Note to NYC Board of Elections Chief:
You HAVA Major Polling Site Problem!
This is a copy of an e-mail sent recently to the NYC
Board of Elections. It has been edited for space.
Mr. Marcus Cedarqvist, Executive Director
Board of Elections in the City of New York
32 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10004
Dear Mr. Cedarqvist,
This past Election Day, November 4th, I
went to my polling site at 74 Van Cortlandt Park South in the Bronx, New York,
to use what is called a ballot marking device (BMD). The machine, which has a
touch screen, is supposed to allow people with disabilities a mechanism to vote
independently. I am dismayed that despite the state buying the BMD machines, I
encountered serious difficulties in attempting to cast my vote. Some of the
issues are with the machine itself, but more frustrating is the lack of
sensitivity, respect or civility offered to me and my personal care assistant
by the Democratic site coordinator.
On arriving at my polling place, I asked
if there was a BMD on site. The first poll worker gave me a blank stare and
called for one of the site coordinators. The Democratic coordinator, Ms.
Trinidad Lopez, came to the front desk, and again I requested to use the BMD.
I have cerebral palsy, use a wheelchair
and have a speech disability, yet most of the time I can get my points across.
(I worked for 20 years as the founding executive director of Bronx Independent
Living Services. While there, I performed many functions, including public
speaking.) It is my style to encourage people to ask me to repeat myself if
they are having trouble with my speech. But the Democratic site coordinator
just refused to listen to me -- even when I directly requested she do so. Her
blanket statement, in a scream, was, "I cannot understand you." After that, she
wouldn't look at me when I spoke. I wonder: If I were speaking in a foreign
language, would she have treated me in such a dismissive manner?
I purposely brought along my personal care
assistant (home attendant) to make sure I would be able to communicate and get
my request for the BMD machine met. My personal care assistant repeated my
request to use the machine. Ms. Lopez yelled questions to my personal
assistant. She tried to convince me through my assistant that my vote would not
be counted today if I used the BMD, although my information via the disabled
community said the exact opposite. Then she stated that my personal assistant
could easily take me into the polling booth and pull the levers for me. I just
shook my head.
At that point, I was convinced that
neither she nor any of the staff had received any training pertaining to use of
the ballot marking device. I believe, therefore, that she was working hard to
get me and any other disabled voters who might follow me to use the general
voting machines. Lopez totally washed her hands of me, requesting that the
Republican site coordinator handle the issue: me.
The Republican site coordinator escorted
me over to the BMD machine, which was placed in the narrowest spot in the back
of the auditorium. Not being an expert motorized wheelchair driver, I had
difficulty maneuvering to get myself directly in front of the screen so that I
could operate the machine.
The second site coordinator, who was
trying quite hard to be cooperative and nice, had a manual for the BMD, but
instead of telling me how to use the machine and giving me privacy to vote on
my own, she stood there explaining how it worked and watched every entry I
marked on my "private" ballot. The first time we tried to print it, the ballot
came out blank. We repeated everything a second time; this time we received a
printed ballot.
The day after the election, my personal
care assistant told me that when I went to use the BMD, she had been confronted
by the first coordinator and asked why she hadn't been "cooperative." My
assistant replied that I wanted to use the BMD, and that was all she knew. Then
the coordinator asked my assistant if she was a citizen. My assistant declined
to answer the question.
Ms. Lopez acted most inappropriately with
both my personal care assistant and me. This individual should not be working
with the public.
Like every American, I have the right to
vote. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) allows me to vote in the most accessible
manner possible. I do not understand why someone at my local voting site tried
so hard to take this right from me. How can we make sure that such a horrible
incident never occurs again?
Sincerely,
Barbara Bobbi Linn
3970 Hillman
Avenue, Apt 8B
Bronx, New York 10463
718 796-9673
bblin@aol.com
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