Sacramento/Davis area -- help needed to test accessibility

[Zan_of_Texas]

----- SACRAMENTO ------- JULY 19 & 20 ---------

If you know people in the Sacramento or Davis area of California, you can help!

The Secretary of State's office in CA is preparing to test one of a very few accessibility devices for voting that is NOT a DRE.

The inventor, Ellen Theisen, has long been active in working for election integrity (she previously founded Voters Unite). The company is Vote-PAD. The device is based on paper, has been developed in conjunction with feedback from people with disabilities (unlike some of the DREs), and would allow full verification and recountability (unlike any paperless DRE).

It would be a giant step forward for California to certify this for use in the state -- and five counties have already indicated a desire to use it.

I encourage anyone to help inform people with disabilities of this official State testing opportunity, in Sacramento. A big turnout of people with diverse physical challenges would be a giant step toward getting truly accessible elections, with a truly verifiable tally.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Vote-PAD, Inc. Invites People with Disabilities to
the California Certification Testing on July 19, 20

http://www.vote-pad.us/Media/CA-Cert.htm

July 10, 2006. On July 19 and 20, the California Secretary of State’s office will examine the Vote-PAD, a non-computerized voting device, in an effort to provide counties with an innovative alternative to the controversial electronic voting systems currently certified for use in California. The device has been approved for use in Wisconsin in conjunction with hand counted paper ballots.

Vote-PAD, Inc. is a small company, formed in response to complaints from people with disabilities about the overstated accessibility of e-voting systems. The company's mission was to develop an assistive device that would remove barriers to exercising the right to vote and allow people with a wide range of disabilities to mark a paper ballot independently and privately.

From its inception, the Vote-PAD device was shaped through testing and input by people in the disabilities community. The company's website, www.vote-pad.us, includes testimonials from many who praise its accessibility. (http://www.vote-pad.us/testimonials.asp)

The Vote-PAD will be tested in conjunction with the Hart InterCivic Ballot Now system used in Yolo County, California and the Diebold AccuVote Optical Scanner used in Trinity County.

The California test plan is designed to show whether or not the Vote-PAD is accessible to people with disabilities while accurately representing the intent of the voter.

"We believe this thorough testing should become a standard for testing the accessibility of all voting systems designed for people with disabilities," Ellen Theisen, President of Vote-PAD, Inc., said.

The Counties, the State of California, and Vote-PAD, Inc. join in inviting you to be an official tester on July 19 or 20 in Sacramento if you have a disability that has made it difficult or impossible for you to vote in the past using standard voting equipment.

To schedule a time to test, call the California Elections Division at 916-657-2166 and/or email [e-mail]. Allow about an hour to learn about the equipment and perform the scripted testing.

"A true test requires a lot of people with a wide range of disabilities," Theisen said. "Our goal is to have 200 testers over the two-day period."

The testing will be performed at the multipurpose room in the California Secretary of State's office building at 1500 11th Street in Sacramento.

Vote-PAD, Inc.'s invitation to testers is here: <http://www.vote-pad.us/Media/Tester-Invitation.asp>.

Their request for assistance in notifying potential testers is here: <http://www.vote-pad.us/Media/CA-Invitation.asp>.

[GregD]

1. she previously founded Voters Unite...

And preior to that she was a driving force at Verified Voting. Ellen's been in the trenches of this fight, at tremendous personal sacrifice, since summer 2003. Please help her help the disabled community and at the same time strike a blow against the "perceived" need for an electronic solution to their voting rights!

Calling all open-minded folks with disabilities: This is not a call for people to come game the test or to bias the results. Ellen needs people with all forms of disabilities to particiate in this critical test, and to simply give Vote-Pad a fair and thorough test. Come observe her solution, try it out and give it your best judgment. And if you like it, and if Vote-Pad is certified, that will be a significant step forward in the efforts nationwide to achieve transparent and verifiable elections.

As they say - as goes California, so goes the nation.

See ya there!

[Wilms]

2. Kick for the Pad n/t

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. getting disabled out to test

I have found that the best way to get the disabled community
involved in testing and/or advocating for voting systems
was to email them, and then follow up with a call.

You may be emailing someone who has to have a machine
read the emails out loud to you.

The person you are contacting probably has a busy schedule.

Our best luck came with following up with a phone call,
I found that my emails often got missed.

Talking things over the phone makes a gigantic difference
in bringing up why it is so impt for this person to adjust their
schedule to go to this demo.

