In today’s paper, while I was getting irritable with the amount of coverage the president’s visit to Greality is getting, i read something that made me stop and say, “the hell?”

this year will be the very first year that people who are blind can vote without needing a sighted friend to help them.

do what?

I can get books on tape, most computers can EASILY be adapted to fit the needs of the blind (large screen for vision loss, scanning equipment that reads pages out loud, ebook readers that read information orally, programs like dragon that require speaking and not typing, to give a few), but we have never been able to adapt voting equipment to give blind people the option to vote easily as they should be able to?

and its usually not a friend or neighbor who had to help either, it was a poll worker. there is a nice article here about trust issues and how this will affect things.
Now, the candidates and the issues are on audio tape, with some kind of push button select system. it also has a way of skipping all the additional info on an issue, much like most voters skip the insanely long legalese discriptions in writing.

this really shouldnt surprise me, i guess.

people with disabilities are about 20 percent less likely to vote than those without disabilities because of various barriers at the polling place. Had those barriers been removed, there might have been as many as 4.6 million additional voters in 1998.

so i just spent half an hour discussing the importance of voting with my students. all of whom, interestingly enough, are disabled. i think i scared them a little.

what are the laws concerning voters with disabilities? can they be prevented from voting if they dont have a high enough IQ? or if they cant talk?

i have one student who, to look at her, you would think she would be severely cognatively impacted by her disabilities. Using her DynaVox, she can write her own sentences, and using the scanning option and a switch, can write with her vox, and her knee.

one of my students insisted she could not vote, because she was too severely disabled.

do you know the laws concerning disabilities in your community? I encourage you to check them out. Some of them are pretty interesting.

So, the president is in my town today.

Now, for people who live in large cities – Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, New York – this might be a common occurance.

But i live in CowTown, Colorado. and an acting president has not been through here in over 75 years.

Naturally, this has lead to some interesting things. Lots of arguements, for one. Lots of rolled eyes, from me. and a student attempting to bribe me into voting for Bush, with a “what do you have against him, anyway?”

oh, let me think. im sure i can come up with something.

but, i had heard that he was coming through to help influence the undecideds. Really? The Undecideds? then why wont you let them into the rally, huh?

This guy is an undecided, and not only did he have trouble with getting tickets, but he comments on three UNC students who were seriously hasseled about getting tickets.

the article i wanted isnt online yet, but its NOT a letter to an editor, but does talk about UNC students getting hasseled about tickets. in it, when a kid is asked if he supports Bush, and he replies negatively, the woman behind the counter, “gets very upset” and can not give him tickets.

Why does it sound like Bush and Co is fighting against UNC students? Especially the undecideds. Has Bush discovered that hostility to young people either A) scares them out of voting or B) causes them to vote for him later?

i was asked why I wasnt down at Island Grove today. As a UNC student, a non-Bush supporter, I think it would be pretty clear that I wouldnt be able to get tickets. And as much fun as it could have been to go down and protest, I had a meeting early this morning, so i couldnt call in sick.

and besides, I didnt want to have to make the infamous, “Hi Dad. I’m in jail” call that it seems protesters get to make.

I really dont get it.

Ive heard Bush speak before, believe it or not. Both Bush and Gore came and did rallies at my college campus during the 2000 elections. Which was also weird, because it was Bumble, South Carolina. No tickets were needed, and no one was asked what party you supported in order to get in.

I find it very interesting that, with Bush, you have to be a commited Bush supporter to get into the rallies. With Kerry, you have to give your zip code.

And that, Mr President, kid who cant believe i would vote against Bush, is one of the reasons why you dont have my vote.