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The Disability Lobby and Voting
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 15:53:56 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com> [Note: This item comes from reader Robert Berger. DLH]
From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ibd com> Date: June 11, 2004 5:05:23 PM PDTTo: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com> Subject: NY Times: The Disability Lobby and Voting (Diebold donations get Disability groups to support paperless voting)The Disability Lobby and Voting June 11, 2004 MAKING VOTES COUNT http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/11/opinion/11FRI1.htmlTwo obvious requirements for a fair election are that voters should have complete confidence about their ballots' being counted accurately and that everyone, including the disabled, should have access to the polls. It ishard to imagine advocates for those two goals fighting, but lately that seems to be what's happening. The issue is whether electronic voting machines should provide a "paper trail" — receipts that could be checked by voters and used in recounts. There has been a rising demand around the country for this criticalsafeguard, but the move to provide paper trails is being fought by a handfulof influential advocates for the disabled, who complain that requiringverifiable paper records will slow the adoption of accessible electronicvoting machines.The National Federation of the Blind, for instance, has been championingcontroversial voting machines that do not provide a paper trail. It hasattested not only to the machines' accessibility, but also to their securityand accuracy — neither of which is within the federation's areas ofexpertise. What's even more troubling is that the group has accepted a $1million gift for a new training institute from Diebold, the machines' manufacturer, which put the testimonial on its Web site. The federationstands by its "complete confidence" in Diebold even though several recent studies have raised serious doubts about the company, and California hasbanned more than 14,000 Diebold machines from being used this November because of doubts about their reliability. Disability-rights groups have had an outsized influence on the debatedespite their general lack of background on security issues. The League of Women Voters has been a leading opponent of voter-verifiable paper trails,in part because it has accepted the disability groups' arguments.Last year, the American Association of People With Disabilities gave its Justice for All award to Senator Christopher Dodd, an author of the HelpAmerica Vote Act, a post-2000 election reform law. Mr. Dodd, who hasactively opposed paper trails, then appointed Jim Dickson, an association official, to the Board of Advisors of the Election Assistance Commission, where he will be in a good position to oppose paper trails at the federal level. In California, a group of disabled voters recently sued to undo the secretary of state's order decertifying the electronic voting machines thathis office had found to be unreliable. Some supporters of voter-verifiable paper trails question whether disability-rights groups have gotten too close to voting machinemanufacturers. Besides the donation by Diebold to the National Federation ofthe Blind, there have been other gifts. According to Mr. Dickson, theAmerican Association of People with Disabilities has received $26,000 fromvoting machine companies this year.The real issue, though, is that disability-rights groups have been clouding the voting machine debate by suggesting that the nation must choose betweenaccessible voting and verifiable voting.It is well within the realm of technology to produce machines that meet both needs. Meanwhile, it would be a grave mistake for election officials to rush to spend millions of dollars on paperless electronic voting machines thatmay quickly become obsolete.Disabled people have historically faced great obstacles at the polls, and disability-rights groups are right to work zealously for accessible voting. But they should not overlook the fact that the disabled, like all Americans,also have an interest in ensuring that their elections are not stolen.
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