Text your vote
A significant majority (61%) of polled Americans said they’d prefer to vote in the next election via text messaging, and the percentage is even higher among those who’ll become eligible to vote by 2016. Reliability issues aside, this could be a boon for people with disabilities–or a nightmare, depending on implementation. How will write-ins be handled? Will the system be able to recognize creative spelling (Barak, Barac, Braq…)? Will verification and confidentiality issues be addressed? We refer anyone interested in the implementation of this strategy to the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines for a comprehensive view of accessibility considerations.
Cellular News: U.S. Cell Phone Users Open to Texting Their Vote for President
Mulch the vote
As Florida’s election officials move to paper-based optical scanning, what to do about the 29,000 touchscreen machines they have? Well, they’re going to be marketed to other jurisdictions (!) or “de-manufactured”, AKA “taken apart and sold for components and scrap.”
E-Vote: Florida Touch Screen Voting Machines to be Recycled - Government Technology
Voter rooters
California’s presidential primary is only seven months away, and a concerted effort is underway to make sure the system is airtight. Among the testers is Noel Runyon, a blind voter who sued Santa Clara over accessibility after he encountered problems during the last presidential election; he’s part of “a separate [but equal?] task force that is testing the reliability of voting systems used by the disabled.” We’re hoping low tech like the Vote-PAD is also being considered…
San Francisco Chronicle: Experts put voting machines to test
Vote gloat?
So it turns out that voting machine security is so bad in California, the mainstream touch-screen units might be dumped in favor of…machines originally set up primarily to guarantee accessibility. And oh yes, there’s sudden notice being taken of non-compliance with state regulations on “offer[ing] a paper record that blind voters can verify through an audio playback.” Accessibility: Not just the law; it’s a good idea.
Lei off
Starting later this month, Honolulu residents will have the option of voting via the Internet. Unfortunately, the first step of the voting process requires users to “Choose a word that describes the four images above” for CAPTCHA-type authentication. Automatic barrier to blind folks, and possible barrier to people with cognitive disabilities or even cultural differences as well.
Vote note gets our goat
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued a letter last week outlining “the initial results of activities…relating to the evaluation of [voting machine] testing laboratories under…the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).” Not a single mention of any testing related to machine accessibility, despite HAVA’s explicit mandate for addressing voting needs of people with disabilities.
National Institute of Standards and Technology letter to Election Assistance Commission (PDF file)
Vote of confidence?
A post-election analysis of making the Internet the sole means of voting that covers everything except, of course, accessibility. On the one hand, Internet voting will allow individuals to use their own assistive technology on their own computers. On the other, there will still have to be some type of public voting areas, and these will need to accommodate people with disabilities. Plus ça change…