http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_3655611

Marin Independent Journal

March 29, 2006

Disabled-access voting machines make Marin debut

By Keri Brenner

People with disabilities test out machines at Whistlestop Wheels in San Rafael. IJ photo/Robert Tong

Four vendors of voting machines for the disabled courted Marin's disabled community this week, with some finding a match.

“I like Equalivote,” said activist Craig Thomas Yates of San Rafael.“It's easy to use, less expensive than the others and it works well with what we have now.”

Yates was one of a handful of disabled residents to attend a tryout session Tuesday at Whistlestop Wheels in San Rafael.

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Equalivote, based in Mill Valley, uses a non-computerized stenciling device to help disabled voters mark ballots and costs roughly $2,500 per machine, said David Healy, Equalivote partner.

Other systems reviewed Tuesday were:

•Vote-PAD, Inc., based in Port Ludlow, Wash., which imposes a series of alterations, such as raised letters, on paper ballots to make them disabled-accessible and costs in the range of $1,800 to $2,200 per machine.

•AutoMark, based in Omaha, Neb., has designed a machine that takes the same paper ballot used by other machines and allows voters to mark the ballot electronically using a keypad or a breathing tube. The machines, which can also be used for other forms and which can translate into other languages, cost $5,000.

• Diebold Election Systems, based in Allen, Texas, has a touchscreen or keypad-activated computerized voting machine that sells for $6,000.

[For more see: http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_3655611 ]