 Good morning everybody. Hello. We're going to get things started. Thanks for coming to all the members of the media and everybody who's here to help us with the press conference. I'm Will Senning. I'm the distinguished emcee for the press conference this morning or this afternoon. I'm also the elections director here in the Secretary of State's office and along with a small, very hardworking staff. It's my honor to work under Secretary Kondo's to preside over our Vermont elections which are carried out in the major part by our amazing local town and city clerks and local election officials, one of whom we have here today who's going to speak a little bit later. In a moment I'll turn it over to Secretary Kondo's before I do. I just want to say that a tremendous amount of work went into the development of this system, this new accessible voting system, which you may hear referred to today as the AVS, accessible voting system. And with that I'll pass the mic over to Vermont Secretary of State Jim Kondo. Good afternoon and thank you all for coming today. I am Vermont Secretary of State Jim Kondo's and my role does include presiding as the Chief Elections Officer for the state of Vermont. We're really excited to be here today to raise awareness about our new accessible voting system. It increases accessibility for all voters at the polls but it also ensures that any Vermont voter who wishes to cast their ballot privately and independently has the ability to do just that. I want to thank the folks who are here with me today at this press conference and who are very important partners in the design development and promotion of the new system. AJ Rubin with Disability Rights Vermont, Sarah Lunderville with the Vermont Center for Independent Living, Barry City Clerk, Carol Daz, and of course my elections director Will Senning. There's also a lot of other unsung heroes who are here as well. I also want to recognize our elections administrator Lori Bjornlund who was instrumental in helping with the design of the new AVS system and with Kumai Castillo who has joined us today to help us demonstrate the new system in action. Voting is a constitutional right and free elections are the foundation on which the pillars of our democracy sit. Voting for many is also should be and is private and personal. Most voters who wish to vote and cast their ballot freely and independently. I hear from Vermonters time and time again about the importance of a secret ballot. There are nearly 200,000 voting locations throughout the U.S. that require some form of accessible voting's device. It is in fact a federal requirement and it is and it should be for a good reason. However, the challenge that we have observed was that the comparatively low number of voters with disabilities who utilize the accessible system that we had previously available mainly because of the setup of those devices assistance was often required compromising that voters ability to vote privately and independently. We also learned that many voters with disabilities vote from home during the early vote period with assistance from a family member, a healthcare provider, or a friend. We continued to learn from the advocacy community that the current system that we had was not user friendly and the it resulted in most people voting from home with assistance, meaning their votes were not private. Starting back in August, we implemented a new AVS system at every polling place in Vermont which was also usable by voters remotely during the early vote period. This replaced the old phone-based accessible voting system and if you saw it, it was literally an old touch tone phone with big numbers and it wasn't very user friendly. This system that we've got now is a ballot marking device. A voter makes their selections on a tablet and can use a variety of tools to make and confirm their selection which you will see later in the demonstration. Once the voter confirms their selections, a printer marks the same ballot used by all voters with that voter's selections and the ballot is then fed through the tabulator or placed in a ballot box for hand counting like every other vote that's cast. There's no difference. This universal design is incredibly important. Not only did we feel that this system needs to be accessible and usable by all voters, it's equally important that the ballots produced by the AVS system are indistinguishable from other voter mark ballots, not just for privacy but for the security and integrity of our election system. I think you've all heard me talk at length about the importance of paper ballots. I can't say it enough. A voter mark paper ballot is really, really important. It was important to us and to our partners in the advocacy community such as DRBT and VCIL that we produce provide the same ballot marking an interface for voters who vote by mail. Through a secure online process, voters may request, receive and mark their ballot using their home devices and assistive technology. They can print their ballot and mail it to the municipal clerk to be counted right alongside with other ballots on election day. Considerable work went into the design and development of the system. We contracted with a third party independent contractor called Democracy Live to develop and build the technology and a number of partners including DRBT and VCIL and individuals who help test and provide feedback as well as a handful of municipal clerks including our wonderful Mary City Clerk, Carol Daz. I believe it is the responsibility of this office to make voting as easy and accessible as possible for every single eligible voter who wishes to vote. The new accessible voting system is a big step in the right direction, but we know there's still more work to do. We're going to be hearing from AJ Rubin shortly about the polling place accessibility survey and report that they have conducted. We're committed to working with all of our partners in the disability advocacy space and with our hardworking municipal clerks who are the points of entry