Touch Screens Are Not The Best Choice For Disabled Voters

Touch Screens Are Not The Best Choice For Disabled Voters

By AJ Devies, Handicapped Voters of Volusia County

August 01, 2006

A key point has been lost in the various arguments for and against touch-screen voting machines. The spirit and intent of the accessible voting law are to allow every disabled person the opportunity to cast his or her privately and independently.1 The key word in the preceding sentence is “every.” It is not acceptable to accommodate some members of the disabled population and expect the rest of us to live with “business as usual.” That is discrimination, which is not legal.

snip

The majority of touch screen machines which produce a voter-verifiable paper record either print the record on a toilet-paper-like roll which remains inside the touch screen machine and is viewable through a small window, or prints an ATM-like receipt which is ejected or torn from the touch screen machine’s printer. How can people with visual impairments verify their votes on these touch screen machines?

Neither of the above methods produces a voter-verifiable paper record usable in manual recounts or audits. That introduces the possibility of a separate-but-not-equal issue whereby people with disabilities have no recountable voter-verifiable paper record comparable to the paper ballots used by people without a disability. Touch screens introduce an unnecessary disparity compared to the assistive ballot marking machine described above.

The 2002 U. S. Census analysis claims 20.8% of people aged 15 and older as having one or more disabilities. The blind and visually-impaired account for 3.5% of people with disabilities (ages 15 and older,) according to the 2002 U. S. Census analysis.6 Do the math: that leaves 17.3% of people with disabilities other than visual impairments.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1595&Itemid=26