Inclusion Daily Express -- Lack Of Training Led To N. H. Primary Election Blunders

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Lack Of Training Led To N. H. Primary Election Blunders
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 15, 2008

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE--The Disability Rights Center of New Hampshire is asking to meet with the Secretary of State following a number of complaints over voting access problems during last week's primary.

According to the Concord Monitor, the protection and advocacy agency learned from voters across the state that staff at polling locations had not been trained to properly set up or operate voting equipment designed to help blind voters to cast independent, secret ballots.

"Only a fraction of the poll workers received training in the accessible system leading up to the primary," said James Fox, a staff attorney at the center, said in a written release. "Voting is a constitutionally-protected right . . . It is imperative that every step be taken in the future to ensure that every person have equal access to exercise that right."

New Hampshire's accessible voting system features booths where voters use a keypad to select their choices. The selections are sent by phone to the Secretary of State's office, which then faxes the completed ballot back to elections staff at the precinct.

When Congress passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002, it gave states until January 1, 2006 to have accessible voting systems in each polling place. New Hampshire is one of several states that have still not fully complied with the federal law.

Related:
"Blind voters: We were slighted" (Concord Monitor)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/2008/red/0115a.htm

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