Inclusion Daily Express -- Advocates Outraged At Continued Voting Access Problems

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Advocates Outraged At Continued Voting Access Problems
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 8, 2008

MADISON, WISCONSIN--Advocates with Disability Rights Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities said Tuesday that they were outraged by a state audit which found that many polling places were still not accessible, despite nearly $15 million being spent in recent years to upgrade voting systems.

Auditors with the Legislative Audit Bureau visited dozens of voting sites across the state in November 2006 and found that parking spaces, pathways, entrances, and hallways were not accessible to voters with disabilities. They also found that accessible voting machines -- if they worked at all -- had been located where other people could see the votes.

Most alarming, perhaps, were indications that some elections employees might have said that sites were accessible -- even though they were not -- in order to receive thousands of dollars in federal funds to purchase accessible voting systems.

The auditors also learned that there was no follow-through from the State Elections Board to determine whether the systems and voting places were, indeed, accessible.

"These results are unacceptable," advocate Alicia Boehme wrote. "We must do better for the voters of our state."

Related report:
"Compliance with Election Laws" (Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau)
http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/lab/reports/07-16highlights.htm

Copyright © 2008 Inonit Publishing
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