Elections
Making It Better: Accessibility and Voting Technologies
Publication
March 2006
Making It Better
Accessibility and Voting Technologies
As the 50+ populations of democracies continue their rapid growth, the power and influence of their voting decisions in elections also grow stronger. Many companies are developing technologies to address aging and disabled voters.
In the state of Florida during the American 2000 presidential election, paper ballots were found by some to have difficult, tiny print, and required combinations of hole punching, box checking or bubble filling that many older voters found both confusing and difficult to complete accurately.
Some states, in response to the experiences of Florida, invested in new electronic voting technologies (e-voting) that enabled disabled persons to vote without assistance at polling stations. These machines use touch-screen and audio recording technology, have adjustable heights for people with wheelchairs, allow for increases in text size for those with difficulty seeing and require no transferal of paper documents (such as the paper ballot). While e-voting has been applauded by some as providing newfound freedom, others have expressed concerns that the safeguards on these technologies has not been perfected enough to protect the privacy of the data they collect.
Two American-based companies—Chicago’s AutoMARK Technical Systems and Omaha, Nebraska’s Election Systems & Software Inc.—created a less worrisome alternative to evoting called the Voter-Assist Terminal, which was used in the U.S. during the 2004 election. Unlike e-voting, the AutoMARK system does not count votes or use a digital network that could compromise confidentiality. Instead, the terminal allows its user to feed a paper ballot into the machine and marks the ballot according to the voter’s preference. The system uses optical scan ballots specific to each voter, a monitor and headphones for communicating questions, a control regulating the speed of the items displayed, directions in Braille, a “repeat” key, sip/puff tube for paraplegics and quadriplegics and zoom and contrast buttons for visual impairments. These and other innovations prevent over-voting, minimize under-voting and offer multiple language capabilities.
To protect voter privacy, the AutoMARK system can also produce blank ballots without names or ballot initiatives appearing on the document. However, the terminal still uses paper balloting—limiting its usage for motor skill impaired individuals—and therefore, it is not yet a fully universal voting innovation.
There are many different approaches for engaging graying and disabled voters more comprehensively in democratic elections. Even with legislative and technological advances to date, voting still has a long way to go before it is fully universalized to meet the needs of elections.
Making It Better features are for educational purposes only. AARP does not endorse the products, services, companies, or policies mentioned.
Do you know of an interesting best practice, product, or service that is helping to improve the lives of the age 50+ population? Tell us about it. E-mail us at intlaffairs@aarp.org or fax us at +1 202 434 2454.