AAPD objects to perceived monopoly in voting machine equipment companies

The AAPD release:

WASHINGTON, DC –– The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country's largest cross-disability membership organization, raised an objection to voting machine company ES&S’s acquisition of Premier Voting Services in a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Dec. 17.

In the letter to Holder from AAPD’s President and CEO, Andrew Imparato, Imparato said in addition to the acquisition creating a monopoly with control of about 70 percent of the market for voting equipment, the acquisition would stifle innovation in voting machines.

“This is particularly concerning,” Imparato said in the letter, “…because ES&S is not considered by the disability community to be a leader in designing and selling accessible voting devices.”

Imparato cited several examples of problems with accessibility and ES&S in the past, including changes in optical scanners used in voting precincts, ES&S’s refusal to make their product available for community testing in New York State during usability tests by people with disabilities and problems with a paper ballot marking device called “AutoMark” for people with limited use of his or her hands.

“AAPD believes that ES&S’s acquisition of Premier Voting Systems would slow if not reverse this progress by reducing competition and consolidating 70 percent of the voting machine manufacturing industry into the hands of a company that has consistently failed to prioritize accessibility for voters with disabilities,” Imparato said in the letter.