Brent Reynolds, President of the Metro Atlanta Chapter of the Georgia Council of the Blind spoke to the Board of Voter Registrations and Elections on Tuesday about the inadequacy of the current accessibility resources.
Board Chair Karli Swift said the board would prioritize addressing Mr. Reynolds’ comments and after the meeting, Executive Director Keisha Smith invited Reynolds to help test the equipment, as a way to better incorporate stakeholder feedback.
Reynolds, who is blind, told Decaturish that issues have been persistent since electronic voting was implemented around 2004. He spoke from experience about the access for blind and visually impaired people, but said he was aware of similar barriers to accessibility across various communities of people with disabilities.
“Contrary to what we as people with disabilities were promised, [when going to vote, consistently] no poll workers know how to set up the machines for handicapped,” he said.
Reynolds detailed how, particularly as the new Dominion Machines have been introduced, not only do issues exist in the lack of knowledge about how to set the machines up for people with disabilities, but that the technology itself is unreliable. Reynolds talked about having to push the input part of the headset cord into the port in order to get any sound and even still the software for selecting wasn’t responsive and the audio was not only too soft but unclear.
This is after being at the initial polling location for almost two hours going through troubleshooting that ended with the poll workers there not being able to figure it out.
The polling place then had to call ahead and send Reynolds and his friend to VRE headquarters at Memorial drive, but before they could go, they had to wait while they struck he and his friend’s ballot so it wouldn’t record them as having tried to vote twice.
Reynolds said his friend got frustrated with the process and settled for fully sighted assistance in filling out his ballot.
Reynolds said that these problems were not unique to just DeKalb, and that several people he knows personally and through the Georgia Council of the Blind have been starting to just settle for fully sighted assistance.
“We were promised we would be able to cast a fully independent secret ballot, but this just doesn’t happen without undue difficulty,” Reynolds said.
In his comments to the board, Reynolds said the board is, at the very least, violating The Americans with Disabilities Act and Accessibility provision, to say nothing of civil rights provisions.
The board was receptive to these comments, but other than inviting Reynolds to help test the machines, no formal action was taken at the meeting.
In other news:
– The Board unanimously voted to certify the May 21. Election. The election had 18.74% turnout overall: 60% of the turnout occurred on Election day, 36% occurred during early voting and vote by mail turnout accounted for 4% of votes cast.
– The board also voted on two additional polling place changes.
The Chestnut Elementary precinct moved from Chesnut Elementary School to Crossroads Church of Dunwoody, 4805 Tilly Mill Rd, Doraville, GA 30360, roughly three minutes away by car. The Fairington Elementary precinct moved from Fairington Elementary School to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, 6400 Woodrow Rd, Stonecrest, GA 30038, about seven minutes away by car.
The original locations for these precincts will be available in the November election. These schools are being renovated during the summer so aren’t able to be used in the June 18 runoff. Executive Director Smith said maps of the changes would be posted to the website, and that social media, physical signs in the area and letters sent to affected voters would all be measures taken to spread awareness.
Notably, several attendees expressed their disapproval of the statewide runoff procedure as it exists, including several citizens and Elections Board member Vasu Abhiraman, who said “I hope it changes.” Citizens, including at least one poll worker, felt that it was unnecessary, some went as far as to suggest the runoff system is racially biased.
— The runoff election is on June 18 and early voting starts on June 10 and ends June 14. It will be held Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information about early voting, click here. To see Decaturish.com’s runoff preview, click here.
To see your runoff ballot, visit the Georgia Secretary of State’s My Voter page by clicking here.
Advanced voting Locations for the runoff are:
— Lynwood Recreation Center 3360 Osborne Road, NE Brookhaven, GA 30319
— Stonecrest (Former Sam’s Club Building) 2994 Turner Hill Road, Lithonia, GA 30038
— Tucker–Reid H. Cofer Library 5234 Lavista Road, Tucker, GA 30084
— Berean Christian Church 2201 Young Road, Stone Mountain, GA 30088
— Bessie Branham Recreation Center 2051 Delano Drive NE, Atlanta, GA 30317
— Dunwoody Library 5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, GA 30338
— County Line–Ellenwood Library 4331 River Road, Ellenwood, GA 30294
— Emory University 1599 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322
— DeKalb Voter Registration & Elections Office 4380 Memorial Drive, Suite 500, Decatur, GA 30032
— New Life Community Alliance 3592 Flat Shoals Road, Decatur, GA 30034
— North DeKalb Senior Center 3393 Malone Drive, Chamblee, GA 30341
— Wesley Chapel–William C. Brown Library 2861 Wesley Chapel Road, Decatur, GA 30034
— Clarkston Library 951 N. Indian Creek Drive, Clarkston, GA 30021
— Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church 1879 Glenwood Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30316
— Salem-Panola Library 5137 Salem Road, Lithonia, GA 30038
— Beulah Missionary Baptist Church 2340 Clifton Springs Road, Decatur, GA 30034
— Hairston Crossing Library 4911 Redan Road, Stone Mountain, GA 30088
— New Bethel AMEC 8350 Rockbridge Road SW, Lithonia, GA 30058
— Neighborhood Church 1561 McLendon Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30307
This story was provided by WABE content partner Decaturish.
