New machines make voting accessible

BOISE – Idaho is encouraging everyone to vote in the upcoming primary and general elections, even if they can’t see, walk or hold a pen.

New accessible voting machines will be located in every polling place in the state for the first time in the May 23 primary election. “It’s something brand new,” said Secretary of State Ben Ysursa. “We want people to be aware of them.”

With $50,000 in federal funds provided by the Help America Vote Act, the Office of the Secretary of State is launching an education push about accessible voting. Radio ads will begin airing in the Coeur d’Alene area two weeks before the election, ads will go out on cable TV in some parts of the state, and in others, including Lewiston and Moscow, billboards have gone up declaring “Accessible Voting Available – Contact your county clerk,” along with a wheelchair symbol.

“Part of our charge is to get the information out,” Ysursa said.

Jim Mairs, Help America Vote Act coordinator for the Idaho Office of the Secretary of State, said the new “AutoMark” voting machines will help people with impaired vision and others with varying levels of disabilities.

The new voting machines aren’t necessarily designed for people in wheelchairs – they already can use most voting systems in Idaho. Instead, they’re meant to accommodate people with visual impairments, physical impairments that prevent them from physically marking or punching a ballot, and the like.

The ballot is fed into the machine, and headphones, audio instructions and Braille-marked controls allow people with difficulty seeing to mark their own ballots. One feature allows persons with limited movement to blow into a tube to indicate a vote, using their own assistive device.

“It’s not just about people that are blind from birth,” Mairs said. “It’s about people like my dad who can’t see a ballot very well at all, so if he wishes he can use a ballot-marking device.”

Idaho has long focused on making voting accessible, with some counties even sending deputy clerks out to home-bound people’s addresses to help them vote.

“In Idaho … accessible voting is really nothing new, it’s been around,” Mairs said. “Accommodations have been made for people with disabilities, including an absentee ballot, and many, many people do that. Many people have their spouse or somebody they trust (help them) fill out a ballot form.”

But the new machines offer a difference: They’re independent. A disabled person wouldn’t have to ask for help and the voting can be done confidentially.

“The ballot marking device is intended for people who can’t see, read or mark a ballot,” Mairs said. “The voter can do this privately and independently, they can do this by themselves.”

The federal government paid for the new machines for all states. In Idaho, they cost more than $5 million.

Idaho also offers “curbside voting” by arrangement for those with special needs who can’t get into a polling place; and absentee voting either by mail or in person before the election.

“Hopefully there are enough options that whatever suits the individual, they’ll vote,” Mairs said.