Voters of all any ability will see new voting machines in La Crosse | Community | wxow.com

2022-05-21 22:57:56 By : Ms. Chloe Wang

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WXOW) - The City of La Crosse will have new ballot assistance machines for voters of any ability when they visit their polling place in the next election.

At the Southside Neighborhood Center Thursday, The League of Women Voters, La Crosse's City Clerks and the Disability Action Network teamed up to provide a community learning event for the new Express-Vote machines.

The ballot marking computer devices will be used in all 13 of the City's districts and gives voters of any ability a way to mark their ballot without any help.

City Clerk, Nikki Elsen said the newer lightweight machines have key features to aid audio or visually impaired people select who they want to vote for and print out those results.

"Everybody deserves the opportunity to vote unassisted, keep their ballot private," Elsen said. "And that's what these machines do. They offer that to individuals who may need that assistance."

Chris Haskell, Chair of Voter Services in The League of Women Voters, said the machines are very user friendly and the event today allows people to practice in a stress-free environment.

"My friend Jeanie, who's blind, just said 'I just wanna sit here and play and work things out on this machine because I don't ant to be worried that I'm taking somebody else's place and they wanna get in there to vote'," Haskell explained. "So yes, you can spend as long as you want on these machines today."

Voters young and old of any ability were invited to the event, and due to its success, Haskell said there may be more events like this in the future.

The new machines are solely a ballot marking assistance device which provide a computer print out of users' selections.

City Clerk Elsen said voters will have the choice to use the machine or vote on a typical paper ballot which are then inserted and tabulated on a different machine.

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