Blind people worry over shift to mail-in voting

ATLANTA — Not that long ago, Ann Byington had to squeeze into a voting booth with a Republican poll watcher on one side and a Democrat on the other reading her voting choices out loud so her ballot could be marked for her and the selections verified.

Blind since birth, Byington welcomed the rise in recent years of electronic voting machines equipped with technology that empowered her and others with disabilities to cast their ballots privately and independently.

But now, as election officials plan a major vote-by-mail expansion amid fears of voting in person during the coronavirus pandemic, Byington worries she is being left out. When the presidential primary in Kansas was held entirely by mail last month, the 72-year-old Topeka resident had to tell her husband how she wanted to vote so he could fill out the ballot for her.

“I’m back to where we started,” Byington said. “I’ve lost all my freedom to be independent, to make sure it’s marked how I want it to be marked.”

In recent weeks, advocates for the blind have filed legal actions in Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania seeking access to systems already in place to deliver ballots electronically to military and overseas voters. Blind voters could then use their own computers and assistive technology to read and complete their ballots themselves.

“This is about equality,” said Chris Danielsen with the National Federation of the Blind, one of the groups suing. “If a secret ballot is important to you, it’s important to a blind person as well.”

Because of these efforts, all three states agreed to make electronic ballots available during the primaries to voters with disabilities, and more actions are likely before November.

Voting technology experts have raised security concerns about such Internet-based voting systems. They also warn about implementing a new process so close to an election, risking the same sort of problems that derailed this year’s Iowa caucuses when a hastily developed mobile app failed.

“I really don’t have a good solution to offer. We seem to have bad and worse,” said Douglas Jones, a University of Iowa computer science professor. “The bad is accepting someone helping to mark your ballot. And the worse is rushing to put in totally untested technology that I don’t have any reason to trust at all.”

Disability advocates said they have been calling on election officials for years to provide secure electronic absentee ballots. But only a small number of states have done so.

An estimated 7 million adults in the U.S. have a visual disability, and advocates worry that some might choose to skip voting altogether this year rather than risk catching the virus or having their ballot privacy compromised.

In Atlanta, Dorothy Griffin typically relies on ride-share to get to her polling place. A diabetic, she worries about catching the coronavirus while waiting in a crowded polling place.

Griffin requested an absentee ballot for Georgia’s primary Tuesday, but she gave up waiting for it and decided to cast a ballot in person on the last day of early voting to avoid crowds on Election Day.

“I definitely did not want to go, but I felt like it was my only choice because I didn’t receive my paper ballot,” Griffin said. “I was happy I was able to vote independently. But I was angry that I did not get my absentee ballot ahead of time even though I sent my request months ago.”

Much of the concern surrounding electronic ballots centers on how they are returned. In some cases, these ballots must be printed by the voter and returned by mail or in person to a local election office. But elsewhere these ballots can be returned by email or fax and, in a small number of cases, via an online web portal to an election office for printing and counting.