Directive Comes after Litigation brought by Blind Voters
After the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a lawsuit brought by the National Federation of the Blind and three blind voters could go forward, Secretary of State of Ohio John Husted issued a directive stating that the state’s local boards of elections must make remote ballot-marking systems available to voters who are blind or who have other disabilities in time for the November 2018 election. These systems can be used alongside Braille or screen reader technology, which reads the text on a computer’s screen as spoken words, to allow blind voters to mark their absentee ballots without assistance.
The National Federation of the Blind and the three blind voters were represented by Jessie Weber and Disability Rights Ohio.