Below is the coverage which appeared in our local newspaper on June 7th
after Dave and I voted independently for the first time the previous
day.
The article and guest commentary appeared as two items; and I have copied
and pasted the text to a single message.
Dave's initial idea was to write a guest commentary on the importance of
this experience to us; and the newspaper staff decided to do a story with
photos.
The reporter interviewed us before and after we had completed voting. A
brief interview, complete with audio, is located on visaliatimesdelta.com
off a link entitled "Video Extras", and requires the Quicktime player.
Pam
Visually impaired vote on their own
By Ryanne Persinger
Staff writer
Voting is now one less obstacle David McElroy and Pamela Drake will have to
deal with.
For the first time in their lives, McElroy and Drake, both blind, were able
to vote without assistance from friends or poll workers when they used the
audio option of a touch screen voting machine in Tuesday's election.
The voting machine at their polling station, Community of Christ Church at
2127 S.
Giddings St., allowed them to vote using headphones and a key pad with
Braille and large buttons.
"It's extremely liberating," McElroy said. "When you can go to the polling
place and cast your own ballot, it contributes to our participation in the
community.
"There was a time when I voted not by what I believed, but by what the poll
worker would have wanted," added McElroy, a retired Tulare County social
services employee."
Drake agreed.
"I think [the new system] will make me more interested and more motivated to
vote,"
she said. "It means more when you're actually doing it yourself. ... It has
more of an impact."
Drake lost her sight at 4 months old, and McElroy has been blind his birth.
They've been partners for 13 years.
Both said the new voting machine is the most convenient way they have voted.
"Before, we had to go down to the courthouse and get an absentee ballot or
get the help of a friend or the polling place," Drake said.
Kim Shannon, county elections supervisor, said when a person is using the
audio voting option on the machine, the screen will read, "audio voting
enabled."
That way people walking behind a blind person won't be able to see who he or
she is voting for.
She added that voters do not have to be blind or have a disability to use
the machine.
One machine was at each of the county's 75 polling stations.
Cheri Olson, a poll volunteer, said using the machine is simple.
"It's like playing video games," she said.
McElroy admitted he was more interested in the voting machine than the
actual outcome.
"This is a boring election," he said. "I wasn't sure I would have come out
to vote if it weren't for that gadget."
The reporter can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] gannett.com.
Originally published June 7, 2006
Steve R. Fujimoto/Times-Delta
David McElroy was one of the first blind people in Tulare County to vote
unassisted.
They used the new touch-screen voting machines at Community of Christ Church
in Visalia.
McElroy writes about what the change means in a column on Opinion/ 6A.
How it works
Voters go to polling station, sign roster and indicate they want to use the
touch screen machine Voters turn in their paper ballot and receive a voter
card Voter card is inserted into the touch screen Voter uses headphones and
a key pad with Braille and large buttons The audio lists candidates names
After voting, a receipt prints
COMMENTARY
Technology allows voting independence
There are certainly challenges to being a blind couple in a seeing world;
one has just been mitigated.
Tuesday, June 6, 2006. Election Day in California and Tulare County. Just
another in a stream of midterm elections similar to many in which we have
taken part for years. Similar, yes. Exactly the same, decidedly not.
For the first time in our lives, Pam and I have voted independently. For the
first time, as blind people, our ballots were cast in secret with absolute
privacy.
Yes, the long-standing tradition of a secret ballot has now been made
available to anyone whose physical disability might preclude them from
marking a ballot in the traditional manner.
As active participants in civic life, unfettered access to the ballot box
has always been a problem. We could either depend on a trusted friend to
read the ballot and mark our choices at the polling place, request the
assistance of a poll worker or depend on the absentee ballot, again with the
assistance of another person.
For me, this issue really hit close to home not too many years ago. A highly
charged issue was on the ballot, and I was certain that the poll worker who
assisted me did not share my views on the matter at hand. This made me
extremely uncomfortable, as I had no wish to offend. Additionally, there was
always the possibility that others in the room would have heard my
selection, no matter how quietly I spoke.
Therefore,
being relatively certain of the fact that my one vote would have made no
difference to the outcome, I voted in opposition to my belief. Pam chose not
to vote at all on that issue.
In subsequent years, we have completed absentee ballots, initially with the
help of a dear friend, now deceased and more recently we've gone to the
elections office to complete this process. But as of June 6, those methods
have, at least for most elections, been consigned to the history books
thanks to the federal Help America Vote act and to modern technology.
On May 30, one week before the election, we went to the Office of Elections
and were given a thorough demonstration of the machine. A simulated ballot
was presented, depicting a primary election and listing names of signers of
the Declaration Of Independence.
After "voting" for one candidate on the ballot, Pam wrote herself in as a
candidate for President of the United States, bypassing Benjamin Franklin
and John Adams. The exercise demonstrated not only our ability to cast a
private ballot, but also to write in the name of a candidate should the need
arise.
How it works: Each polling place will have one electronic touch screen
terminal, along with the traditional ballots. This terminal can be operated
via the touch screen or push button panel, depending on one's needs. Anyone
may request and cast an electronic ballot.
For our purposes as blind voters, a little box resembling a VCR's remote
control is attached to the terminal. With the press of a button, vocal
descriptions of the ballot's choices are presented to the voter via an
earphone. The screen is blank during the process. Left and right arrows,
along with a "select" button allow us to move through the ballot making and
reviewing our selections, and ultimately confirming our desired choices
before officially casting the ballot.
The electronic ballots are stored in memory for counting later.
Additionally, there
is a paper readout available for hand counting, in the event of a recount.
It is our hope that this is the beginning of a new era. As active members of
our community, we look forward to it.
David McElroy and Pam Drake made Tulare County history on Tuesday as the
first blind people in the county to cast their ballots on Election Day at a
polling place without
The assistance of another party. They live in Visalia.
Originally published June 7, 2006
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