http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=New+ballot+system+ready+for+disabled+voters&articleId=a74bd660-7736-45ca-abd9-dbae0d0bc78e
New Hampshire
By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief
Tuesday, Mar. 28, 2006
CONCORD – Disabled voters will use a new ballot system this
fall as part of the state's compliance with the Help America Vote Act.
A combination of telephone and fax machine will allow voters
to connect with a centralized computer in Concord that will prompt them to make
their choices through a telephone dial pad, and then fax the result to them
when they are finished.
The Accessible Voting System was purchased with about
$300,000 in federal funds the HAVA made available. Assistant Secretary of State
Thomas Manning said it will be deployed in every voting ward in the state. A
month before primary elections in September, disabled voters will be able to
make test runs on the system from their homes.
The system was given a test run this month at the Bedford
Town Meeting. Manning said observers from New York City, the State of New York,
and Oregon traveled to Bedford to see it in use.
The state is working on a contract with Granite State
Independent Living to help educate voters about the new system. Manning had no
firm estimate of how many people statewide might use it.
Ellen Keith of the Governor's Commission on Disabilities
said that in the past, many voters either cast absentee ballots or did not vote
at all.
The system is set to operate with a series of securities
codes that block unauthorized access. Once a call is accepted, it connects into
a centralized voter registration base and sorts through ballots to offer a
voter the ballot with federal, state and local election choices. When the call
is complete, the computer generates a paper ballot that is faxed to the voter,
who can then hand it to an election official. The ballot is hand-counted when
polls close.
Cheryl L. Killam of the GCD said she and Manning have
visited 160 polling places around the state to check for compliance with
accessibility requirements HAVA lays out. In some cases, towns have moved their
polling stations to accommodate disabled voters. In others, existing buildings
were modified to meet the law, she said. All will be equipped with jacks to
handle phone lines for AVS.
Manning noted that because the new system relies on
off-the-shelf telephones and fax machines means broken or malfunctioning
equipment can be replaced quickly and cheaply.
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