[LINK] Blind voter demands secret vote

[David Goldstein]

Fred,

Have you every asked a person who is blind or vision impaired about this? Or are your own prejudices coming out here? The crocodile analogy is pointless, and it's like saying the lifesaver at the beach may drown you when you think they should save you, but you could have struggled to the beach and safety after all.

Many people who are blind and vision impaired have advocated for years for a way to vote with privacy. Electronic voting gives them this ability. And for the problems that exist, instead of saying "no, can't have this... [for whatever reason you want to insert here]", how about look at it from a human rights aspect and then think, "how can we make this safe and secure". Something quite a few here seem unable to think of.

David

----- Original Message ----
From: "Pilcher, Fred" <Fred.Pilcher at act.gov.au>
To: David Goldstein <wavey_one at yahoo.com>; Craig Sanders <cas at taz.net.au>
Cc: Link Mailing List <link at anu.edu.au>
Sent: Friday, 24 August, 2007 3:49:03 PM
Subject: RE: [LINK] Blind voter demands secret vote

David opined:
> A person who is blind is capable of voting. They are unable 
> to vote in privacy without electronic voting.

Well not quite.

Electronic voting may be one of a variety of ways in which a blind person can be given a secret ballot. Some implementations, though, may introduce greater privacy risks than asking a sighted friend, relative or official to help.

What if the wheelchair ramp has a pit full of crocodiles in the middle? 

It may be easier to draw the legless person's attention to the pit than to explain to the blind person about the privacy risks of badly-implemented e-voting and expect them to make an informed decision.

Fred 
  
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