VOTING RIGHTS
Written By TheBlindJournalist Mohammed Salim Patel in London
Emily Pankhurst and Beatrice Webb started it. Now Stephen Vincent Anderson joins their ranks. Voting rights have been at the forefront of public debate for centuries. Whether you are male or female. Abled or disabled. Tory, Liberal Democrat or Labourite. It does not matter. Everyone wants the right. Even today. In the 21st century. It is difficult to believe that people are still having to fight to have a secret vote with the confidence, and comfort, that their vote is theirs. Who are these people? Which country do they reside in? The answer is the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Currently blind and visually impaired voters in the UK do not have the ability to vote secretly. With the current system they have two options. The first is to request assistance by a helper provided at the station to read the information on the ballet paper and sign for them. The second option is a tactile overlay that has braille and raised number flaps. However, there is no guarantee that their voting wishes have been accurately articulated on the ballet sheet, given that they cannot check it themselves. In America, incidents have been reported where votes have been tampered with by the helpers. This has prompted one registered blind politics student to step up and tackle the issue.
Stephen Anderson, a 22 year old, from Harrow has decided to make his own mark by creating an e-petition in order to ensure that blind and visually impaired individuals have the voting process made accessible for them. The e-petition was created on 28th December 2013 which needs 100,000 signatures to get the matter discussed at the House of Commons. To date the petition has received 103 signatures and can be found at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/59635.
Resistance to changing the system focuses predominantly around the lack of willingness to adjust. Also the financial and technical implications to create a better system. There are a few MP’s that don’t accept there’s a problem with the current system. One of these MP’s saying: “The current system is accessible and there’s no need for change” One possible solution as seen in the United States, is to have a computer in every polling station in the UK. This computer would allow accessible voting to all. As the US have shown this system helps because in the 2012 American elections 60% of 305 million Americans voted, possible suggesting that making voting accessible increases voters.
When considering how far away change is Stephen Anderson shrugs then sniggers and says: “It’s as far away as the politicians of this world want to make it. They could still get this organised for 2015, albeit it requires coalition and opposition support which is currently lacking.” There are however a handful of MP’s who have all acknowledged the principle of accessible voting and have backed the action of a petition. Along with the Royal National Institute for the Blind who also support the petition as seen by a recent tweet inviting people to sign it.
Stephen Anderson’s petition is designed to raise awareness to the lack of an alternative for blind and visually impaired voters to vote independently at elections. These voters feel the current two options are insufficient. In order to use the current facility the individual needs to be a braille reader but with only 20,000 of the 250,000 blind and visually impaired residents in the UK being braille readers clearly more needs to be done. Stephen Anderson adds: “I have limited sight and have never used braille as a means of working practice.
What I propose is a computerized system so that people with a lack of vision can vote. Without any breech of the principle of the secret vote.” The suggested solution of a computerized system would entail having a computer at each of the 10,000 polling stations in the UK. As well as additional manpower to ensure the system runs smoothly. To do this there would be a large amount of money needed but Stephen Anderson strongly feels that: “This money could be found. I mean, if we can find £120 billion to bail out the banks, we can find a couple of million to set this up properly.”
With there being 250,000 registered blind or partially sighted people in the UK; 15% of whom have no sight at all. But also with an ageing population and the rise of Macular Degeneration and deteriorating sight occurring in the elderly. The petition could be of use to them too. Sheila Norris who is an elderly lady coping with sight loss says: “It is very hard for me now. I need my glasses wherever I go and even with them on I can’t always see small writing. A better system definitely needs to be put into place”
The most populated area of visually impaired people in the UK is Hereford; with one in seven people living there having some form of registered sight loss. One of those residents animatedly said: “Why in 2014 is this issue still up for debate and also correspondence from the public sector in accessible formats is a legal requirement, and surely voting comes under this bracket” A senior lecturer who specialises in International Relations at Leicester University said: “The current situation is outrageous. I had no idea it was this inaccessible” Stephen Anderson says: “This is the problem, as visual impairment is so rare, these debates take place in more secluded institutions, such as colleges for the blind and care homes. However, for this to work this must come to the political mainstream, and I sincerely hope that we can have this debate with our elected officials in order to make progress on what I believe to be such a vital issue.”
