MD: Paper Trail Split Disabled Advocacy Groups - (plus notes on funding)

[Wilms]

Paper Trail Voting Machines Split Disabled Advocacy Groups

By JARED S. HOPKINS
Capital News Service

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

WASHINGTON - As the Maryland House nears a decision on requiring the state's voting machines to issue paper ballot records, organizations representing disabled voters apparently disagree on what -- if anything -- should be done.

Several prominent advocacy groups for the blind and deaf support paper records, but others -- including an organization that received a $1 million grant from Maryland's voting machine manufacturer -- have decried the bills in both the Senate and the House, where a vote is expected Thursday.

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Bob Kerr of The American Council of the Blind of Maryland once tested voting machines for Compliance Research Group and said his first-hand knowledge led to his push for paper-trails.

"Anyone who's blind is probably an expert who can tell you what's accessible to them," he said.

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NFB received a $1 million grant in 2001 from Diebold to settle NFB's lawsuit charging that Diebold ATM machines did not accommodate disabled customers. Gaschle said the grant came before Diebold's involvement in the election industry, and the organization is no longer receiving money from Diebold.

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"It seems to us like it's a waste of money to buy that technology and then throw that technology out," said Andy Imparato of the American Association of People with Disabilities. "We use computers to control nuclear weapons, to control banks, to control a lot of things, I don't see why (this is different.)"

His organization, too, accepted a contribution from ES&S, but Imparato said it was just $6,000, not the $26,000 reported by the New York Times.

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http://www.journalism.umd.edu/cns/wire/2006-editions/03-March-editions/060308-Wednesday/DisabledVoters_CNS-UMCP.html