WHEREAS, during the 2011 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly passed, and Governor O'Malley signed into law, legislation establishing an online voter registration system; and
WHEREAS, this particular law does not require nonvisual access to the online voter registration system, but Maryland's Information Technology Nonvisual Access Standards require that electronic information technology procured and used by state government be accessible to the blind; and
WHEREAS, the Maryland Board of Elections was a national leader in assuring access to the blind to electronic voting systems before federal law required all elections jurisdictions to offer such access; and
WHEREAS, through the online voter registration system, Marylanders will be able to register to vote, change their name or address when necessary, and change their party affiliation if desired; and
WHEREAS, many blind Maryland voters would find an accessible online voter registration system preferable to other existing voter registration systems; and
WHEREAS, the information required to verify the identity of an individual who uses the online voter registration system, including the forms of signature, are readily available to blind voters, so that all that is now required is nonvisual access to the voter registration system itself; Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in Convention assembled this thirtieth day of October, 2011, in the city of Ocean City, Maryland, that this organization call upon the State Board of Elections to procure an accessible online voter registration system to assure that all the tasks that Maryland citizens will be able to perform using this system are equally available to Maryland's blind citizens and voters.