Hello, I thought of sharing my experience on voting in accessible system. Unfortunately, my name has been removed from the electoral roll and I came to know of it last sunday only. I checked it online and noticed that my name is no longer there, though my wife's name is still there. I cast my vote last time in the assembly poll in West Bengal in 2006. I contacted the Officer on Special Duty of the Election office of the state with all details. He tried to help me, but it was already too late.
The irony is that I was closely involved in printing of Braille dummy ballot sheets here. When my organisation Blind Persons' Association was asked for the printing job, I was deputed to look into the matter. However, we were not in a position to print ballots for all 42 constituencies in the state. So we requested two other organisations--Narendrapur R.K. Mission and Voice of World--to share the job. As regards the general feature here, I was informed an hour earlier that the Braille ballot was not available at a polling station at Jadabpur in Kolkata. On May 7, during the last phase of the election, a voter at Durgapur in Burdwan district did not get the ballot in Braille. Otherwise, there is no information of non-availability of Braille ballot. As far as I know, the EVMs have Braille labels and the officials are cooperative. I wish, I could cast my vote alone this time. Best regards, Amiyo Biswas. Cell: +91-9433464329 Skype ID: amiyo11 To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
