New voting methods for the blind

The persons with visual impairments will be able in the future to exercise their right to vote through a postal letter, SMS or the Internet. The methods enabling this category of persons to vote were raised by Victor Koroli, a representative of the Alliance of Community Centers of Access to Information and Training in Moldova, in a roundtable meeting centering on voter education and methodologies of monitoring the elections, Info-Prim Neo reports. Victor Koroli spoke bout a success story that was tested in 2010 and implemented this year – the envelope with a matrix arranged according to the number of the election runner and circumferences where the stamp “Voted” is put. “It is not right to look for one solution to enable the visually impaired persons to vote,” said Victor Koroli. He stressed that the envelopes with matrices must be changed at every election as the size of the ballots does not always coincide. According to Victor Koroli, several other methods will be tested in the post-electoral period, like the e-voting, SMS voting, home voting trough a postal letter, or voting in the Brain language. A part of these methods, like e-voting, may be used by persons who are abroad. The event was attended by experts from Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, EU member states and countries covered by the Eastern Partnership. The roundtable meeting “Voter education and monitoring methodologies: international exchange of good practices and opportunities in EU and EaP countries” within the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections in partnership with the European Exchange Association (Germany). Activities within the Coalition enjoy financial support from the East Europe Foundation from resources provided by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and Denmark's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA).