JFActivist

Polling Sites, Too, Must be Accessible

From the Utica Observer-Dispatch (April 29):

Polling sites, too, must be accessible
By BRAD WILLIAMS
Special to the Observer-Dispatch

A federal court order earlier this year mandated an accessible Ballot Marking Device be located at every polling place in New York state for primary and election days in 2008 as a major step to ensure the state’s compliance with the Help Americans Vote Act.

In the past few months, New York has witnessed significant progress in implementing HAVA, the 2002 federal law which required states to replace outdated voting technologies (including New York’s aging voting lever machines) and provide accessible voting for people with disabilities...

...Read more.

Study: Voters Trust Touch-Screen Machines

From ComputerWorld:

Voters trust touch-screen machines, studies show
By Todd R. Weiss and Grant Gross, IDG News Service

March 26, 2008 (Computerworld) Eight years after the "hanging chads" and other voting problems in Florida threw the 2000 presidential election into an uproar, U.S. voters have come to trust touch-screen electronic voting machines. In fact, they prefer them to paper-based optical scanning machines, according to new research on e-voting technologies.

A study by the Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank, found that voters were generally most comfortable with some models of touch-screen machines, often called direct recording electronic (DRE) machines, when compared with paper ballots and machines using buttons and dials...

...Read more.

Voting Obstacles for Nursing Home Residents

From The Associated Press:

American Voters Getting Older
By KIMBERLY HEFLING

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nursing homes, notorious places for voter fraud, need greater guidance on how to help residents vote, senators and voter advocates said Thursday.

Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said he and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., planned to ask the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to develop nationwide voting guidelines for state election officials and nursing home staffs.

Tom Wilkey, the commission's executive director, said in a statement that the issue is important and he looks forward to working with Kohl's committee.

About one in five votes in the 2004 presidential election was cast by someone 65 or older. By 2040, it is anticipated about 40 percent of voters will be 65 or older...

...Read more.

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View an archived copy of the webcast (uncaptioned) of the Senate Special Committee on Aging's hearing entitled "Older Voters: Opportunities and Challenges for the 2008 Election."

Access Issues Were Anticipated at Primaries in NY

From Associated Press (February 4):

Lawsuits could jeopardize NY's compliance with federal voting law

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York state has been ordered to allow the use of voting machines that have been highly criticized by voting and disability advocates.

The state is years behind on multiple deadlines to meet federal voting laws designed to ensure accuracy, and the state Board of Elections has been charged with selecting new machines to do just that...

...Read more.

Why was disability not discussed in yesterday’s elections?

Staff Column
By Jim Dickson

Primary elections are arguably much more important than the general elections.  Primaries are where candidates identify their supporters and decide issues on which to campaign.  By the time the general election comes around, the winning candidates who have survived the primaries, have fashioned their platform, made their promises and decided on the themes for stump speeches, issue papers and campaign ads.  There is a reason they are not called “secondaries.”  Webster dictionary defines “primary” as “first or highest in rank, quality or importance….preliminary to a later stage in a continuing process.”

People with disabilities do not vote in primaries.  Only 0.5% of us are regular primary voters.  Beginning in the 1980s, the Evangelical community made voting in the primaries a major objective with the result that Evangelical issues are a part of political discourse.  Pastor Rod Parsley, founder and president of Moral Clarity said, “There is no such thing as just a primary.”

In 1993, at the beginning of Bill Clinton’s presidency, he startled the chattering classes when the first major issue he pushed was gays in the military.  Why did Bill Clinton do this?  Was he surprised it was controversial?  No.  Did he think it would be an easy fight?  No.  He kept his promise to the first organized constituency that supported him in the primaries.  The Gay and Lesbian community were the first group to consistently deliver votes to Bill Clinton in his bid for the presidency. 

It is not enough for individuals with disabilities to vote.  We must organize issued-based Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) drives focused on issues and we have to be able to prove that we turned out our people.  Any political candidate who is going to campaign on disability issues without proof that people with disabilities vote in the primaries will be a loser.  We need to organize lists of people with disability interests, phone bank them with nonpartisan issues, and after Election Day, check against the voter registration file to see who actually votes.  This is called a list enhancement.

Only about 7% of the general public cares deeply about the pro-choice/pro-life issue.  Yet every elected official has a position on the abortion question.  Why?  Approximately 3.5% of the public votes for pro-choice candidates.  But that 3.5% makes up nearly one quarter of dependable Democrat primary voters.  The other 3.5% makes up nearly one quarter of dependable Republican primary voters. 

Disability issues are going to be left out of public discourse until we are an organized voting bloc.

Federal Judge Approves NY Voting Machine Plan

Congratuations to all the advocates in New York for their hard work in insisting that New York state conform to HAVA!

From Newsday (1/16):

Federal judge approves NY voting machine plan
By VALERIE BAUMAN

ALBANY, N.Y.

A federal judge has approved New York's latest plan for bringing the state into compliance with federal voting laws.

New York is years behind deadlines to comply with the Help America Vote Act, which was enacted after the contested 2000 presidential elections to ensure better accuracy and access for the disabled.

U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe ordered the state Board of Elections on Wednesday to follow through with the plans it gave him to meet the requirements of the law.

If the state acts on the agreed timeline, voting machines accessible to the disabled will be available in every polling place around the state by this fall's federal elections. The state would then follow up by replacing all pull-lever machines by the fall 2009 state elections...

...Read the rest of the article.

*********************************
READ MORE:

• Read the decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of NY.

