Hello,

 

I first want to thank everyone who participated in what was a very successful workshop on June 4th.  It would not have been possible without all the speakers and the audience feedback.

 

The purpose of the day was to bring together all aspects of the disability community together to become educated and mobilized to work on voting accessibility issues.

 

The intended outcome of the event was five subcommittees that were formed to deal with different voting issues. The subcommittees were and the next meeting dates are:

 

      Accessible Transportation – Tuesday, July 24^th 1:30 PM

Public Education – Monday June 25^th @ 10:00 AM; Monday July 23^rd 10:00 AM    (Phone # TBA)

      Polling Place Access – Wednesday July 11^th 10:00 AM

      Poll Worker Training – Friday July 20^th 12:00 PM

      Accessible Voting Machines – Wednesday July 18^th 11:00 AM

 

Please mark your calendars.  The phone number for the first round of conference calls will be: 1-877-239-6423.  The participant pass code will be 3358847.

 

There may be an additional two subcommittees forming: Personal Barriers to Voting and a Coordinating Committee.  An attachment and more details will follow. Please let me know if you are interested in either one of these two committees.  For those of you who had to leave early or who were not able to attend; you are welcome to join as many subcommittees as you would like.

 

Please read through the descriptions of the subcommittees which are attached to this email and decide which one(s) you would like to join.  In addition, I have listed the dates, times and access codes for each meeting.  Feel free to RSVP and let me know which committees you would like to attend by telephone.

 

Attached to this e-mail are the following items:

 

Summary of the June 4^th event.

Minutes of the June 4^th subcommittee meetings.

Description of the subcommittees and upcoming projects to be worked on.

Recruitment information to become a poll worker – feel free to distribute this to your network.

Agendas for these meetings will follow.

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of June 4^th Event New Yorkers’ with Disabilities Getting Equal Voting Access

 

9:00 – 9:20  – Sue Cohen Project Coordinator of NYSILC did an introduction to the event and a brief description of the agenda. It was noted that June 4^th was the 87^th anniversary of the passage of the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution.

 

9:20 – 9:40 -  Brad Williams showed a promotional clip for “HAVA and Have Not” an 8 minute promotional clip of the documentary that demonstrates the struggle by the disability community to gain equal voting access.  To receive a copy, please call 427-1060.

 

9:40 – 10:00 – Tim Cronin and Brad Williams outlined the findings from the 2006 post election polls from Siena Research Institute and Zogby International. Please E-mail suec@nysilc.org for further information.

 

10:10 – Panel Discussion

 

Polling Place Access – Aaron Belisle and Helen Benlisa, spokespeople  for the   downstate and upstate HAVA projects respectively, spoke on problems that still exist in NYS polling places.  To see pictures of polling place barriers, please email   suec@nysilc.org.  If you wish to work on this issue, join the polling place access subcommittee.

 

Poll worker Training – Margi Trapini, of the downstate HAVA project, spoke on the poll worker training they did in NYC,  and explained how other counties could do the same by contacting their Board of Elections.  If you are interested in this issue, join the subcommittee on poll worker training.  John Graziano and Matt Clyne of the Albany County BOE went over the requirements and responsibilities of becoming a poll worker.  To get handouts or to become a poll worker, email suec@nysilc.org.

 

Public Education – Brad Williams and Tim Cronin discussed the importance of  educational outreach to alert individuals with disabilities to the importance of voting, where to vote, and how to use the new voting technology.  Tim Cronin showed the public service announcement developed by NYSILC.  To get a copy email suec@nysilc.org.  Brad Williams spoke of the scholarly article he recently wrote with Joe Adler:  “Voter with Disabilities, the Sleeping Giants of American Politics”,  which chronicles the journey of the disability community and other minority groups to equal voting access.  For a copy, email suec@nysilc.org.  To get involved with public education activities, join this subcommittee.

 

Equal Vote – Brad Williams spoke of the unacceptable situation on election day 2006,  when the BOE did not count the votes that individuals with disabilities cast on the new accessible voting machines.  Instead, they treated those votes like absentee ballots.  The poll worker training subcommittee will work on this issue.

 

Accessible Transportation – Tom Vaughan, Jan Simson, and Stephanie Mielnik from NYS DOT spoke on the availability of federally funded transportation programs which could increase the number of accessible vehicles for individuals with disabilities. In order for disabled voters to be able to get to the polling places on election and primary days, there must be close coordination between stakeholders representing agencies with these vehicles.  This will be the task of this subcommittee, which needs more members. Handouts distributed by the DOT representatives may be obtained from Sue Cohen, suec@nysilc.org