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Hayward's touch-screen voting helps disabled
Author: Michelle Meyers , STAFF WRITER
Date: October 21, 2002
Publication: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)

HAYWARD -- For San Leandro resident Michael Green, who uses a wheelchair, the county's new touch-screen voting system is not just about democracy; it's about freedom.
"I didn't have a lot of choice. I couldn't punch a ballot," he said. "This will be the first time I've voted in six years."
Green is one of the hundreds of county residents who have previewed the new $13.5 million system during Alameda County Registrar of Voter's ongoing efforts to prepare the public for a new high-tech voting experience.

Since August, a team of election workers has been touring county fairs, a
business exposition, senior homes and community centers, in hopes of
dispelling any fear or apprehension about the system.
"Once they try it out, most people like it," said election clerk Willette
Lee of Hayward, who demonstrated the system Wednesday to Community Resources for Independent Living (CRIL) in Hayward. "It just takes getting comfortable with it."
CRIL participant Joanna Fraguli, of Berkeley, who was impressed with the new machine, said, "Now we can't use a disability as an excuse not to vote."
Angeles Barraza, who does Spanish outreach for the elections office, said
some voters will never be comfortable with computers.
Voters at one senior home she visited "were petrified," and she signed eight
people up for absentee ballots, which require only a pen or pencil.
But typically, voters compare using the machine to using an automated
teller. They put in a card and touch screens to pick a language, vote, review and cast their ballot.
Voters who are visually impaired can view the screen in large print, or use
the system's audio ballot. At one of her outreach venues, Lee worked with a blind woman who was very excited to be able to vote all by herself.
"All these years she had her husband over her shoulder doing the actual
voting for her," Lee said. "Now she can have her independence."
Gone are the days of dangling chads, the subject of much debate in Florida's ill-fated election two years ago.
"That's the big joke. Everyone asks about chads," Lee said.
Another frequent question is what happens during a power outage.
"The system has a built-in battery that can run for up to five hours,"
Barraza said, adding that ballots in progress would be automatically saved.
Today is the last day to register to vote for the Nov. 5 election.
Oct. 29 is the deadline for absentee ballot applications by mail. For more voter information, call 663-8683.