Disabled Are Pleased With E-Voting

Associated Press
STEPHEN MANNING
Oct 3, 2004

This November, Eileen Rivera Ley, 41, will vote by herself for the first time. Blind voters in Maryland and several other states will use electronic voting machines equipped with technology that allows the disabled to vote independently.

It used to get crowded whenever Rivera Ley voted. Blind, Rivera Ley had to rely on someone else to read the ballot aloud, then vote for her. That meant as many as four people ? Rivera Ley, the person who pulled the levers and election judges from both major parties as witnesses ? huddled in the voting booth.
"It's like a party in there," Rivera Ley said. "You lose any kind of privacy when you have to speak how you want to vote."

While many voter rights' advocates are fighting to decertify electronic voting machines, arguing that they're not reliable, one bloc remains steadfast behind the new equipment ? disabled voters who say the machines give them long-denied privacy.

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