MD: Paper Trail Split Disabled Advocacy Groups - (plus notes on funding)

[Wilms]

Paper Trail Voting Machines Split Disabled Advocacy Groups

By JARED S. HOPKINS
Capital News Service

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

WASHINGTON - As the Maryland House nears a decision on requiring the state's voting machines to issue paper ballot records, organizations representing disabled voters apparently disagree on what -- if anything -- should be done.

Several prominent advocacy groups for the blind and deaf support paper records, but others -- including an organization that received a $1 million grant from Maryland's voting machine manufacturer -- have decried the bills in both the Senate and the House, where a vote is expected Thursday.

snip

Bob Kerr of The American Council of the Blind of Maryland once tested voting machines for Compliance Research Group and said his first-hand knowledge led to his push for paper-trails.

"Anyone who's blind is probably an expert who can tell you what's accessible to them," he said.

snip

NFB received a $1 million grant in 2001 from Diebold to settle NFB's lawsuit charging that Diebold ATM machines did not accommodate disabled customers. Gaschle said the grant came before Diebold's involvement in the election industry, and the organization is no longer receiving money from Diebold.

snip

"It seems to us like it's a waste of money to buy that technology and then throw that technology out," said Andy Imparato of the American Association of People with Disabilities. "We use computers to control nuclear weapons, to control banks, to control a lot of things, I don't see why (this is different.)"

His organization, too, accepted a contribution from ES&S, but Imparato said it was just $6,000, not the $26,000 reported by the New York Times.

snip

http://www.journalism.umd.edu/cns/wire/2006-editions/03-March-editions/060308-Wednesday/DisabledVoters_CNS-UMCP.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. Such excruciating irony and betrayal--the blind telling the rest of us we

can't have a paper receipt or ballot because that somehow bars THEIR way to voting*--with them supporting rightwing Bushite corporations like Diebold and ES&S, while it was the progressive left in this country that recognized THEIR rights to dignity and full citizenship and acted to insure them, NOT Wally O'Dell and Howard Ahmanson and their bought and paid for fascist politicians.

I'm so burned by this. I have always supported minority rights, including the rights of the disabled. This is what I get for thanks--a wholly corrupted and non-transparent election system, run by Bushites.

I'm ready to throw corrupt groups like the NFB and the AAPD right out on their tax exempt asses, and demand all that tax money back.

*(This unreasonable argument can only be the result of corruption--that there is a conflict between disabled access and TRANSPARENT elections. The conflict was COOKED UP by Tom Delay, Bob Ney, Diebold and ES&S IN ORDER TO CORRUPT our election system, in cahoots with NFB, AAPD and others. Big money changed hands. It's very clear.)

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From the article:

"The National Federation of the Blind and American Association of People with Disabilities opposed the paper-record requirement during hearings. Both groups, which received money from voting machine companies in the past, contend new machines would not accommodate disabled individuals."

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I hope the disabled wake up before the Bush junta steals their disability funds--if they haven't already--and rescinds their hardwon human rights, which the junta doesn't give a crap about. What idiots! But then, who among us isn't being !@#$%-ed over by corrupt leadership these days? It's not likely the fault of the rank and file.