Pretoria - The Electoral Commission, Blind SA and South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB) have developed a special new 32-window cardboard ballot template to allow visually impaired voters to vote unaided in the elections.
According to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), the record number of political parties and candidates contesting the 2016 Municipal Elections on 3 August has required the development of new voting aids for the visually impaired to cater for the larger ballot papers.
“The Electoral Commission has always been sensitive to the needs of voters who are visually impaired,” Deputy Chief Electoral Officer for Outreach at the Electoral Commission, Dr Nomsa Masuku, said on Tuesday.
The Electoral Commission first developed a universal ballot template (UBT), together with SANCB, for use in the 2011 Municipal Elections.
The original plastic UBT accommodates ballots with up to 18 parties or candidates and has been in use in elections ever since.
“The new templates work in exactly the same way as the plastic UBT. They have windows numbered in Braille and with numbers in large white font so that people with different tactile, literacy and sight levels can use the same template,” the IEC said.
Masuku said the fact that the Electoral Commission needs to constantly expand the size of the template to accommodate larger ballot papers is an indication of the strong growth of multi-party democracy South Africa.
She thanked the South African Council for the Blind and Blind SA for their partnership in this initiative.
“Developing a new ballot template in such a short space of time would not have been possible without their expert assistance,” Masuku. Said.
An even bigger double-column 40-window cardboard UBT will be used in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipal council elections, where 36 parties are contesting the elections.
The Cape Town ballot paper will be the largest yet seen in a South African election and about A3 in size – approximately twice the size of a traditional ballot paper
All voting stations in the 2016 Municipal Elections will be supplied with a UBT and election officials have been trained to assist visually impaired voters to mark their ballots unaided with the use of a UBT and to cast their vote.
Voter education on using the UBT has also begun nationwide with the assistance of organisations representing visually impaired persons, including Blind SA and SANCB.
Blind SA CEO Jace Nair said the use of assistive devices and new technologies play an important role in building a more inclusive democracy.
“We look forward to this inclusivity being progressively improved with each of South Africa’s ensuing elections,” Nair said. – SAnews.gov.za
