Principles of Accessible Voting
Full participation in American society must include full access to voting in all its aspects, on an equal and independent basis. Election Day is one day when every American is free and must be equal. Election Day is one day when every American is measured by their willing participation in American democracy. Find out more...go to Voting – A Legal Overview.
RFW supports voting systems that are accessible, secure, accurate and recountable.
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires that voting systems be accessible to voters with disabilities "in a manner that provides the same opportunity for access and participation (including privacy and independence) as for other voters." (HAVA, Section 301(a)(3)(a).) Voting access applies to the entire voting system. A voting system provides these distinct and equally important processes: making one's selections, verifying one's selections, and casting one's vote.
Voters with disabilities must be able to do each part, privately and independently.
HAVA mandates that the requirement for private and independent voting must be met by January 1, 2006, through the use of one direct recording electronic (DRE) voting system or other device at each polling place. A DRE is a computerized voting device often called a touchscreen. Congress has set the date for compliance as January 1, 2006, and the US Attorney General does not have the legal authority to extend this deadline. Jurisdictions must meet this deadline. Election officials, voting machine manufacturers and others have known of this deadline for almost three years. The United States Department of Justice has repeatedly pointed this out both in writing and in presentations before numerous conferences of election officials.
Independent testing authorities have tested DREs against federally-issued standards. Jurisdictions must purchase voting systems, at least one per polling place, that provide independent and private voting that includes all three steps in the voting process: making one's selections, verifying one's selections, and casting one's vote.
Find out more...go to Voting – A Legal Overview
