How accessible will Latvia's upcoming elections be?

Coming to the polling station, receiving ballot papers, going to the voting booth, choosing the party list you like best, making marks and placing the envelope into the ballot box – for most people, these are a few very simple steps. However, if you cannot see the ballot paper, you may have to ask someone for help and thus reveal your choice to them. There are only a few weeks left until the 15th Saeima elections on October 3rd, and we are currently thinking a lot about how to protect them from airspace threats, hybrid attacks and technical glitches. But have we also thought enough about people who may have difficulty voting? How accessible are elections for people with disabilities? "It's hard to say, yes. It's clear that you should do it independently first. Well, personally, I probably wouldn't want to trust anyone," said Jurģis Briedis, an environmental accessibility expert at the "Apeirons" association of people with disabilities and their friends, who has had vision problems since birth, about voting in elections with the help of another person. In Latvia, more than 225,000 people are officially recognized as disabled among a population of 1.8 million. Approximately 12 000 people have registered visual impairments. This is according to data compiled by the Ministry of Welfare for April of this year. However, the true number of people who may have difficulty voting due to their vision is likely higher. People with disabilities can in theory participate in elections like anyone else – vote at a polling station, use advance voting, or register to vote from home. Visually impaired people can use a magnifying glass provided at polling stations. However, if a person is unable to mark or sign the ballot paper themselves due to visual impairment, they can be assisted by a person they trust. Since last year, a specially trained polling station employee may also do this. As Briedis said, difficulties often begin at the door of the polling station – you have to find a voting booth, read the ballots, and understand who to ask for help. Therefore, the polling station must have a trained employee who can accompany a disabled voter. Briedis also emphasized that a person with a disability is not obliged to accept only the available form of voting. The help of a trusted person is an important option, but it should not become the only solution. He emphasized that everyone has the right to vote secretly and keep their political choice to themselves - including a person with a disability. "The biggest problem with blind people [participating in elections] is that no one is really clear: can an assistant go with them or not? One year they can, they've voted, and everything is fine, the next year they're not allowed, an employee goes with them. Is that how that employee is instructed? Is it their duty? Can you trust that employee? So there's no clarity. I think the Central Election Commission (CVK) also doesn't have an algorithm written for how you should really act if you're a blind person," said Briedis. The fact that elections must be 100% accessible was emphasized by Ivars Balodis, Chairman of the Board of "Apeirons". He assessed the accessibility of elections in a broader context than just one election day. A person should be able not only to enter the polling station, but also to familiarize themselves with the party programmes in a timely and understandable manner, get to the voting booth and make their choice independently. Information should also be available digitally. Balodis believes that voting at home is a necessary alternative, but it cannot be used as an excuse for inaccessible polling stations. A trusted person or polling station employee can also help, but primarily a person must be able to vote themselves. "That's why those elections are already hidden from us. It's your independent decision, which no one else knows. It's your free choice, your free will, which you can safely express to yourself and that ballot box, not through some person, in someone's presence, because it can always turn out in different ways," explained Balodis. The head of the Central Election Commission, Māris Zviedris, assessed the accessibility of elections for people with disabilities as generally positive. More than 80% of polling stations are accessible, and the situation is improving with each election, although there are fewer solutions for more specific needs. He said the CVK website will have party programmes and information about candidates in audio format. Meanwhile, guidelines on assistance to people with functional disabilities have been prepared for polling station employees. However, there are no Braille ballots or tactile templates in Latvia. Zviedris pointed out that the CVK has not received any complaints about people's ability to vote in recent years, so there are currently no plans to implement such a solution. In addition, it would also be very expensive. "I really want to hope that even those who need help and have to live with various everyday things, because they have certain disabilities or limitations, trust [others]. And here's the thing - if you can't trust anyone at all, then we have also provided [an employee who can help vote] from the precinct commission. There are possibilities. From an ethical point of view - what would this proposal be to do without that trusted person?" Zviedris reasoned. "Apeirons" also does not consider Braille to be a universal solution, because many people with vision problems do not understand it. As a possibility, the association mentioned technology that would read the ballot and help with audio cues to make marks – similar to ATMs that can be used with headphones. "Apeirons" also added that lack of money often becomes an excuse for not changing anything. However, this cannot be the reason why a person cannot vote independently. Overall, Zviedris assessed that the elections are quite widely accessible to any voter, although improvements are still possible. "Apeirons", on the other hand, gives only five or six points out of ten, saying that the elections are accessible, but not yet sufficient. The CVK does not collect data on how many people with disabilities participate in elections, and most likely will not do so in the 15th Saeima elections scheduled for October.