to our democracy for our voters across the state to make sure we are doing everything we can possibly do to ensure that every voter who wishes to cast a ballot can cast a ballot. With that, I'll now turn it over to Will. Thank you, Secretary Kondos. Next up that I would like to introduce is AJ Rubin. AJ is the supervising attorney at Disability Rights Vermont. Disability Rights Vermont's mission is to promote the equality, dignity, and self-determination of people with disabilities. They were an important partner in the design and development of the accessible voting system. I would directly thank Linda Cramer for the work she did with us throughout the project. So we thank your whole organization for that help. And as Secretary Kondos mentioned, DRVT just recently conducted their most recent survey of polling place accessibility around the state and AJ will be speaking about that as well. Thank you so much for allowing us to talk with you at the stage, Jim. It's a real honor and privilege to be here right before Election Day. Everybody who's watching and reading these articles and news accounts, please go out and vote. It's never been a better time to vote. Voting has never been more accessible in the state of Vermont than it is today. And we have a lot of gratitude towards Secretary of State's office for making that happen. The new system is universally accessible to everyone. It makes everybody's voting more convenient and it doesn't discriminate against people with disabilities or separate them out. So again, we're really pleased about that. But for folks who want to vote in person at the polling places, being able to get into the building, to use the new machine is as important as having an accessible machine to use when you get there. And so our office with Help America Vote Act funds from the federal government has spent a few years going around the state and visiting more than half of Vermont's 218 or so polling places. And we've issued a survey which is on the table there and also available at our website that reviews the results of the 155 or 158 polling places that we have analyzed to see whether they comply with federal accessibility laws. These reports discuss how people with disabilities, often with mobility impairments, are able to park at the polling place, travel from the parking space into the polling place, and then within the polling place access the voting machines. What's the good news about our survey is that throughout Vermont, most polling places are mostly accessible and your town clerks will make every effort to make sure that you don't face barriers to vote just because you have a physical impairment. Still, there's some work to be done and I think Sarah will talk more about some of the improvements that can be made in parking and thresholds to get over barriers for people with mobility impairments. But the take away we like to leave you with is that if you make the effort to go to your polling place, your town clerks are aware of the need to make them accessible and they are working on that. And you can always contact DRBT if you're having concerns about getting to your polling place. On election day, we will be having a lawyer, a staffed voter hotline at 1-800-834-7890. And you can call us if you have any questions about your rights to vote as a person with disabilities in Vermont. And again, I just want to close by saying it's a great time to vote in Vermont as a person with a disability or as a person who may soon be disabled. Please go out and vote. Thank you. Thank you again. Just really, I'd like folks to understand we are also putting out the voters guide for people with disabilities that you should be able to find at your town clerk's office or again online at our office at disability rights Vermont. Thank you. Thanks, AJ. We also have the new voters guide on our Secretary of State's website as well. Thank you again. We'll now hear from Sarah Lunderville, the Executive Director at the Vermont Center for Independent Living. The Vermont Center for Independent Living is a non-profit organization directed and staffed by individuals with disabilities working to promote the dignity, independence, and civil rights of Vermonters with disabilities. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us here today. Thank you for inviting us. I love days like today because instead of focusing on only barriers, we're celebrating the success of a new system that will provide broader inclusion for people with disabilities. Over the years, voting access has been an important issue for our state, continuously striving to do better. Over time, our system has grown stronger and we're very excited to see the newest tool that will allow more privacy at the polling place for individuals with disabilities. At VCIL, we look at different prongs that make something a barrier, including barriers to communication, physical barriers, and attitudinal barriers. I'm mindful of the excellent work that has been done to try to provide equality over the years, training to volunteers at the polling place on how to work and interact with people with disabilities, the physical access and the booths, and the excellent assessments and technical assistance that Disability Rights Vermont provides. I reflect on the technology aspect of trying to make it better for a person with a disability to vote in private, and if they wish without assistance from an attendant, a friend, or a person themselves getting the satisfaction of casting their own vote. Our state has long worked to ensure people have broad access at the polls, including curbside and absentee ballot options, and in fact, many people with disabilities, as you heard before, are using those absentee ballot options as well today. Years ago, we celebrated this phone system that brought some greater access, inclusion, and voting, but it still didn't work for everybody. And that's why I like about moving forward and not getting stuck in one particular system. We evaluate and we revise so it's even better than the