The Visually Impaired Voter

Ahh, it's that time again. Some years ago I wrote a short article about the angst of a Visually Impaired voter. When I still lived with my parents voting was fairly simple - certainly as far as getting there was concerned.

When I moved away from home though, voting became somewhat complicated. The first hurdle was to find the polling station on my own. It took an hour to find because of the limitations of my vision. When I eventually found it, it was after asking the umpteenth person. When I walked in, my vision went black - not because I was wearing sunglasses, but because of the effects of my Visual Impairment - only to be greeted with a "Yes, can I help you?" from a very chirpy and pleasant sounding lady who repeated the question again. I took out my cane and said "I can't see".

A lovely person took me to the desk, gave me a slip and told me to go to a booth. I looked up and then back to her (sight starting to clear a bit) and asked, "Where are the booths?"

"Just over there" she repeated.

"I need help as I have a sight problem!" I said.

"Ohh!" The rather flustered, elderly woman exclaimed, and "Ohh" again as she realised this was something she would have to deal with.

She arranged for cover of her post and took me over to a booth, telling me she would wait outside.

"I can't read it - can you help me?" I asked.

"Oh, no, I can't" she replied "I'm not allowed to".

"But I can't see!" I pleaded, close to tears.

"I can see the paper but I can't see anything on it".

"Erm…I can read the list of candidates for you if that would help".

"Oh, yes please" I said, blinking away the tears.

I thought, I'd said that.

After all the drama I eventually managed to vote. I swore to myself that I wouldn't go through that again and decided to use the postal vote from then on.

When I received my postal voting papers, I thought "How hard can it be?". It even had pictures to tell you what to do. So, I followed the pictorial instructions and thought I had successfully completed my postal vote. It wasn't until a year or two later, when a friend who was around helped me to complete my voting form and I said "That goes in envelope B and that goes in envelope A".

"No. It doesn't" she said.

"Oh", I said "Who knew?"

Well, actually, lots of people did, but the point is that I had just realised that my vote had most likely been voided these last few years.

I now do postal voting only when I have someone to assist me. In parts of America they now have machines with voice guidance that lets VI voters, well, vote. It would be great if we could have that here - or do we? Could someone enlighten me?

Writing this made me realise two things: one was that we have a tendency to ask for help in a vague manner and we don't get the help we desire or require. I said "I can't see, can you help me?". What I should have said (and did later) is "I can see the paper but I can't read what's on it". At that point she had a better idea of how to assist me. We tend to do this a lot, but we need to educate people in how to help us.

The second thing I realised was that I hadn't always achieved the vote I'd intended. When I lived with my parents, yes, there would be times I'd abstain under the guise of political dissatisfaction at the selection of candidates, but when I did vote I would do an 'eeny, meeny, miny, mo' tick, as that looked like the 'probable' party I wanted to vote for.

When we got home Dad would ask me "So, who did you vote for?"

"I can't remember" was my reply "It was the third one on the list".

Dad: "oh, That was so and so.."

Me: "Yeah, that's the one Dad".

Dad: Why did you vote for them?"

Me: "…."