N.H. municipalities required to provide accessible voting systems for people with disabilities – The Boston Globe

“Hopefully the tide is turning a little bit, and people with disabilities, especially the blind and and vision-impaired folks, are going to be able to vote privately and independently, just like everybody else,” said James Ziegra, senior staff attorney at Disability Rights Center New Hampshire.

The Secretary of State’s office sent these machines to cities holding elections this fall. The machine itself consists of a tablet, an accessible, high-visibility keyboard, headphones, and a printer. The headphones can be used by blind voters, to hear the ballot read aloud. Once the voter makes their selection, the ballot is printed out, and ready to be cast.

Ziegra said the rollout is going smoothly so far. He said the system was used in Manchester’s September primary, and he hasn’t heard complaints from voters about any issues.

The new technology could pose a challenge to clerks as they learn how to program and test the system ahead of election day, according to Ziegra.

“We’re not expecting it to be smooth 100 percent the first time around, but it’s a great step in the right direction,” he said.

Daniel Healey, the city clerk of Nashua, said this year is the first time local officials have been involved in programming the devices, which cost the city about $800, he said.

“If someone’s using an accessible voting system and they’re voting in every election, they need it for the local election. They don’t just need it for the state primary or the general election,” he said. “It’s never really made sense to me as a clerk why we didn’t have it locally.”

He said he’s already tested the system in all nine of Nashua’s wards, and it’s working smoothly and ready for election day.

“I’m really happy with it,” he said.

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Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.