Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill announced that Connecticut will have a new accessible ballot marking system at polling places statewide on Election Day, Nov. 8 that is designed to improve the voting experience for people with disabilities. “We know that people with disabilities are some of Connecticut’s most active and engaged citizens and that they will be a force in this year’s presidential election. We want to make sure that when they turn out to vote this November, they have the most high-tech services available,” Merrill said. The new stand-alone, tablet-based system requires no telephone or internet service and is intended to be adaptable to a variety of assistive technologies. The tablet system is a ballot-marking device that replaces the previous phone-fax technology. The previous system required poll workers to use a designated telephone with a secure, pre-registered number to enter the system. Voters were then given a telephone handset after the calls were answered by a computer system that provided an audio ballot. Once the call ended, the ballot was faxed to the polling place.
Faxed ballots differed in appearance from ballots used by other voters, and thus were identifiable, potentially violating the privacy of the voters with disabilities that had used the system. Under the new system, the ballots of individuals with disabilities are fed through the same tabulators that count the ballots that are manually completed by other voters at the polling place.
The winning bid, in response to an RFP issued by the Secretary of the State’s Office, was put forward by IVS LLC, an experienced election service company specializing in accessible voting technology. The tablet system will be available at polling places in every town in Connecticut. In addition to polling places, the new machine will be available to individuals with disabilities who utilize the state’s same day voter registration procedure and wish to vote at the Election Day registration site.
Full Article: New voting devices for voters with disabilities | Monroe Courier.