An advocate for the blind, Frank Perino, yesterday demanded that the Board of Elections make available Braille ballots for the upcoming election.

Mr. Perino, who is visually impaired himself, said he opposes the current voting method for disabled persons: Poll workers accompany them into booths and make their selections. “My constitutional rights are being violated as well as my right to privacy….What if someone decides that they don’t want to put in a vote for my candidate?…I have no way of knowing.”

Since 1999, Mr. Perino, host of “Innersight,” a Long Island cable access show, has been in contact with the Election Assistance Commission on Long Island and the Board of Elections in Manhattan in an effort to put in place a more secure method of voting for the visually impaired. Mr. Perino said he was told by the commission that large print and Braille ballots will be available at all voting stations by 2006, which would set a national precedent.

Mr. Perino does not want to wait that long: “I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen….I shouldn’t be singled out because I have a disability,” he said.

With the election less than two weeks away, it may prove impossible for Mr. Perino to achieve his goal. The general council at the Board of Elections, Steve Richman, said Braille ballots “are not provided for under the New York State Legislature statute, and the Legislature will not be meeting on this issue until January or so; therefore it is impossible for anything to change for this election.”

Mr. Perino argues that the process doesn’t have to be so complicated; he said he is even willing to print up Braille ballots himself.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002, a law passed after the 2000 vote, provided for new voting machines to be installed throughout the country. The machines were to include headsets, an audio option, and buttons with Braille markings for blind voters. However, some have criticized the machines as having too many problems, such as the lack of a paper trail for voting verification.