Florida Disability Rights Advocates Fight to Avert E-voting Debacle

[eridani]

Case Puts Security and Auditability at Risk in the Next Election

Volusia County, FL - EFF filed a friend-of-the-court brief last week with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals supporting Volusia County, Florida, in an ongoing legal battle to permit the county to consider voting systems that are both accessible to the disabled and auditable for everyone.

EFF's brief strongly urged the court to reject an argument by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) that Volusia County should be forced to purchase paperless touchscreen voting machines for the upcoming October 11th election. This deadline would require the county to rush to prepare for the election, possibly jeopardizing its efforts to program the machines, train election and pollworkers, and educate the public. Instead, arguedEFF, the county should be given the chance to acquire voting technology that creates an auditable paper trail,as well as provides accessibility features for a wider range of disabled voters.

"As a blind voter, I'm strongly opposed to the paperless e-voting machines that the NFB is trying to force onto us," said David Dixon, president of Handicapped Adults of Volusia County (HAVOC). "I want a voting system that is accessible to as many voters as possible and that also produces an audit trail. The paperless machines are simply the wrong approach, and I support the county's efforts to try to find a better way."

"We're disappointed that national disability rights groups have taken such a counter-productive step despite opposition from local disability rights leaders," said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "At a time when people devoted to meaningful election reform should be working together, it's unfortunate that the NFB is making the dangerous argument that election integrity should be sacrificed for otherwise laudable accessibility goals."

For the full press release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_09.php#003981

[Einsteinia]

1. Same issue was overruled by Federal Court in CA

last July 2, 2004. See, http://www.califelectprotect.net for article on SB 370, which has the link to the court case and a quote specific to the ruling saying that the reading of paper trails does NOT disenfranchise the disabled.