Breaking News: Dozens of Representatives of Disability Groups Announce Opposition to DRE Voting Machines
In the last few days, dozens of representatives of Disability Groups
have publicly announced their opposition to DRE electronic-ballot
Voting Machines
BradBlog article: URL to article on this topic:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4270Report by Blind Voter and Computer Scientist Noel Runyan
http://www.voteraction.org/reports/nrreport/Improving_Access_to_Voting_.pdfACLU and Disability Law Center Against DREs and For Optical Scan Paper
Ballot Printers
http://www.aclu-mass.org/news/03.05.07_Voting_Tech_web.pdfBelow (in full) Statement of Americans with Disabilities with Numerous
Signatories
--------------------------------------------------
Americans with Disabilities Call for Election Systems Featuring Both
Accessibility and Security
Voters with disabilities, sensory impairments, and special language
needs have long been disenfranchised in large numbers as a result of
lack of access to the voting process. For many of us, the passage of
the Help America Vote Act of 2002 held tremendous hope and promise for
secure and reliable voting, a guarantee that every voter would have
access to the voting process.
Electronic ballot systems such as the direct record electronic (DRE)
machines (formerly called "touch screens") now in use have quickly
proven to be neither fully accessible to all voters nor secure and
accurate methods of recording, tallying, and reporting votes. While
the goal of private voting has been achieved by some voters, this has
often been without meaningful assurance that our votes have been
counted as cast. Additionally, many other voters have been
disappointed and frustrated because we have not been able to vote
privately and independently as we had hoped and as voting-system
vendors had promised.
It is now clear that in order to guarantee reliability and security in
our elections, it is necessary for the voter to be able to truly
verify the accuracy of his or her ballot--the ballot that will
actually be counted. The only voting systems that permit truly
accessible verification of the paper ballot are ballot marking
devices. These non-tabulating devices, either electronic or
non-electronic, assist the voter in marking and verifying votes on
paper ballots that can either be optically scanned or hand-counted.
(Some DRE voting machines that have already been purchased may be
adapted to be used as acceptable ballot marking devices, assuming
their accessibility can be preserved or improved.)
The technology for inexpensively providing good accessibility to
voting systems has been commonly available for more than a decade, and
it can and should immediately be required for and applied to all
modern voting systems.
This is clearly illustrated by the report "Improving Access to Voting:
A report on the Technology for Accessible Voting Systems," by Noel
Runyan, (WORD | PDF | large-print | braille) posted at VoterAction.org
and Demos.org. Design of new systems must include, from the beginning,
accommodations to allow private and independent voting by individuals
with a broad range of access needs. These systems must simultaneously
ensure secure elections.
We leaders and members of the disability rights community assert that
neither accessibility for all voters nor the security of the vote can
be sacrificed for the sake of the other. Fortunately, true
accessibility and election security can both be achieved; there is no
inherent incompatibility between voting system accessibility and
security.
We recognize that electronic ballot systems are inappropriate for use,
because these systems make it impossible for voters to verify that
their votes will be counted as cast. We call upon all disability
rights groups, other civil rights groups, election protection groups,
and elected officials to recognize the necessity for an immediate ban
on any voting system that fails to meet the twin requirements of full
accessibility and election security.
---------------------------------------------------
List of signatories as of 3/14/07 (affiliations are listed for
identification purposes only):
Noel Runyan, Voting access technology engineer and author of
"Improving Access to Voting"
Roger Petersen, member, Santa Clara County Advisory Commission for
Persons with Disabilities and Santa Clara County Voter Access Advisory
Committee
Bernice Kandarian, President, Council of Citizens with Low Vision International
Robert Kerr, ACB Maryland
Shawn Casey O'Brien, KPFK-FM in Los Angeles, and California Secretary
of State's Ad Hoc Touch Screen Task Force member
Suzanne Erb, Chairperson of the Philadelphia Mayor's Commission on Disabilities
Mike Keithley
A. J. Devies, Past President, Handicapped Adults of Volusia County
(HAVOC); Charter Member, Daytona Beach Mayor's Alliance for Persons
with Disabilities; Disability Consultant and Board Member, Florida
Fair Elections Coalition
Marta Russell, independent journalist and author
Judith K. Barnes, Life Member, Council of Citizens With Low Vision;
Former President, Silicon Valley Council of the Blind
George Moore, Accessibility Advocate, Californians for Disability Rights
Mike May, President, Sendero Group
Margaret Keith, VP, Monterey Co. Chapter, Californians for Disability Rights
Adrienne Lauby, Host/Producer, Pushing Limits, disability program on KPFA fm
David Andrews
Jean Stewart, Writer
Ruthanne Shpiner, Pushing Limits Radio 94.1 FM, Northern California ADAPT
Mike Godino, President, American Council of the Blind of New York,
Systems Advocate, Suffolk Independent Living Organization
Louis Herrera
Dawn Wilcox, BSN RN, Past President Silicon Valley Council of the
Blind, Board member CCCLV
Barry Scheur, Scheur & Associates
Tom Fowle, Rehabilitation Engineer, The Smith-Kettlewell
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center, San Francisco
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