Transcript
A (0:04)
Welcome to Hadley Presents. I'm your host, Ricky Enger, inviting you to sit back, relax, and enjoy a conversation with the experts. In this episode, we conduct a panel discussion on voting with blindness or low vision. Joining me for this discussion are Hadley learning experts Steve Kelly, Jennifer Ottowitz, and facilitator Judy Matsuoka. So we'll take a moment to have you guys introduce yourselves and tell us a little about who you are. Let's start with you, Steve.
B (0:34)
I've been a vision rehab therapist for 12 years, worked in an agency prior to working for Hadley, and right now I'm a learning expert in the technology group.
A (0:45)
Excellent. And Jennifer, Hi.
C (0:47)
I'm a senior learning expert with Hadley. I've worked here since 2013 and worked as a vision rehab therapist before that and taught lots of different courses. I'm a member of the Adjustment Independent Living and Recreation team with Hadley and I'm visually impaired myself.
A (1:04)
And Judy, how about you?
D (1:06)
I've been a learning expert at Hadley for the last 14 years, and prior to that I was a vision rehabilitation therapist, university instructor, a teacher of the visually impaired, a braille transcriber. And Jennifer and I both once had a client who voted in the very first election that women were allowed vote.
B (1:28)
Oh, my gosh, that's great.
A (1:29)
Wow. And thankfully, women have the right to vote and have for quite some time. And of course, if you're blind or low vision, you have the right to vote as well. But sometimes you may not know exactly what goes into voting when you are blind or have low vision and how that might differ from if you previously had sight or, or kind of how your friends and family vote. And so that's what we want to come together today and discuss because this is such an incredibly important topic. Judy, I know that you have lots of great questions for us all just to kind of spark the discussion, so I'll let you kick it off.
D (2:11)
I think one of the things to keep in mind is that most voting policies are set at the state level. And these policies include voter identification requirements, early voting provisions, absentee ballot restrictions, online voter registration, and more. And these all dictate the conditions on which we as American citizens can cast our votes in our individual states. So it's really up to each voter to know the policies of their own state. You can check by contacting the election office in your county or your state. And in most states, that's the Secretary of State's office. Now, if you voted consistently in past years and have not moved or changed your name, your voter registration probably does not need to be checked. However, if you've not voted recently, be aware that states regularly purge their roles of inactive voters and you may need to re register. Also, if you have moved or changed your name, you'll need to update voter registration as well. And you can do this through the elections office.
