‘Sip and Puff’ Machines Give Disabled Voters Privacy

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The New York Sun

Yesterday’s primary marked the first time in New York City history that disabled voters were able to cast ballots in privacy.

In the past, voters who were blind, deaf, or otherwise disabled in a way that prevented them from using the traditional lever machines were forced to either submit absentee ballots or receive secondary assistance inside the voter box.

Following a Department of Justice lawsuit, the city rolled out 22 of the “ballot marking devices” that use methods such as the “sip and puff,” which permits voters with manual dexterity disabilities to puff into a straw-like tube that scrolls a cursor up and down through an on-screen menu and then “sip” to make their selection.

The city spent $500,000 on the hardware, software, and servicing of the machines. A total of 578 voters used them.

The new machines are a direct result of the Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress after the presidential election of 2000. New York was slow to act, and as a result the U.S Justice Department slapped a lawsuit on the state that mandated the implementation of a number of disabled-accessible voting booths in all 62 counties.

The voting machines were set up at the Board of Election offices in all five boroughs, with five machines in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens; four in the Bronx, and three in Staten Island.

The visually impaired commissioner at the mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, Mathew Sapolin, was one of 125 voters who cast his vote yesterday at the Manhattan Board of Elections on 220 Varrick St.

“I enjoyed for the first time in my life casting an independent ballot,” Mr. Soplin said after using headphones that allow voters to listen to the names of candidates and press buttons to indicate for whom they want to cast a vote.

Controversy brewed over the New York Board of Elections decision to use the new machines because they produce a paper printout of the ballot. The printout, which is placed in an envelope and sealed with the assistance of a poll worker, doesn’t provide voters with absolute privacy.

An election law expert at the New York Public Interest Research Group, Neil Rosenstein, blamed the low turnout of voter to use the new machines on a lack of planning by the Board of Elections. He said the city should have provided more machines.

“I thought it was a shame that I had to pay to take a car service to the voting site in downtown Brooklyn so that I could actually try one — and I think if I was a voter with a disability I would be even more annoyed,” Mr. Rosenstein said.

The machines are available to all voters, not just those with disabilities.

In preparation for the primaries, poll workers went through three days of training and run-throughs, which included bringing in mock voters and sensitivity training. With such small turnouts, though, the Board of Elections wasn’t tested yesterday.


The New York Sun

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