Saugus to supply AutoMARK voter assistants for the handicapped

SAUGUS-This November, the town will once again set out AutoMARK Voter Assist Terminals at each polling place and, this time, Town Clerk Joanne Rappa hopes someone other than the poll workers will use them.AutoMARK terminals allow voters with just about any kind of handicap to cast their vote unaided in the polling locations just like every other voter. The problem, Rappa said, is while the town has had the machines since 2007 no one uses them. She said she suspects they go unused for one of two reasons, people aren’t aware the machines are available or don’t know how to use them.”They’re very user friendly,” said Patti Flickinger of the Town Clerk’s office. “I like to use them, they’re much better and a lot easier to use.”The machines are placed at wheelchair height. The user feeds a typical ballot into the machine and can then proceed in several different ways.Flickinger popped on a set of headphones and plugged them into the box. The audio function, she said, allows the blind or those with severely impaired vision to listen to their choices. Listeners can even control the speed at which their choices are read and have them repeated if necessary. It will also review the marked ballot for the voter to make sure they marked their choices correctly.The computerized voting machine also has a large touch screen that comes with a zoom feature to increase font size. The feature is helpful for voters who are sighted, but have limited vision.A Braille keypad is also available as is a sip/puff tube for voters who cannot use the touch screen or keypad.The system also supports write-in candidates, as well as those on the ballot.The AutoMARK terminals mark the ballot for the voter, spits it back out and the voter then feeds it into the counter with all the other ballots.The town is required to have one machine per polling location, which it does.Rappa said she can tell the machines have barely been used because the state-provided ink cartridges still contained a lot of ink.While disappointed the machines did not get used in the past, Rappa said she is optimistic at least one will be used during the Nov. 4 presidential election. She said just last week a blind gentleman came in for an absentee ballot. Rappa said she asked him if he would be out of town during the election. He told her no, she said, but added that it was easier to vote at home.Rappa said be became excited when she told him about the AutoMARK machines and told her he wouldn’t need the absentee ballot after all because he would come to the polls like everyone else.Although the AutoMARK machines are specifically designed for handicapped voters, Flickinger pointed out that anyone could use them as long as there wasn’t a handicapped person waiting.”They really are cool,” Rappa said.