This Election Day will also be an "Independence Day" for the 300,000 Connecticut residents who live with disabilities. On Tuesday, November 7th, those citizens for the first time in state history will vote privately and independently, just as all voters have a right to do. They will not need anyone to accompany them into a voting booth, and can finally enjoy the freedom of casting their ballot without anyone else knowing how they voted.

This freedom is something many of us may take for granted, but one which those with physical disabilities have not enjoyed up until now. Rather, those who are blind, unable to walk, or suffer from other impairments have had to either vote by absentee ballot or have someone accompany them into the voting booth if they chose to vote in public. This is how the process has worked for more than seventy years, for as long as we have used lever machines. There is nothing private about this style of voting, and it certainly is not independent! This needs to change, and this November, it finally will. The federal Help America Vote Act, passed in 2002, requires substantial changes in the administration of our elections. Most notably, it requires states to provide technology that is accessible for people with disabilities in time for this November's election. As a result, our office has spent the past two years examining the many different types of accessible voting technology, and studying their pros and cons. We worked closely with the State of Connecticut Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities and the American Association of People With Disabilities to determine which technology was the most reliable and best suited the needs of our disabled citizens. Last month we announced that a telephone- based voting system, which can be used by those with disabilities, will be installed in each of the state's 769 polling precincts. The technology is the product of IVS, LLC, and simply involves the use of a telephone for voting and a fax machine for a voter verified paper receipt. It is a safe and secure technology that cannot be harmed by outside hackers, and ensures that every vote cast is private and comes with a paper trail. We entered into a one-year contract with IVS for approximately $1 million to provide telephone lines, specially equipped telephones, and fax machines for every voting precinct in Connecticut.

This is all funded with federal money and comes with no cost to municipalities. Well in advance of November 7th, these telephones will be installed and local election officials will be trained in how to use them and monitor their use. The process is very simple, which is great news for those who will be using the IVS phones. The voter will go to the poll and sign in as usual, and a poll worker will use a designated phone with a pre-registered phone number to dial into the system. The poll worker will be asked to enter an assigned password and the voter's precinct code. Once the valid information is entered, the system will then direct the poll worker to give the telephone handset to the voter and leave the voting booth for privacy.

Finally, once the voter makes his or her selections, the system will print out a paper ballot that is both human and machine-readable, which is then scanned and played back to the voter for verification. The entire process should take no more than five minutes per voter. After a wait of more than seventy years, this will not seem like that long. The Declaration of Independence set forth the principle in 1776 that "all men are created equal," yet the struggle for equality for all did not end there. It wasn't until ninety-four years later, in 1870, that the Fifteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing the right to vote for all citizens regardless of race or color. It was a full 124 years after the Declaration of Independence when women were finally awarded the right to vote through the Nineteenth Amendment. Changes have come slowly, often times too slowly, in guaranteeing this precious right to vote. They have come thanks to the great struggle and sacrifice of many. For those with disabilities, the wait to vote privately and independently has been far too long. They need to be guaranteed this right this year, so they may have a chance to cast their ballot in private like everyone else. Thankfully, the wait is almost over. Come this Election Day, this will give all of us one more reason to celebrate our independence.

Susan Bysiewicz is Secretary of the State of Connecticut. Chris Kuell is the Vice President of the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut. Copyright 2006, Record-Journal, All Rights Reserved.

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