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By Meghan Smith
October 28, 2022
Watertown resident Kim Charlson won’t need to go to her polling place, print out a ballot or sign any forms. Charlson, who is blind, plans to take advantage of a new voting system for people with disabilities that allows them to cast their ballot electronically through a secure web portal.
The option was available in five cities last year: Boston, Cambridge, Quincy, Watertown and Worcester. It is now permanently available statewide, thanks to a lesser-known provision in the
VOTES Act passed in June,
https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2022/06/22/mail-in-voting-is-permanent-in-massachusetts
which aimed to make voting in the state overall easier by permanently offering mail-in voting for all Massachusetts voters and expanding early voting. Advocates say, in many ways, it puts Massachusetts at the forefront of accessible voting as one of just a handful of states now allowing the electronic option for disabled voters. Once they apply, voters using the new method can cast their ballot electronically early or before polls close on Election Day at 8 p.m. on Nov. 8.
“I'm just delighted at the ease of voting, and the privacy of being able to do it independently and submit my ballot and know I'm all set,” said Charlson, executive director of the Perkins Library at Perkins School for the Blind, who first used the new system last year. “It makes me feel good about the democratic process.”
Charlson remembers that when she first voted at age 18, her best option was to have a friend or poll worker join her in the voting booth to help fill out a ballot. She and other advocates say having more voting options — from secure web voting, to mail-in ballots, to accessible machines at polling places — are a big step forward for disabled people.
“I think the disability community takes it [voting] very seriously because we had to kind of fight the fights to get to have the opportunity to vote privately and independently,” Charlson said.
In 2020, the Disability Law Center partnered with the Bay State Council of the Blind and the Boston Center for Independent Living to sue the state over lack of accommodations made for disabled people to vote safely and securely during the pandemic. Secretary of State Bill Galvin
settled the lawsuit
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/courts/galvin-settles-lawsuit-over-voting-access-for-people-with-disabilities/
right before the election to allow disabled voters to vote electronically.
But during the 2020 election, voters with disabilities who chose the electronic method still needed a printer and had to physically sign the ballot. Advocates pushed for the option to last beyond that single year and worked with the secretary of state’s office to make it even more accessible.
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October 28, 2022
Watertown resident Kim Charlson won’t need to go to her polling place, print out a ballot or sign any forms. Charlson, who is blind, plans to take advantage of a new voting system for people with disabilities that allows them to cast their ballot electronically through a secure web portal.
The option was available in five cities last year: Boston, Cambridge, Quincy, Watertown and Worcester. It is now permanently available statewide, thanks to a lesser-known provision in the
VOTES Act passed in June,
https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2022/06/22/mail-in-voting-is-permanent-in-massachusetts
which aimed to make voting in the state overall easier by permanently offering mail-in voting for all Massachusetts voters and expanding early voting. Advocates say, in many ways, it puts Massachusetts at the forefront of accessible voting as one of just a handful of states now allowing the electronic option for disabled voters. Once they apply, voters using the new method can cast their ballot electronically early or before polls close on Election Day at 8 p.m. on Nov. 8.
“I'm just delighted at the ease of voting, and the privacy of being able to do it independently and submit my ballot and know I'm all set,” said Charlson, executive director of the Perkins Library at Perkins School for the Blind, who first used the new system last year. “It makes me feel good about the democratic process.”
Charlson remembers that when she first voted at age 18, her best option was to have a friend or poll worker join her in the voting booth to help fill out a ballot. She and other advocates say having more voting options — from secure web voting, to mail-in ballots, to accessible machines at polling places — are a big step forward for disabled people.
“I think the disability community takes it [voting] very seriously because we had to kind of fight the fights to get to have the opportunity to vote privately and independently,” Charlson said.
In 2020, the Disability Law Center partnered with the Bay State Council of the Blind and the Boston Center for Independent Living to sue the state over lack of accommodations made for disabled people to vote safely and securely during the pandemic. Secretary of State Bill Galvin
settled the lawsuit
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/courts/galvin-settles-lawsuit-over-voting-access-for-people-with-disabilities/
right before the election to allow disabled voters to vote electronically.
But during the 2020 election, voters with disabilities who chose the electronic method still needed a printer and had to physically sign the ballot. Advocates pushed for the option to last beyond that single year and worked with the secretary of state’s office to make it even more accessible.
( continued below cut )