They probably will get opposing advice from the elections office,
so you have to make the calls.

Also, please give plenty of advance notice.

Scheduling conflicts, and serious transportation issues are
a factor.

[emlev]

4. does DU have a disability forum? If so, link to this there. K&R

[Wilms]

5. Done.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=250x2155

:hi:

[emlev]

6. And the new deaf and hard of hearing forum. eom

[Wilms]

9. I thought about it and dismissed the idea, perhaps prematurely.

But I can't imagine deafness making it hard to vote, unless it's acompanied by a visual impairment that would require a disabled voter to use the machines "audio feature".

Clearly, there is no "one size fits all" accessible machine. I believe Voter Action includes this in their suits...which may be a great approach.

Point is, I'll bet you'll always find someone unable to use a given machine.

Unless they build one that costs a whole lot...or more.

[Zan_of_Texas]

7. Thanks! Appreciate your help.

Hope the message is getting to the right people!

[emlev]

8. Page removed from Vote-Pad site. Do you know what's up?

I get this error message:
"This page has been removed from the Vote-PAD site.

We apologize for any inconvenience. "

[emlev]

10. Testers are still needed but VotePad can't "recruit"

The SOS made them take the page down off their site.

I understand that in order
for these certification tests to be meaningful, it is vital that they
get a reasonably large sample of voters with disabilities.

There are two individuals in the Secretary of State's office who are
responsible for setting up appointments for test subjects:

Gillian Underwoood 916/657-2180 or Debbie O'Donoghue at 916/653-6173

Individuals wanting to make an appointment for the certification tests
can save time by calling these numbers directly, as opposed to calling
the main number for the Elections Department.

[Zan_of_Texas]

13. Yup.

For those who haven't been following the disability angle in election equipment --- the Help America Vote Act demands at least one system or device in each precinct to help the disabled vote. Certain people, like Doug Lewis of The Election Center (an odd organization that popped up like a mushroom, and is partially funded by companies like Sequoia and Diebold) have spread disinformation that that means a DRE is required. It is not.

Diebold and the National Federation of the Blind have formed a "strategic partnership."

Diebold donated $1 million to the NFB for their capital fund. Former Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell was an honored attendee at the gala annual ball of NFB a while back, where they called O'Dell their good friend.

Here's a photo of Diebold's O'Dell at a ribbon-cutting ceremony; he's on the left.

Wally O’Dell, chairman and CEO of Diebold, Inc., Jason Polanski, a seven-year-old from Maryland; Barbara Walker Loos, president of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults; Mary Ellen Jernigan, NFB executive director of operations; Steve Marriott, senior vice president for culture and special events, Marriott International, Inc.; Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind; and Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., governor of the state of Maryland.

Diebold, for its part, called NFB their "strategic partner" on the Diebold website. NFB put a statement on its own website saying how great electronic voting equipment is, specifically Diebold's.

There has been pressure by the NFB from the national level onto local chapters, to toe the pro-Diebold line.

In addition, Jim Dickson, "the government lobbyist for the American Association of People with Disabilities, who has traveled around the country testifying on behalf of touch-screen voting, acknowledged this year that his organization received at least $26,000 from voting companies, but only after first denying it." ("Diebold and the Disabled," by Kim Zetter, Wired News, Oct. 12, 2004, http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65292,00.html )

So, the net result is some VERY chummy behavior.


I am in favor of one person, one vote. For those with disabilities, and those without. I am also in favor of recountable, auditable, transparent, accurate, honest elections. That means absolutely no paperless DREs. It probably means no electronically tabulated opscans too, although honest people disagree on that.

If the gold standard in verifiable elections is paper ballots, hand counted in precincts (or even if it's not), and if people with visual or coordination impairments are to vote independently and privately, then a non-DRE option in a precinct is highly desirable. Vote-PAD is one of those options.

It is still being refined, with feedback from people with disabilities. But, a big (honest, not co-opted) testing in front of the SOS can only facilitate this process of attempting to get decent elections. For everyone.


For a story on Vote-PAD, see:

Vote-PAD Rocks the Disabled Vote
by Kim Zetter
Wired.com
January 19, 2006
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70036-0.html?tw=wn_tophead_4

[Wilms]

11. .

[BeFree]

12. Gee Wilms

Are you on the period, or what? That's like ten times already. Ya trying to tell us something?