ABC-7 Listens: Visually-impaired woman details challenges while trying to vote

A viewer reached out to ABC-7 after she said she had a difficult experience trying to cast her ballot at a Northeast polling station.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, is visually-impaired, and was trying to vote at Nations Tobin Park.

Visually-impaired voters are entitled to audio ballots, or they can choose to have a trusted friend or family member help them cast their ballots.

This woman told ABC-7 she had issues with audio ballots in the past, so she decided to get help from her sister. The woman alleged that while she was casting her ballot, one of the poll workers was standing right behind them. She said this made her feel uncomfortable because she wanted to her vote to be private.

The visually-impaired voter also said that a separate poll worker told her she was going to file a complaint against her, because she didn’t want to standby as voter fraud was taking place.

The voter said she would also file a complaint with the county elections department because she believed the workers were not properly trained. She said she felt so disrespected and angry that she never finished voting. She said she may not vote again because of how upsetting the experience was.

ABC-7 took these complaints directly to the El Paso County Elections Department. Elections administrator Lisa Wise said she had not heard about this complaint, but admitted that’s not proper protocol from poll workers.

“People use this term ‘voter fraud’ just kind of as a catch-all for anything that they don’t agree with,” Wise said. “By law, you’re allowed to use the audio ballot, and if you do need assistance you can either bring someone with you, and they will have to sign an assistance oath.”

Wise added that the department had received several complaints about the poll workers at the Nations Tobin for other reasons.

“We did change out the crew there midweek,” Wise said. “I believe this woman’s complaint was on Wednesday, they’ve been changed out since then.”

Dianna Carter, who works for the El Paso Council of the Blind, said her group works directly with the county elections department to avoid these types of situations.

“In my experience, it’s an outlier. It’s a very isolated incident. The reason I say that is because our organization canvases persons who are blind or visually-impaired during the elections, each election, and we ask for their input,” Carter said.

But George Zavala, who is blind, tells ABC-7 he’s experienced similar situations while trying to vote. Last March, during the midterm primaries, he said he tried to use an audio ballot.

“When i went to the one on Bassett, it wasn’t working. As a matter of fact, the young man — which I understand, he’s trying to be helpful — he wanted me to vote,” Zavala said. “He would tell me for example ‘do you want Veronica Escobar for this and that?’ and I’m like ‘I don’t want anybody to know.’ My wife was like 20 feet away she said she could hear me.”

Zavala said he plans on voting in this election, but moments like that can be discouraging for others.

“W hen someone has a disability and they don’t feel comfortable voting, they’re not going to go back. I guarantee that,” Zavala said.

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