A U.S. District Court judge ruled yesterday that a Towson man's vote be counted as an absentee ballot after Baltimore County election officials refused to let him vote using a Braille template in Tuesday's election.
William Poole, blind since age 9, filed a petition in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon, asking that he be allowed to vote using the template, which he designed, so that he could cast a secret ballot.
"I thought it would just be declined, and I would have fought the good fight," Poole said.
Judge Marvin J. Garbis allowed Poole to vote in a conference room Tuesday afternoon and sealed the ballot. During a hearing yesterday to determine the fate of Poole's vote, Garbis ordered that it be counted as an absentee ballot.
The state board of elections plans to implement a touch-screen voting system by the 2006 elections, as required by a state law passed last year, Linda Lamone, board administrator, said yesterday. The system has an audio feature that allows blind voters to cast ballots without assistance. It was used this year in elections in Montgomery, Prince George's, Dorchester and Allegany counties, which include 40 percent of the state's registered voters.
Poole objected to Baltimore County's paper ballot, insisting that it denies the blind access to a secret ballot. A blind person would have to dictate answers to a second person, who would complete the ballot.
Poole said when he asked to use the Braille template at a Towson polling place, workers said no and told him he would have to use a paper ballot. Efforts to reach Jacqueline McDaniel, administrator of the county board of elections, were unsuccessful yesterday.
Poole encountered a similar problem in the 1996 primary and complained to the state. The state responded by running a pilot program in the general election that year that was used by Poole and two others. The program used a template similar to the one Poole used Tuesday.
He plans to file an amended petition in U.S. District Court to recover the cost of making the Braille template, which he estimates at $400, and to require the state to ensure access for the blind in future elections.
Donna Duncan of the state board of elections said the board has offered voting options to Poole, which he has refused to use. Poole said none of those options would allow him to cast a secret ballot.