Reply #1: More on vote pad

[papau]

Breaking News!
Yolo County, California Chooses the Vote-PAD
Yolo County Clerk/Recorder Says ...

http://www.vote-pad.us/

Accessible Voting Without Computers
A Little Background

Some people with visual or dexterity impairments cannot mark a paper ballot without assistance. The Federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) requires that every polling place must offer a method by which people with disabilities can vote independently.
Electronic voter-assist devices provide help to people with certain disabilities, however many such machines fail to provide comprehensive assistance for those with dexterity impairments. Furthermore, all electronic voter-assist products are expensive to acquire, store, and maintain. Only a portion of the acquisition cost is funded by federal HAVA money.

The Problem

To their surprise, many jurisdictions that already use computerized voting equipment are finding that there are no HAVA-compliant electronic options compatible with their current systems. They need a compliant device quickly, if only as an interim solution.

Paper-ballot jurisdictions that do not want to or cannot afford to computerize their election systems need a non-computerized method of providing private and independent voting for individuals with disabilities.

All jurisdictions need to provide independent voting on paper provisional ballots and back-up paper ballots.

The Solution
The Voting-on-Paper Assistive Device (Vote-PAD) is an inexpensive, non-electronic, voter-assist alternative that helps most people with visual or dexterity impairments to vote independently.

The Vote-PAD can be used in any jurisdiction. It is customized to provide access to each precinct’s hand-counted or optically-scanned paper ballot. All jurisdictions must offer provisional ballots during federal elections, and many also provide paper ballot backups in case voting machines break down. It is particularly suited for jurisdictions that use hand-counted paper ballots.


The heart of the Vote-PAD is the transparent “ballot sleeve,” which encloses the ballot on both sides and reveals the content of the ballot that slips into it. The Vote-PAD is composed of one custom ballot sleeve for each sheet of a ballot. The sleeves are bound together between front and back opaque covers for privacy.

Holes are cut out of the sleeve at locations where a voter can mark choices. The sleeve protects the ballot from stray marks.



A page-turning aid is attached to the outside of each sleeve and each cover to assist voters with dexterity impairments in turning the pages.



Raised dots attached to the sleeve beside each cutout provide tactile indications for voters with visual impairments. An audio tape interprets the raised dots so listeners know which hole corresponds to which candidate — just like the tactile ballot template used in Rhode Island. <snip>


Download and print a tri-fold brochure (148 KB). http://www.vote-pad.us/brochure.pdf

View an explanation of how individuals with disabilities use the Vote-PAD. http://www.vote-pad.us/vote-pad-use.asp

Examine a comparison of the Vote-PAD costs with the costs of electronic equipment (75 KB). http://www.vote-pad.us/CostComparison.pdf

Read what eight of the many people who tested for us said about the Vote-PAD (103 KB). http://www.vote-pad.us/Vote-PADTestSamples.pdf

Learn about the company and the participants. http://www.vote-pad.us/aboutus.asp

The Vote-PAD was developed in cooperation with people with dexterity impairments and people with visual impairments, whose advice and suggestions we gratefully included in the design.
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http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70036-0.html?tw=wn_tophead_5


Vote-PAD Rocks the Disabled Vote

By Kim Zetter
02:00 AM Jan, 19, 2006 EST

Touch-screen ballot machines billed as the ideal solution for disabled voters are facing unexpected competition from a newly designed system using inexpensive plastic sleeves and paper.

Called the Voting-on-Paper Assistive Device, or Vote-PAD, the device has won high marks from some advocates for the disabled, and has already been selected for use in California's Yolo County in order to meet federal voting-accessibility requirements.

With Vote-PAD, poll workers fit specially designed sleeves over paper ballots. Audio instructions guide visually impaired voters to bumps on the plastic next to each race. Holes in the sleeve corresponding to ovals on the ballot allow voters to mark the ballot with a pencil or pen without going outside the oval. Afterward, voters can run a specially designed LED wand over the ovals to verify their choices.

"This is a very generic, very simple solution," said Freddie Oakley, Yolo County's registrar of voters. "We don't have to train poll workers to do anything complicated."<snip>