Summary of the Court Order:

• The following article is a summary of the Court Order (D.O.J. vs. N.Y.):

The Court has ordered the New York State to provide voting systems accessible to voters with disabilities at each poll site by September 2008 and to replace lever voting machines by September 2009 in accordance with the plan submitted by the NYS Board of Elections on January 4, 2008.

The Court finds:

1) It agrees with the DOJ that New York State has not complied with Section 301 of HAVA.

2) HAVA noncompliance is not an option, Federal law trumps State law.

3) Given NY’s delays it is not possible to meet HAVA requirements for the February 2008 primary, the September 2008 primary, or the November 2008 election.

4) Based on arguments by the parties and consideration of “relevant submissions” of Friend of the Court briefs “that partial compliance in the form of Ballot Marking Devices and/or voting systems accessible to persons with disabilities available for use in every polling place in the State of New York during the fall 2008 federal primary and general elections is possible and must be accomplished.”

5) Full compliance with HAVA’s voting system requirements, and the replacement of all lever voting machines in the State of New York must be accomplished as soon as possible but in no event later than in time for use during the fall 2009 State primary and general elections.

The Court Orders:

* The US DOJ motion to Enforce is Granted.

* The States plan for deployment of ballot marking devices of in every polling place in NY in 2008 and of the State’s plan for lever machine replacement for 2009 as set forth in the States filing of January 4, 2008 shall be implemented.

* The State must file a weekly progress report to the Court

* The State must notify the Court of any deviation from the schedule, “no matter how minimal” from the schedule submitted by the State, and the reasons for the deviations.

Young Voters Made up 22% of Caucus Voters in Iowa

The following appeared in The Huffington Post and was written by David D. Burstein, director and producer of the documentary film, 18 in '08:

Young Voters Win in Iowa
By David D. Burstein

The Iowa caucuses and the looming New Hampshire primary provide evidence that 2008 will be the year that young voters will play a key role in our political process and election of our next president.

Often derided as apathetic, disinterested, and too busy with other life issues to engage with the democratic process, young voters have visibly exhibited their seriousness and their potential influence over the last week. They spoke through the ballot box and were greeted with results.

Young people participated in Iowa in record numbers, with voters ages 17-29, making up 22% of all caucus voters. The Iowa events last week broke records as 346,000 voters on both sides of the aisles (and many independents) turned out to pick their candidates. The unprecedented turnout was in large part due to a dramatic increase of first time caucus goers, many of them young voters...

...Read more.

County Election Commissioner in NY Says Disabled Prefer Absentee Voting to Poll Voting

Advocate Writes Letter to Editor in Response

On November 27, The Daily Star of Oneonta, NY ran an article entitled "Poll access for disabled heats debate," in which Otsego County Democratic Elections Commissioner Hank Nicols stated that he felt installing a ballot-marking device in every polling station was excessive.

Nicols was quoted as saying, "I think that would be an enormous waste of money,'' and that most disabled people prefer to vote by absentee ballot, not in polling places. He also claimed that only one disabled person used the county's ballot marker in the last election.

"With so few people wanting to use ballot markers, we'd be better off driving them in limos to use the one we have,'' Nicols said.

The Response
Chris Zachmeyer, executive director of the Catskill Center for Indepedence, responded by stating that installation of accessible equipment should happen as quickly as possible because it is the law under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

On Thursday, disablity advocate Lorraine Reichardt wrote a letter to the editor in response in which she wrote: "Saying people with disabilities prefer to vote by absentee ballot is ...preposterous. Disability advocates know the truth: A more-likely scenario is in years past voters with disabilities have been forced to vote that way because the polling sites themselves were inaccessible. "

...Read the original article and the letter to the editor in response below it.

Young Disability Groups Build Political Presence

From Politico (December 3):

Young disability groups build presence
By Ben Adler

Ben Spangenberg, 25, of Falls Church, Va., is an activist at the forefront of an emerging brand of identity politics among young voters: disability rights.

Born with spina bifida, Spangenberg gets around with the use of a wheelchair and makes his living as a government contractor. But in his spare time, he is chairman of the 500-member Disability Issues Caucus of the Young Democrats of America, working to highlight disability issues within YDA and the Democratic Party.

Disability rights issues certainly aren’t new in modern politics: The first formal disability caucus at a Democratic National Convention was in 1988, and the Young Democrats and College Democrats developed disability caucuses in the early 1990s, in the wake of passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990...

...Read the entire article.

"Equal Voting Access for Disabled Long Overdue"

Disability advocate Susan Cohen of the New York State Independent Living Council recently wrote an opinions column for the Times Union (Albany, NY) on the persistent barriers to voting that people with disabilities continue to face. Focusing in particular on the experience of advocates in New York, whose state ranked last in implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), Ms. Cohen goes on to report on a recent victory in finally having a meeting between the disability community and the New York Board of Elections.

Ms. Cohen writes:

"People with disabilities want, and in many cases are expected, to be productive members of society. That includes owning or renting property, working, paying taxes and going to the polls to exercise their voting rights.

"Yet these same successful, tax-paying New Yorkers still cannot vote independently and privately. Those who need assistance with current voting machines must have two people -- one from each major political party -- go into the voting booth with them. Can you imagine having a cozy party of three in the booth while you are voting?

"Some individuals cannot get into their polling place because they can't grasp the door handles, the ramp is badly constructed or some other barrier blocks accessibility. Some can't get accessible transportation to the polls, and some find their poll workers uninformed and rude when they try to vote. In 2006 and the 2007 primary, many people with disabilities had to travel up to 50 miles to find an accessible voting machine."

...

Read the rest of her column.