Voting accessibility

Introduced Detroit Disability Power's new voter toolkit auditing polling-place accessibility and urged council members to audit their own precincts.

Raised concerns about voter assistance terminal placement and a false smoking complaint against her at the CCB.

Blind advocate described defective VAT machines and untrained poll workers that kept her from voting independently in the primary.

President of Detroit Advocates for the Blind said VAT failures are recurring federal civil rights violations after eight years of advocacy.

Said poll workers aren't trained, headphone audio fails in loud polling places, and he's had to vote absentee.

Retired corporation counsel asked why the reliable AutoMark was replaced with a machine he couldn't use at the Department of Elections.

Blind voter described a 30-minute wait and reliance on assistance after her ID was passed around the polling place.

Elderly blind resident lost in-building AutoMark voting and had to travel between churches without a working machine.

Blind since 14, she spent two hours and tried three machines at the primary without voting independently.

Retired police officer and advocate described machines hauled from multiple sites that never worked, and warned of national scrutiny of Detroit elections.

Detroit Disability Power policy manager described hours-long VAT waits and urged Council members to try the machines before November.