Disabled want more handicapped-accessible voting machines

Associated Press  24 September 2004

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Lawyers for some disabled Duval County residents want a federal judge to require local elections officials to install more handicapped-accessible voting machines in time for the November election.

Elections office attorney Ernst Mueller told U.S. District Judge Henry Adams at a Thursday hearing that there wasn't enough time to buy the machines and train poll workers. He also said machines bought this year might be useless in future elections because of changing standards.

But American Association of People with Disabilities attorney Richard Ripley said the machines would be usable for years to come.

Another federal judge ruled in the spring that the county elections supervisor had to make voting machines accessible to blind or handicapped voters in one-fifth of the county's 295 precincts. The order was stayed while elections officials filed an appeal.

Attorneys for the disabled voters asked to have that stay lifted in a motion filed last month. The request said state officials have budgeted money for each county to buy the machines and said there was still time enough to set them up.

Adams adjourned the hearing without making a ruling, saying one would follow shortly.