began working to find a means for blind and visually impaired people to have a private independent vote. I have voted in every election since reaching voting age, but it has only been possible for me to vote independently with a measure of privacy in the last three elections. Prior to El Paso County placing electronic voting machines at three locations fitted with headsets, key pads and audio ballots, I had to dictate my choices to another individual in a public setting, regardless of the controversial nature of the issue. Had I chosen to use a write-in ballot, I would have had to depend on someone else to mark my ballot and trust that they were doing it in the manner I wished. I can therefore understand the desire of sighted voters to be sure their vote is being recorded as they wish. However, I ask you not to delay further the right of full participation in our democratic process for blind and visually impaired voters. If you choose to mandate a printed paper ballot, we who cannot access paper will not have any greater assurance that our vote is being counted correctly. A paper ballot is just another piece of paper no different from a blank sheet to us. To deny us access to a private vote to assuage the fears of voters who distrust computers and electronic voting machines is to return us to the status of second class citizens who must trust in the kindness of strangers to participate in our right to vote. We have confidence that measures can be taken to insure that votes are accurately counted. We don't wish to lose the access to an independent vote for all visually impaired people or see it further delayed by paranoia. Paper ballots do not necessarily guarantee an accurate count. They haven't done so in the past. [Statements submitted at EAC public hearing, August 23, 2005, Denver, CO]