North country residents with disabilities will be offered an opportunity to test new voting machines next week in Syracuse.
The state Board of Elections is working with independent living centers throughout New York to allow people with a range of disabilities to provide feedback on the new machines, said Elizabeth A. Patience, Northern Regional Center for Independent Living statewide systems advocate.
State officials will have the machines available for testing at their annual conference scheduled for Tuesday at Wyndham Hotel and Conference Center, Syracuse.
"They're concentrating right now on working with people who have physical disability issues or vision problems," Ms. Patience said.
The Northern Regional Center for Independent Living is offering transportation with a limited number of seats to the conference, she said. The nonprofit agency does have a van with wheelchair access.
Anyone wishing to attend should call Ms. Patience as soon as possible at 785-8703 or 1 (800) 585-8703. The TTY number for those with hearing impairments is 785-8704. Plans call for the NRCIL contingent to leave by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday from the agency's Watertown office at 165 Mechanic St.
The Disabled Persons Action Organization also supports the state's plan to allow people with disabilities to test the new voting machines, said Joseph L. Rich, DPAO director.
While the Davidson Street agency serves a large number of developmentally disabled people who are unable to vote, there are others who just have a physical disability and "accessibility to the voting booths is a big issue to them," he said.
"I think one problem is transportation for people using wheelchairs," Mr. Rich said. "But there seem to be other impediments for them once they reach the voting booths."
Mr. Rich noted it's not just people with disabilities who may face challenges voting, but elderly residents as well.
Staff at NRCIL conduct annual surveys of polling places in Jefferson and Lewis counties to determine whether the locations are accessible to all people with disabilities. That project has resulted in some changes in recent years at north country polling sites, such as the relocation of nine Lewis County polling sites in 2004 because they were found to be inaccessible, Ms. Patience said.
A recently issued report by the New York State Independent Living Council on problems that voters with disabilities faced in last year's presidential election included at least three complaints from Jefferson County residents, two using wheelchairs and one with a vision problem.
Some of the complaints in the report did not necessarily represent violations of state election laws, but they did reflect problems that still exist at polling sites, Ms. Patience said. The information from that survey was shared with the New York State Board of Elections to help implement the Help America Vote Act.
Congress enacted the law to address problems that surfaced in the 2000 presidential election. It authorized up to $3.9 billion in federal funds for states to pay for several changes, including replacing outdated polling machines and providing more training to poll workers.
Many of those changes were made for the 2004 election, but states have until 2006 to complete any additional changes and still qualify for federal funding to carry them out, Ms. Patience said.