Newham Council to introduce new instrument to help blind and partially sighted residents to vote – Newham Council

Newham Council to introduce new instrument to help blind and partially sighted residents to vote

• The “McGonagle Reader” is being rolled out for the Plaistow South By-Election, September 18

• Allows residents with visible impairment to solid their vote in secret

For many blind or partially sighted residents the straightforward however profound act of casting a vote in an election is way from straightforward. An incapability to see and browse a poll paper – after which mark a paper – presents an actual problem. This usually requires an individual to require help to mark their desire.  

That’s why for the primary time Newham the Council is trialling the McGonagle Reader which provides an audio immediate and bodily assist to permit voters to decide on and mark their very own poll paper with out help. Typically, blind and partially sighted voters are supported by a polling clerk or companion.  

Backed by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, the McGonagle Reader ends the necessity for the voter to voice their option to an assistant – and offers the individual certainty that the vote has been solid accurately and based on their want. 

Newham Interim Chief Executive Paul Martin, who’s the returning officer for the Plaistow South By Election on 18 September mentioned: “It is over 150 years for the reason that notion of a secret poll was enshrined in British democracy, however for many individuals with visible impairment the necessity to require help to make their alternative, and mark their poll paper, has denied them this proper to anonymity. 

“We hope by introducing the McGonagle Reader system at our polling stations, we can restore that right and dignity to voters.” 

If you are meaning to vote within the Plaistow South By-Election, have a visually impairment, and wish to strive the McGonagle Reader, please make your self recognized to election employees on the Polling Station. The employees are educated and can discuss you thru the very merely technique of utilizing the system to mark your poll paper in secrecy.