Lawsuit claims disabled voters feel humiliated
Personally, I like to have Barb next to me, helping me fill out the election day ballot form (without “chads”!) But according to a report in the Jacksonville newspaper - the Florida Times-Union - three disabled Duval (pronounced DOO-vall) County (metro[politn Jacksonville area voters testified yesterday they are often embarrassed and humiliated at the polls because the elections office has no provision for them to vote independently and
privately.
(That’s not exactly true. Plus, Jack Gillrup, who is disabled himself, is an advisor to the election board in his position as chief of the Disabled Services Division in Jacksonville.)
A gentleman who was born without arms or legs testified he feels "like back in the '60s, when African-Americans were ... forced to eat in separate restaurants, use separate restrooms, and sit in the back of buses." He testified during a trial to determine whether the Supervisor of Elections Office is violating the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).
Jacksonville’s attorneys argued that no Duval County voters have been denied the right to vote, or " been otherwise discriminated against."
The American Association of People With Disabilities in Washington and three Jacksonville voters sued Elections Supervisor John Stafford in 2001 as the Supervisor's Office purchased new optical scanning voting equipment. The plaintiffs complain Stafford violated the disabilities act when he didn't include touch-screen machines with technology which allows visually- and manually-impaired voters to cast their ballots without assistance.
Nassau County, contiguously north of Duval, is the only northeast Florida county using touch screens, and Stafford has said it would cost approximately $1 million to install touch screens in all of Duval's 268 precincts. He has said he has plans to move to a more accessible technology, which is required by federal law by 2006. The disability association wants Stafford to have the equipment in place by the March 9 presidential preference primary.