Yesterday (Tuesday) Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown paid a visit to the Clatsop County Clerk and Elections office to see the department’s ballot-processing for the Nov. 8th special primary election – and to try out a new service for voters with special needs, using an I-pad. Clatsop County Clerk Maeve Kennedy Grimes explained how the new service will work:
“Secretary of State Kate Brown launched a pilot project with the five counties that are involved in this District One election. We can go to, say a nursing facility or we can go to an assisted living facility, people would come up to us with their ballot information and we would assist them using the I-pad so that they could physically vote.”
Because the contest involves only five counties, the state has picked this election for the pilot project. Grimes illustrated how the I-pad can help some disabled voters.
“We can bring the I-pad and a wireless printer to them. If someone is visually impaired it can zoom in and make things larger and we would be able to assist them to use the I-pad and then print out a ballot.”
The ballot can then be mailed to or dropped off at the elections office. If the service proves successful, the state elections office will make the devices available to all 36 counties. Secretary of State Brown stressed the importance of voting by noting during her visit that she won her first race for the Oregon House of Representatives by just seven votes.
Ballots for the special primary election, which went out only to registered Democrats and Republicans, must be received at the Clatsop County Elections Division by 8 p.m. next Tuesday, November 8th. (:60)
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