Disabled voters
to get boost with
new voting machines

All 353 precincts will have
devices freeing paraplegics
and the blind from assistance

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Voters with disabilities will have another option for casting their ballots in the upcoming primary and general elections.

The state has awarded a $3.8 million contract to Texas-based Hart InterCivic to provide electronic voting machines that are more accessible to people with disabilities in the 2004 and 2006 elections.

The company's eSlate machines look like giant PDAs (personal digital assistant machines) but are small enough to carry out of the precinct for curbside voting, said Rex Quidilla, Hawaii Office of Elections spokesman.

The machines offer blind voters the ability to hear their selections through headphones in English, Cantonese, Ilocano and Japanese, then make their selections with controls marked in Braille.

For people with limited upper-body mobility, the machine's controls can be reduced to two large touch pads that can be activated with a tap or push of a foot.

Paraplegics will be able to navigate the ballot and make their choices by breathing on the machine.

"This machine allows people with disabilities to vote independently and to cast their ballots in secret," Quidilla said.

The machines also meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, he said.

In previous elections, people who could not operate the voting machines on their own got assistance, usually from a family member.

All 353 voting precincts will get at least one of the machines.

The Office of Elections has no estimate on how many people will use the machines. There is no qualification to use them.

"Anyone who wants to use it can," Quidilla said.

And people with disabilities can still opt to have assistance to vote with the regular machines.

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