• Meridian Residents Try Out New Voting Machines

MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - The Township Board received a letter from resident Donna Rose about possible voter discrimination due to inadequacies with the new voting machines.

Those with visual impairments in meridian township and throughout the state have been highly critical of the new dominion voting machines, which are approved by the secretary of state's bureau of elections for counties to use.

They claim they are losing their right to a secret ballot by having to request help from poll workers to use the machines.

The Bureau of Elections is increasing their training of the poll workers to help those with disabilities.

These steps may not be enough for visually impaired michiganders who would rather have a voting machine they could use without any help.

Township Clerk Brett Dreyfus is planning an event to bring all sides together, including some independent observers.

"Two of the researcher's there are affiliated with a national organization that researches standards for voting equipment for people with disabilities. So it's really a great coincidence that we have two msu researchers, right here in our own backyard, who are a part of a national voting accessibility group. They came in and already did research in the past election last year to look at some of these potential issues. We're going to be inviting them back here in april or may. We're going to have the open house here. I call it a field research day," said Dreyfus.

By bringing together machines, residents, researchers, and members of the bureau of elections, clerk. Dreyfus hopes to add transparency to the voting machine choice process.