Voting rights for people with disabilities-Part 4
I received this article from a disability rights activist in New York City. It seems that they have their work cut out for them, as the powers that be don’t appear to be listening… 
Voting Machines for Disabled in New York City
This is a huge disappointment. Advocates have not been heard.
Despite efforts from Jan - May to meet with Ravitz & the NYC-BOE (3
meetings have been cancelled by BOE at the last minute), at which I
thought we were going to stress that we want to see new voting
systems that enfranchise all affected classes of voters, and that
we do not want separate and unequal treatment, this ridiculous interim
plan is being rolled out. Outrageous! READ ON!
May 17, 2006
Voting Machines for Disabled in New York City
By MICHAEL COOPER
ALBANY, May 16 - New York City would provide voting machines that
are accessible to the disabled at five locations in the city this
fall as part of the state’s plan for settling a federal lawsuit for
failing to modernize its voting system.
The proposal falls far short of a goal of the federal Help America
Vote Act - to have a voting system accessible to the disabled at
each polling place in the state - but city and state officials say
it is the best they can do with fall elections approaching.
The state was sued in March by the Department of Justice, which said
that New York had fallen behind the rest of the nation in putting
the Help America Vote Act into effect. The measure called on the
states to overhaul their election systems.
But with the September primaries approaching fast, city and state
officials said that there was not enough time to replace all the
voting machines in the state without causing chaos in the elections.
So late last month the state offered - and the Justice Department
reluctantly agreed to support - a vastly scaled-back stopgap measure.
That measure allows the state and its counties to determine how many
handicapped-accessible voting systems to put in place. Most counties
asked to have only one machine put in place. New York City is
planning to have accessible machines put at one site in each
borough. The proposal is now being considered by a federal judge
here.
State Senator John J. Flanagan, a Long Island Republican, said on
Tuesday that the interim plan provided too few accessible polling
places, and questioned why voters who use wheelchairs should have to
travel long distances to use accessible machines. He proposed that
the state quickly provide $10 million to counties so they can buy
more accessible machines.
But the counties say that it is not just the money, but the lack of
time that they have to buy new machines, test them and train workers
in their use. And they note that delays at the state level were
mainly responsible for their predicament.
John Ravitz, the executive director of the city’s Board of
Elections, said the city would do the best it could in the short
amount of time it had. “This whole interim response is part of a
dysfunctional process that has been laid at our doorstep,” he said.
At the Board of Elections office in each of the five boroughs, the
city will have two to five ballot-marking devices, and experts will
be standing by to deal with any problems that arise, he said.
Disabled voters will continue to have the option of voting with
absentee ballots, or with assistance at polling places.
The handicapped-accessible machines would allow voters to bypass
traditional lever machines. The ballot-marking devices could include
machines that use audio, for blind voters, or machines that use a
technology that allows quadriplegic voters to sip and puff into a
machine that can read such signals to mark ballots.
The Justice Department said in court papers that it reluctantly
supported the interim plan - but added that the state could still be
liable to lose some or all of the $221 million of federal money it
has received to overhaul its election system.
I could go on and on about how idiotic this proposal is, but you have heard my veiws enough times already. Hopefully, disability activists in New York City will get out and fight this. I will, however, leave you with this thought:
One of the many things that I have learned through my disability voting rights activism is this: Politicians judge the political power of a sector of the population not only by how much money they contribute to their campaigns, but also by the percentage of it’s members who get out and vote. Too often, many segments of the American people decide that it is useless to vote. Especially after the 2000 and 2004 elections, many people feel, “why bother–the rich can always buy and steal elections”. Though it doesn’t seem so, this cannot be further form the truth! Elected officials and other politicians are watching and taking note of who votes for them. Do you ever notice how they refer to groups of people by the vote? You know–the Senior vote, the African American vote, the Hispanic vote, the Business Community vote, the Women’s vote. Politicians know that these groups not only get out and vote, but they bring in votes through organizing. Have you ever heard of any references to the Poor vote, the Homeless vote, the Disability vote? Of course not, because these groups of folks are often disenfranchised, and because they are busy attending to getting the basic necessities and civil rights, voting is a low priority for them. For their own sake, these groups will have to create a way to incorporate voting into their main objectives. The disability community is beginning to see this, and several groups, especially American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and to a lesser extent, ADAPT, are starting to see the importance of voting, and are fighting for physical access to polling places, and accessible voting machines. Indeed, AAPD has an entire project known as the Disabilty Vote Project that it operates in several states, and the District of Columbia. The Project has been in existence for several years now.
I have a fairly radical view when it comes to voting. I feel that it is not only my right, but my duty to vote. As an African American, I know that people have died so that I may have this right, and how dare I not honor their memory by doing so at every opportunity! As a person with a disability, I feel the same way–disability activists have put themselves out there, endured humiliation and ridicule, and in some cases, have gone to jail so that we can enjoy and benefit from the rights that we now have. However, the fight is not over. There is much more work to be done, and the voting rights issue is a prime example. I therefore say to the folks in New York, and elsewhere: Get up and fight! Don’t take the outrageous deal that’s been handed to you sitting down. Don’t just roll over and accept absentee ballots just because they’re there. Remember that in most cases, they are a ploy to keep you unseen, and to keep you from full access to the political process. Don’t just sit around moping, mourning, and complaining. Organize! The time for complacency is over. Employ every legal, peaceful, and non-violent means to get yourself heard, and to bring about change. Don’t know how to do this? Go sit at the feet of those activists that you’ve heard about, and learn from them. Believe me, they’ll be glad to teach you! Scared? Don’t want to make waves? Tough! Grow yourself some courage! Stop ridiculing, belittling, and bemoaning those “troublemaker activists” and join them. Stop sitting around waiting for your rights to be handed to you on a silver platter, because they never have been, nor will they ever be. Every right that you have, or will ever get was won by activists who got up, spoke out, wrote letters, protested, went to jail, and sometimes, died! Thats just the way it is, so get used to it. Decide what group you will be in–the ones who complain, and cry for change, or the ones who go out, and bring about change? Either way, the politicians are watching, and we can either continue to be dismissed and ignored by them, or we can become one of the groups whose vote they will actively seek. It’s up to us.