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Dear Friends:
The Maryland Disability was awarded a federal grant under
the Help America Vote Act to improve access to voting for people with
disabilities. We are trying to gather as much information as possible
regarding voting accessibility issues at polling sites in Maryland prior
to the 2004 Presidential Election in November. Our goal is for any
barriers identified to be corrected prior to the November elections. It
is for this reason that we are reaching out to consumers, advocates,
providers, and other interested members of the community to help us
identify barriers voters with disabilities may face when they go to the
polls to caste their ballots.
We are asking you to spend 10 minutes of your time to
complete the
attached polling accessibility survey when you go to vote at the Primary
Elections on Tuesday, March 2, 2004. After completing the survey,
please send it back to me at MDLC by mail, fax or by email. We are also
asking that you forward this email and attached survey to as many other
Marylanders as you can with the hope that they too will evaluate their
polling sites.
In order for people with disabilities in Maryland to be
fully included as citizens in their communities, they must experience
barrier-free access to participate in voting activities. Please help us
identify if there are barriers at your own polling site. If you have
any questions about the survey, I can be reached by phone at (410)
727-6352, ext. 228 or by email at alyssaf@mdlcbalto.org. If you have
any problems opening the survey file or if you need it in an alternative
format, please contact me.
Lastly, as many of you may know, counties (except for
Baltimore City) will be using a new voting machine called AccuVote-TS,
which is a touch-screen system. If you would like more information
about the new machines or if you would like to go through a
demonstration of how the voting machines work, click on
http://www.mdvotes.org/. Thank you for your time and effort.
Sincerely,
Alyssa Fieo
Managing Attorney
Maryland Disability Law Center
1800 North Charles Street, Suite 400
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: (410) 727-6352, ext.228
Fax: (410) 727-6389
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