Written By TheBlindJournalist Mohammed Salim Patel in London
Emily Pankhurst and Beatrice Webb started it. Now Stephen Vincent Anderson joins their ranks. Voting rights have been at the forefront of public debate for centuries. Whether you are male or female. Abled or disabled. Tory, Liberal Democrat or Labourite. It does not matter. Everyone wants the right. Even today. In the 21st century. It is difficult to believe that people are still having to fight to have a secret vote with the confidence, and comfort, that their vote is theirs. Who are these people? Which country do they reside in? The answer is the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Currently blind and visually impaired voters in the UK do not have the ability to vote secretly. With the current system they have two options. The first is to request assistance by a helper provided at the station to read the information on the ballet paper and sign for them. The second option is a tactile overlay that has braille and raised number flaps. However, there is no guarantee that their voting wishes have been accurately articulated on the ballet sheet, given that they cannot check it themselves. In America, incidents have been reported where votes have been tampered with by the helpers. This has prompted one registered blind politics student to step up and tackle the issue.
Stephen Anderson, a 22 year old, from Harrow has decided to make his own mark by creating an e-petition in order to ensure that blind and visually impaired individuals have the voting process made accessible for them. The e-petition was created on 28th December 2013 which needs 100,000 signatures to get the matter discussed at the House of Commons. To date the petition has received 103 signatures and can be found at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/59635.
Resistance to changing the system focuses predominantly around the lack of willingness to adjust. Also the financial and technical implications to create a better system. There are a few MP’s that don’t accept there’s a problem with the current system. One of these MP’s saying: “The current system is accessible and there’s no need for change” One possible solution as seen in the United States, is to have a computer in every polling station in the UK. This computer would allow accessible voting to all. As the US have shown this system helps because in the 2012 American elections 60% of 305 million Americans voted, possible suggesting that making voting accessible increases voters.
When considering how far away change is Stephen Anderson shrugs then sniggers and says: “It’s as far away as the politicians of this world want to make it. They could still get this organised for 2015, albeit it requires coalition and opposition support which is currently lacking.” There are however a handful of MP’s who have all acknowledged the principle of accessible voting and have backed the action of a petition. Along with the Royal National Institute for the Blind who also support the petition as seen by a recent tweet inviting people to sign it.
Stephen Anderson’s petition is designed to raise awareness to the lack of an alternative for blind and visually impaired voters to vote independently at elections. These voters feel the current two options are insufficient. In order to use the current facility the individual needs to be a braille reader but with only 20,000 of the 250,000 blind and visually impaired residents in the UK being braille readers clearly more needs to be done. Stephen Anderson adds: “I have limited sight and have never used braille as a means of working practice.
What I propose is a computerized system so that people with a lack of vision can vote. Without any breech of the principle of the secret vote.” The suggested solution of a computerized system would entail having a computer at each of the 10,000 polling stations in the UK. As well as additional manpower to ensure the system runs smoothly. To do this there would be a large amount of money needed but Stephen Anderson strongly feels that: “This money could be found. I mean, if we can find £120 billion to bail out the banks, we can find a couple of million to set this up properly.”
With there being 250,000 registered blind or partially sighted people in the UK; 15% of whom have no sight at all. But also with an ageing population and the rise of Macular Degeneration and deteriorating sight occurring in the elderly. The petition could be of use to them too. Sheila Norris who is an elderly lady coping with sight loss says: “It is very hard for me now. I need my glasses wherever I go and even with them on I can’t always see small writing. A better system definitely needs to be put into place”
The most populated area of visually impaired people in the UK is Hereford; with one in seven people living there having some form of registered sight loss. One of those residents animatedly said: “Why in 2014 is this issue still up for debate and also correspondence from the public sector in accessible formats is a legal requirement, and surely voting comes under this bracket” A senior lecturer who specialises in International Relations at Leicester University said: “The current situation is outrageous. I had no idea it was this inaccessible” Stephen Anderson says: “This is the problem, as visual impairment is so rare, these debates take place in more secluded institutions, such as colleges for the blind and care homes. However, for this to work this must come to the political mainstream, and I sincerely hope that we can have this debate with our elected officials in order to make progress on what I believe to be such a vital issue.”
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