one before. I personally love going to the polling place. I live in a small town. I like seeing the candidates as I make my way into the building, making their last plug for why I should vote for them. I love the clerk smiling at me and waving from across the room as I go in with my three children, and I'm able to show them the importance of going to a polling place and casting their vote. I love feeling the pride that I get to make my own decision on who I support for a position, and I like casting my vote, getting a chance to know that in this world, I still get that opportunity. Some people have been choosing to vote absentee ballot because the system at the polling place has not worked for them. But like me, they really want to go and vote on election day and have that same experience. So we are excited that more people can now have that option if they choose. There's still a lot of work to be done. Transportation to the polls is still a barrier for some, and a lot of the get out the vote campaigns that are out there still leave individuals with disabilities behind when they're doing travel and transportation and rides to the polls. There are new volunteers at the polling place each year who need training and how to interact with individuals who are disabled or deaf or have service animals or attendants. But it's important to be mindful that while we are creating better tools for access and full inclusion of individuals with disabilities at the polling place, it's an effort in which we all share some responsibility. Some of the barriers we often hear from individuals are that people are still parking in accessible parking spaces when they don't have a disability. Making sure these machines are in wheelchair accessible locations and simply plugging in the machine and learning the ins and outs of that machine before election day is also important. Using the tools and working so that everyone has access on election day will elevate the amount of success that people have in casting their vote here in Vermont. Because voting on election day goes way beyond selecting the candidate we want. It's about our collective responsibility, our being part of community. So with that we here at VCI will applaud that this option has become more equitable for people with disabilities. Thank you so much. Thank you, Sarah. And thanks, Sarah. And thanks for your partnership promoting our new voting options with the successful voting system. And before we move on to questions and then a demonstration following the questions, I have the pleasure of introducing Carol Dawes who is the Berry City clerk. Our municipal clerks are the front lines of our elections and our democracy as such. And Carol was an instrumental member of a small team of clerks who assisted us in the design development and beta testing of the system. I'm going to ad-lib a little bit here, Eric. No, it's dangerous. But I really appreciated the partial conclusion in addition to pointing out some of the deficiencies across the state in the survey that DRVT conducted that pointed out how willing the clerks are and how committed the clerks are to providing access to the polls for people with disabilities. That has certainly been my experience in all of my conversations with them. And AJ was speaking about physical access, but that same concern certainly carries through to their willingness to adopt this new system, learn this new system. We put a lot on the plates of the municipal clerks. Every year, it seems like we throw something new at you all around elections. And this year was this system. And it means they have to set up a whole new distinct voting system from the tabulators and the ballot boxes that they usually set up. And for the most part, to a person, they've been willing and excited to do so and to serve voters with disabilities. So with that, thanks, Caroline. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to participate. And I really do feel like I'm speaking on behalf of all the clerks throughout the state of Vermont. And I have that privilege. This really is just another step in the accessible movements that the Secretary of State's office has helped with over the years. During my 10 years in office, we've received funding support for additional signage for electric doors at polling places, not only our usual polling place, but also our city hall, which is a polling place for early and absentee voting. And so this is just the next step. As Will mentioned, I participated with a small group of clerks on early versions and really appreciated the fact the Secretary of State's office and Democracy Live, the contractor, wanted to hear from the clerks, particularly about functionality in the field. We're the ones who are there interacting with the voters, and they wanted to hear from us. They took a lot of notes. They showed us the system. We offered suggestions on bits and pieces that could be changed. And the system that has been rolled out certainly has benefited from that input from other clerks. As it was mentioned, we used it at the August primary. In Barrie City, we had three people use the equipment. They were all election workers, but it's a great way for my election workers to get trained on the system to see what it can do and to help encourage other community members to use it. The nice thing about the system is that it really is available to absolutely everybody, and we hope to see a lot more use next week. The other thing is that I want to say that we've been working very closely with Democracy Live over the last few weeks getting the system up and running. There are hiccups. It's a brand new system, but they've been incredibly responsive to the needs for changes, for quick fixes, information. They are responding to email requests about problem solving. So they've been wonderful in getting those bits and pieces together. And one of the things I'm excited about is we have a local school ballot that's being voted on Tuesday, and we're working with Democracy Live to include that ballot also. So