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 | You and Yours - Transcript ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 |
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| TX: 04.06.04 – BLIND PEOPLE SAY ALL-POSTAL VOTING IGNORES THEIR NEEDS PRESENTER: PETER WHITE |
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| THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE ´óÏó´«Ã½ CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY WHITE Next Thursday there will be local and European elections and the Assembly election in London and for the first time in fourregions all postal voting will be taking place, in other words you won't have the option of going to a polling station. No doubt you'll have heard about the delays in sending out postal votes but many people with visual impairments are also upset because they say their needs have not been catered for and they argue, indeed, that they're effectively being disenfranchised. Liz Silver in Nottingham, which is one of the all postal voting areas, is blind and she's angry at the situation. SILVER Whereas before I had the option of going down to my local polling station and at least there'd be a Braille template there so that I'd still have some independence to vote independently. The way the system is now the voting packs that are being sent out are just all in print and whilst I appreciate that the ballot paper itself has got to be in print, there's been nothing done to enable me to access the voting pack independently. The whole thing is a complete nonsense. WHITE Liz Silver. Well joining me now is Julianne Marriott, who's campaign manager for the RNIB. Julianne, on the face of it people would think that postal voting is actually good for blind people - none of that having to schlep all the way down to the polling station - so what's wrong with it? MARRIOTT That's not the case at all. Liz is not an individual case there at all, we've heard from so many blind and partially sighted people who are confused by the postal voting system and are also angry that basically they cannot vote independently and confidentially. WHITE So what's been done wrong basically? MARRIOTT Well basically quite a lot has been done wrong. First of all, you only receive the information in print, you're also not told how you can get any other assistance. Now some assistance is available, not enough as far as we're concerned, but no one is being told the assistance is available. So blind and partially sighted people are just being left fending on their own to vote and having to use friends and neighbours. WHITE So what are you saying - because you're not actually allowed, are you, to send round, for example, a Braille template, you can't actually move, as it were, the election paraphernalia to someone's home. So what should have been done? MARRIOTT That's not true, you can actually ask for assistance and someone can come and visit you at home, if you require that. And they can bring that device with you to help you vote. However, no one knows that that's happening. WHITE Isn't it therefore a bit strong to say people are being disenfranchised, I mean people can vote and there are alternative and I think there are centres, aren't there, where people can also go for advice? MARRIOTT There are centres but they're very difficult to get to for most blind and partially sighted people, whereas your polling station usually was only a few minutes walk. What we're saying, first of all, is that there should never be a system that there's only one way of voting, you should always have a choice. Secondly, we think that the actual electoral register should put on there the details of people's preferred format - so it should say that you want Braille or you want large print. We also think that the information that is sent out for everyone should be in clear print, it's very small the information - I don't know whether you've actually seen it but it's very small - and it should be saying on there clearly how you can get large print and Braille and tape. And lastly there should be a very good advertising campaign - and this is the national government and they need to make sure that there are TV adverts and radio adverts and everything else telling people what they can do and how they can get assistance. WHITE And now it's the 4th June now, voting is on the 10th June and if people are still having problems I mean what can they do, is there time to actually sort this out for people? MARRIOTT Hopefully. We wish for every person with a sight problem to still try and vote. What they can do is they can contact the Electoral Commission or they can contact their local authority and they can ask for that assistance. WHITE Right, well we're also joined by Chris Leslie, who's the ministerresponsible at the Department of Constitutional Affairs. Chris Leslie, what seems to be suggested really is that you've actually in this process of having all postal voting areas you've forgotten about visually impaired people. LESLIE Well that's not the case at all, in fact I'd be very upset if people were under the impression that we were doing this for anything other than trying to make it easier and more convenient for people to vote, particularly people who may have a disability because obviously accessing polling stations has traditionally been quite difficult for a large number of people. We've got good procedures in place, including help lines, assistance and delivery points, we can even have returning officers come out to you, if you have a visual impairment or a disability … WHITE But people don't know all this and people like Liz Silver, who's articulate and able to do things for herself, she's really had to go out and find all this information out for herself. LESLIE Well I mean in conventional elections we still have that problem with the polling stations. We've got to, yes, get more information out but we've been having features in the editions of Talking Newspapers, we have pre-election information that goes out with minimum font size, with audio tapes available, Braille, discs via the internet and so forth. I've been making sure that we try and have these returning officers with tactile voting devices, with large paper print, ballot paper examples, signature guides and so forth, so that at these assistance and delivery points and also with the returning officers visiting people at home, they can get to vote. WHITE But shouldn't people have accessible information about this - the advance accessible information sent to their homes, couldn't they be targeted in some way - the local authorities electoral role know who visually impaired people are? LESLIE Well absolutely and I do think that we specified in guidance that the pre-election information sent out to all households should have a minimum font size and that there's a helpline number on it. In fact if I give the helpline number for the Electoral Commission, which is 0800 3 280 280, people can call there and they will be directed to their local authority. I do think it's a fair point, for your colleague from the RNIB, to make about maybe we should have on the electoral register preferred format for people in the future. And we are doing this as a pilot to try and make it easier and more convenient but I do assure you that is our motivation - we want to make more people able to participate. WHITE We will put that number you mentioned on our website, so that people can get that information. But I mean shouldn't people really - what Julianne's main point is that this way you can't actually vote with complete privacy which you could do and were increasingly being able to do at the polling station and what she's saying is that polling stations should be an alternative for visually impaired people. Would you consider that? LESLIE Well one of the myths about this all postal pilot is that somehow the ballot box has been abolished. We actually do have these assistance and delivery points, people can turn up, can get assistance with those tactile voting devices. If they want the returning officer to place the cross on the ballot paper, they will do that in proper secrecy. Those arrangements are there. Don't forget postal voting has been around since 1918, so a lot of this sort of sense that this is a new thing isn't there and we can always make improvements, I'm sure of that. WHITE Chris Leslie, Julianne Marriott, thank you both very much indeed. Back to the You and Yours homepage The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for external websites |
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