[LINK] Fwd: vip-l: The Australian: E-Voting follow-up article

[Glen Turner]

Tom Worthington wrote:

> Perhaps blind citizens should take the Electoral Commission to court 
> under section 24 of the Disability Discrimination Act. The court could 
> decide if the technology is available and affordable to allow blind 
> citizens to cast a secret ballot. If so, the citizens could ask for two 
> billion dollars compensation for unlawful discrimination.

Tom,

Suitable technology is already made available by the AEC. If
you are disabled you tell the AEC official how you wish to
vote and they complete the ballot.  If they try to influence
your vote, misrecord your vote or tell others how you voted
then the official goes to jail.

There are also similar provisions for postal voting, and
I recall prosecutions against some nursing home staff for
attempting to influence votes.

I don't really see how computer-based voting is simpler for
the disabled to use.

Yes there's an issue of trust. But that issue exists to an
even greater extent with computer-based voting (eg, the
continuing issues with trusting the Diebold company and
its voting machines).

Regards, Glen