Voting Vent

[capri0mni]

(Cross-posted to gimp_vent):

When I went to vote in the primaries, back in February, I discovered A) that I had a new polling location, but failed to get notification in the mail, and B) when my aide and I got to the new polling place, I discovered it was far more crowded, none of the electronic voting machines were at wheelchair height, and because of the crowds, the poll workers were unwilling to take the time to adjust one of them to make it so, though they did provide a poll worker to push the buttons I told her to.

So, before going off to vote, this time, I just wanted to double check everything.

What follows are snippets from the Virgina State Board of Elections Website:

About my polling place:

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Accessibility Information
ADA Compliant: No

Accessibility Restrictions:
No restrictions found.
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Excuse Me, but: What?! It's not ADA compliant, but there are no restrictions? This is a massive failure of logic.

So I surf on over to the "Voters with Special Needs Page" And I find this passage:

4. Is the voting equipment in my polling place going to be accessible?

In accordance with the Help America Vote Act every polling location in Virginia must be equipped with at least one accessible voting system that will allow all voters with a disability to vote the same private and independent manner as a voter without a disability. This change will be fully accomplished by January 1st 2006.

*If you feel you have not been given the opportunity to vote in accordance with the Help America Vote Act, summarized above, please follow the link at the bottom of the page to the voter feedback form. *

So I follow the link. And find this:

Feedback Form for Voters with Special Needs:

In the Virginia State Board of Elections’ continuing effort to ensure that voting is accessible to all voters, this form is being provided with the hope that you may be able to assist us in reaching our goals. If you have a complaint, concern, suggestion, or praise regarding the accessibility of any portion of the registration and voting process for senior citizens and or people living with disabilities, please complete this form and click SUBMIT. If you wish to receive a response from the State Board of Elections, please provide contact information.

This is the note that I wrote (with a complaint, praise, and suggestion):

"I am a wheelchair user, and when going to vote in the primary election, on February 12, 2008 (at Oscar Smith High School), I was disappointed that none of the electronic voting machines were accessible to wheelchair users (or any other voter who might wish to sit, while voting, such as those who use crutches, canes, or walkers).

I was given assistance, from one of the poll workers on duty, who pushed the buttons I could not reach, but I prefer to vote in private.

Since the electronic voting are portable enough to be brought out for curbside voting, I suggest that one or two may be placed on a table, so that a voter may either wheel up to it, or pull up a regular chair provided for that purpose, which can be moved out of the way if needed.

Thank you for your consideration."

When I clicked [Submit], however, I got this screen:

The page cannot be found
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
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Oh, yeah. That's a big help. Thanks so much.

(And about that curbside voting: poll workers at the first place made that suggestion for me with a great deal more eagerness than they had for the idea of adjusting the height of the voting machine's legs. The latter solution would be, I imagine, a lot less awkward then holding a bulky piece of electronics steady while someone makes the most important decision of the year. It would also let me vote in view of the public, which is the main reason I don't like to vote absentee.

But I'm seriously considering going the absentee route, this year, anyway, because at least then I have the assurance of a paper trail.

Comments

[uncacreamy.livejournal.com]

and the absentee ballot doesn't require an ID to flash.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Ex-ac-tal-ly. I was actually thinking of voting absentee before my photo id turned invisible. But the fact that I still can't find it as of last night was the tipping point.

Watch it turn up right where my memory tells me it should be on November 5th.

For all their flaws, I really liked the punch card ballots, because they were light weight, and easy to set up.

When not in use, they could be folded inside their own briefcase carrier. There were leg sockets in the bottom at the corners, so the legs could just be snapped into place. The legs were also adjustable with simple, pushbutton locks, so you could set them up to any height with 1/2 inch incraments, and you could figure out how to do it by just looking at them.

So it was easy to set up a couple at wheelchair height. And up until my voting district switched to the electronic machines, there always were voting booths set up for the sitters.

I see absolutely no reason why the stands for the electronic machines couldn't be given similiar legs. But instead, they're only adjusted to two heights: too low, and too high.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Ironically, you'd have less trouble voting here because we still use pencil and paper.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Nothing ironic, really (except for getting over the difficulty in actually getting to Britain, and gaining British citizenship). America, and especially current American voting systems, are being driven by fear and paranoia. And that always makes things difficult.

Oh, and paper and pencil FTW!

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

I always find it ironic when advances in technology us less well than low technology did.

Good luck with voting.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

Geeez.

Maybe an angry phone call should be on the agenda.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yes. Or at least an angry phone call disguised as a firm-but-helpful suggestion call.

In the meantime, because of the holiday tomorrow, the local office won't be open until Tuesday.

I realize now that I should have made the call on February 13th, but maybe this can get wheels turning by the next election...