anybody who comes to the polls in Barrie City will be able to vote the general election ballot and the local ballot, and hopefully that means that local elections, including town meeting elections, can be fully accessible in the future. Secretary Kondo spoke about the availability of the system for those who want to vote independently and confidentially in their own homes. We've issued about 550 early and absentee ballots so far in Barrie City, and 13 of those have been people voting in their homes, and we're very excited about that. So again, thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Carol, and that's the end of the prepared remarks. We'll open it up for questions for any of the speakers. Senator or AJ, can you explain again why the system that this new tabulator is replacing was deficient just now? I don't know the system well enough, but yeah, I mean, I think with the vote by phone at the polls, you had to kind of go through this system, and I remember trying out, and we thought it was like sort of state-of-the-art back then, but and people who were blind who were working through that system were finding it easier than people who weren't blind, you know, so there was that aspect that was sort of positive at the time, but you'd have to sort of wait for your candidate, cash your vote. It was like this whole, it's like talking to, you know, going through customer service at some big credit card company, but that it was actually even a longer list because it was a bunch of candidates that you'd have to sort of go through that piece. This is much more user-friendly. It's pushing a button for your candidate, that sort of thing. You also received the ballot to come up at the polls, whereas with the vote by phone, the ballot was not printed at the poll, so the voter did not actually get to attain and hold their ballot. And the old system actually was a result of 2002 HAVA, Help America Vote Act, and it actually went into place around 2006. So we've had that system in place for about 10 years before we started working on the new system, and when we first started working on the new system, we reached right out to the disability community to help us with it because they're the experts. We're not, so we needed their help, we needed their assistance, and they were able to, as we were going, working our way through the RFP process, when we had shortlisted it down to, like, I think it was three companies, we had people who had disabilities come in and actually try the systems to determine which was the best. If I may, he also mentioned why it's replacing the tabulator, and it's not replacing the tabulator, it's working in conjunction with the tabulator, it's just a ballot marking tool. And these are going to be in every polling place in the state of Vermont? They are already there. And there's 218? There's actually 246 towns, and there's 275 polling districts. 275 polling locations. Yes. 310 actual machines distributed throughout the state. Where does this put Vermont in relation to other states around the country? We actually think we're pretty much state-of-the-art on this one. This is pretty much brand new, and this was finalized as we were developing the system, so we're really excited about it, as is the vendor, because this is something that they worked on with us, with the disability community to develop a really bona fide and user-friendly system. So do you need to? Yeah, I don't know if any other states have got it now, but at the time that we rolled it out in August, we were the only state with this system. It went fine. There was a few hiccups, as I think Carol said. There were a few times where there was bad connections or whatever when the clerks had set it up, but we were able to walk our way through it. We had folks from Democracy Live in the state to help us with help the clerks in case there were any problems. On the broader issue of accessibility, the survey has seen the results from about just over 50 percent of polling places, and everyone has one or two deficiencies. How easy is it to fix those, and when can they be? AJ, I'll let AJ speak to that one. This is a survey. Overall, if you please take the survey and read through it, you'll see that the federal regulations for access really talk about mobility access and things like thresholds not being too high, and ramps for folks who use wheelchairs not being too steep, sidewalks not having big cracks in them so people fall. Generally, the costs to fix these things are minimal. Rarely do elevators have to be put in place, and so most towns can fix these things temporarily. For instance, signage for van accessible parking spaces can be done on election day with cones, so it costs almost nothing. In the long run, making these improvements make it safer for anyone to get into your town office even if it's not on election day because these are things that can injure folks who have mobility impairment. The takeaway is that these are not difficult things to fix. They are not very costly. There are funds available at the Secretary of State's office to help to phrase some of those costs. Overall, it can't emphasize enough that the town clerks and the polling officials are aware of their responsibilities and they're eager to make sure that everybody who wants to cast a vote at the polling place can do so with or without a disability. So there's a lot of room for optimism and the problems are easily fixed, and we expect they will be remedied shortly. And do you have any more severe concerns about certain polling places in Vermont where people with mobility sight or hearing impairments will struggle mightily to cast a vote this year? So I can say that I have almost 55% of the polling places that we have visited. None of them leave us with any concern that if someone shows up on election day and has an obstacle to get into the polling place that they will not be assisted and be able to vote. So there's no place in Vermont that we felt so strongly that we would start litigation or make formal complaints. Everybody