Victoria's blind, vision impaired access to voting 'behind' other states
offering, advocates say
By Stephanie Anderson on ABC News.Posted Tue at
10:03amhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-23/voting-for-those-with-disability-not-effective-inquiry-told/7776626
Advocacy group for the blind and vision impaired Vision Australia says Victoria
has fallen behind other states in providing accessible voting.
The Victorian Parliament is investigating how well electronic voting forms have
worked, and how to ensure the integrity and security of systems.
Electronic voting has been available at voting centres in Victoria since 2006,
but only to people who are vision impaired, motor impaired or do not have the
literacy skills to vote on paper.
Vision Australia said at the 2014 Victorian election, voters who required
electronic assisted voting (EAV) used gesture-based technology on a tablet, but
did not have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with it before casting
their vote.
"We also consider this model to be ineffective as only 200 voters who are blind
or have low vision used EAV at the 2014 Victorian Election," Vision Australia
said in its submission to a parliamentary inquiry.
"We understand that those who did chose to make use of this voting option were
mostly satisfied with the experience.
"However, there are an estimated 90,000 in Victoria who are blind or have low
vision who could have made use of an accessible voting option, were both
technology and service delivery improved."
The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) said the question of internet voting
was raised at each election.
"This is a logical reaction by electors fully connected in every aspect of
their life and increasingly dependent on the internet for their affairs and the
delivery of government information and services," it said in its submission.
"Their experiences bring the expectation that online voting should be as
accessible and as simple as online banking."
The VEC argued for remote online voting to be made available to the vision,
motor impaired and people with low literacy, but not the general public.
It said electronic voting systems at previous elections had been a success, but
the take-up was low.
"The very conditions of disability that created the need for electronic voting
have also prevented many of these electors from reaching voting centres that
provide an electronic option," the VEC said.
"The only effective method of improving access for this group is to provide a
remote voting solution that can be used on a device with which they are
familiar and able to use effectively."
Voting process 'needs to consider vulnerable communities'
The Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria said the perspectives of
culturally-diverse communities also needed to be part of any new electronic
voting system.
It said education materials in community languages should be developed to
increase awareness of electronic voting among multi-cultural communities.
Service group Launch Housing used its submission to the inquiry to call on the
committee to ensure people experiencing homelessness are included in the
democratic process.
It said its research showed not being enrolled to vote was the biggest barrier
to democratic participation for its clients.
"Across [surveys of four elections] an average of 91 per cent of survey
participants were eligible to vote," the submission said.
"However, when eligible voters were asked if they voted during the election,
only 44 per cent said they did.
"When survey participants were asked why they did not vote, an average of 58
per cent said it was because they were not enrolled to vote."
