Voters With Visual Impairments Allege Voting Equipment Violates ADA

The National Law Journal (4/18, Fisk) reports, "For years, William Poole Jr., who is blind, was frustrated when he voted in Maryland because his vote was not a secret. Since the voting machines were inaccessible to the visually impaired, he had to have someone in the voting booth with him to read the ballot, and then tell that person how he wanted to vote."

The Journal continues, "Now he's at the forefront of a movement that has spread to several other states -- filing federal class actions aimed at forcing state and local election officials to provide voting devices that can be used by the disabled. Such machines...are required under the Help Americans Vote Act passed by Congress after the contentious 2000 presidential election. But many state and county officials say they haven't bought the new machines because the federal government hasn't provided the promised money."

The Journal adds, "A complaint was originally filed by Poole on Election Day in 2002, after poll officials would not let him vote with a Braille-type template he developed to use with the voting machine. A 30-page amended complaint was recently filed in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of some 20,000 blind or visually impaired people in Baltimore County. The complaint alleges violations of both the Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Poole v. Baltimore County and Maryland Board of Elections, No. 02-3610 (D. Md.). Class actions have also been filed around the country -- including Florida, the District of Columbia, Philadelphia and Texas, although none of the classes was certified." The Journal notes, "Rajeev Goyle, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Baltimore, which is supporting the Poole case, said the 'harm is great, not just humiliation and embarrassment. ... A whole class of the citizenry has been discouraged from voting, even though the technology is available.'

The Florida case is set to go to trial in September, according to plaintiffs' attorney J. Douglas Baldridge of Howrey Simon Arnold & White of Washington."

Christina M. Galindo
National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems
900 Second Street, NE, Suite 211
Washington, D.C. 20002
Telephone: 202/408-9514, Ext. 110
Facsimile: 202/408-9520
TTY: 202/408-9521

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