West Seattle's Chris Porter Elected to King Conservation District Board
Previously from RantWoman about online voting
Now the rest of the latest rant about online voting, electronic #A11y and physical #accessibility of voting locations.
To heck with Mayor Bloomberg trying to explain his way out of Stop and Frisk issues.
To heck with Sen. Klobuchar not knowing who is president of Mexico,
To heck with scheduling travel and time during business days for access to fully Accessible Voting Units for the upcoming WA Presidential Primary.
To heck with all that. The election RantWoman is most concerned about is the King Conservation District. RantWoman is pleased to have found this article while reading something else.
SLOG America's first iPhone election somehow did not get hacked
Memo to reporters: just because a company says their product benefits people with disabilities does not mean you get to skip fact-checking. Trust but verify. Online voting unquestionably benefits many people with disabilities, but it absolutely does not overcome all barriers. Some people voting from Smartphones will not have figured out options for printing if they want to. Some people with disabilities will not have access to a device and connectivity needed to cast an online ballot. There have articles in the Seattle Times about why blind people are upset: on both iPhone and Android smartphones, the operating system requires people to turn their screen readers off in order to be able to sign the ballot. RantWoman considers herself sort of a tech-support geek and RantWoman cannot even remember the swipe pattern to turn off the voice on her phone.
A signature somewhere in the process is required under WA state law. When one votes in person the signature is collected separately. When one votes a paper ballot, one puts the ballot in a customer envelope and signs the outside of the envelope.
In recent past elections there has also been an option for voting through an online portal, but people still have to print the ballot and figure out where to sign it and then mail it in or take it to a nearby dropbox.
In other words, there are STILL barriers for blind people and other people with disabilities.
As for risks of online voting: RantWoman does not want to discount risks but risks are different from what actually happens. RantWoman also is concerned about the barriers posed by questionable purges of voter lists, insufficient voting equipment and hours of operations in minority areas, and other ways that voting machines can "malfunction." Online voting is at the very least another path to overcome some of these election risks!
RantWoman also notes that different generations may have different sense of risks and comfort level about what already gets shared online. RantWoman was at the monthly meeting of the Seattle Telecommunications Advisory Board in time for the mostly young techies in the room, most of whom are well-equipped with necessary devices to cast ballots on Tuesday before 8 pm. RantWoman got reports of two people voting and had a conversation with a third but is unsure whether that person actually voted. RantWoman also learned that online voting is on the agenda for the next CTAB meeting. Stay tuned.
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