is very willing to make it work. But I would say again that on election day we have a lawyer staffed hotline, 1-800-834-7890. And if anybody faces a problem voting because of their disability on election day, call us until the polls close and we'll provide assistance to you. There should be no obstacle to getting to the polls this election day. And this is kind of for anybody. I mean you bring up the experience of going to the polls, having your own ballot in your hands. Explain to people why that's so important to the voting process. It's the basis of our democracy. It's the core of our democracy. It's what we are all about. It's what the clerks strive for every day. It's what they strive for on election day. They work hard on, you know, many of the clerks, I can't speak for Carol. I don't know. You can ask her but many of the clerks are in their offices on election day by 5 a.m. at the latest and they don't go home until after midnight in most cases. That's a long day for the clerks. They work hard at it. They really take pride in running their elections and making sure that every person has the ability to cast a ballot. How much did the system cost? Will. About 1.3 million, roughly. All state dollars or some grants. It was actually federal dollars. It was part of our Help America Vote Act money. Jim, if I may, can I add on to both of the questions that this gentleman asked about where this puts Vermont in relation to other states in terms of the system and also the question about the experience of voters. I think they're both tied into an important fact about the system that I want to make sure you're all clear. It's been mentioned but I want to re-emphasize it and I think it is what distinguishes this system from others. There are across the country other states using these tablet-based voting devices for people with disabilities. What I think distinguishes Vermont's is that the end result of it is that the same ballot used by all other voters, the same ballot that could hand it to you or me to go mark with our pen, is placed in the printer and the printer fills in the ovals, drops marks on the ovals just as if it was me marking those ovals with a pen. And that ballot is then brought to the tabulator or the ballot box as the secretary said. That's a distinguishing feature of the system that goes to ensuring that voters with disabilities have as close to the same experience as other voters as possible. And what we're very proud of here in Vermont, this is a marked ballot. But what we're very pleased about in Vermont is that the experience that the voter has is basically no different. They get to hold a ballot in their hands and produce that ballot and put it into the machine without fear that someone else is going to see how they voted. So it really is a, how do I say it? It's user friendly. It's easy to use and we're going to have a demonstration here for you. But it really does make sense from the standpoint across the country. We are really the first to use this type of a system. And what I always like to say, you know, Will has heard me say it enough. But for every vote that's cast that when you see the totals on election day, we have a ballot to match that. So we're really pleased about that. Does it take anything on the amount of registered voters in the state that this will help? Thousands, hundreds? 20% generally is good enough. 20%? Usually 20% of the population has something of a disability. So it would be fair to say that at least a fifth of the people who vote could benefit. But the most important takeaway is that this is a universal system. This system is not just for people with disabilities. This is for anybody. And it should be as easy to use as the marking the paper ballot. So it's a fully universally accessible voting system. And I think the point that AJ is making is perfect. It's about equal access. It's about everybody having the same access to the ballot. And that's what we're striving for. I just would add in terms of statistics that like the rest of the country, the exit polls are showing that people with disabilities are voting less and less. And so if this is one of those opportunities to help people get to the polls and vote, then that's wonderful. And one of the things that we did find as we were before we actually went out for their RFP on this system was that a lot of folks with disabilities that were voting were voting from home. They were requesting a mail ballot from their town clerk. And then have someone in their home help them fill it out and send it back in. And this will allow them to experience the polls and election day just like anybody else. This is what our system looks like, tablet-based. I have speakers so that you can hear. There is a headphone jack here. And we have headphones so if somebody chooses to hear as they're using the system, then they can have the headphones on. Today we have the speakers so that you can all hear it as well. And then there's a printer to the right and the ballots. So I'm acting as the poll worker and inputting the poll worker hand, choosing and asking the voter how they would like to vote. We have an 8-key navigation pad, touchscreen, or three-button devices as well. Today Kumaia has decided to use the touchscreen. Please deselect an option to make another choice. Selected. Laura S. Potter, Charleston, Peter Welch, Norwich, Democratic. Selected. Continue. Contest three of the team for governor. Christine Hawquist, I. Park, Democratic. Selected. Contest four of the team for Lieutenant Governor. Don Turner JR, Milton, Republican. There will be a poll worker standing by and we recommend that they use a manila or some kind of folder so that they can make sure that they're here just to make sure that the ballot does print successfully and then can instruct the voter or help the voter to input the ballot to the folder and walk over to the machine or the ballot bag or box not bag. And we could do another demonstration to show the 8-key nav pad if there's time. I think I'll ask Eric if, yes.