Hi, my name is John Bailey and I’m “The Blind Guy Who Sees Options.” I have been legally blind for most of my life and I know a lot about adapting to new situations.

Well, I’m going to tell you about how simple voting is today. Voting can be easy, even if you’ve got a vision impairment and can’t read a printed ballot. Having a vision impairment doesn’t need to be an excuse for not voting. You have the right to vote and you should exercise that right.

I’m going to tell you a bit about my past experiences voting. Then, I’ll explain how different it is today and how much simpler it has become.

When I turned eighteen and could vote in my first election, I didn’t know anything about how the process of voting operated. So, on Election Day, I traveled to my local library/voting station in anticipation of voting for the first time. I knew I was going to need help voting because I couldn’t see print well enough to read it and I decided to ask for assistance from those running the ballot boxes.

Well, back then, they got quite frazzled about my request for sighted assistance to vote. They were quite confused as to how to handle the request and didn’t know the process for how to do it.

I guess not many blind people voted back then. It took a little while, but I did eventually get sighted assistance. That was before the days of accessible technology and voice recognition software.

When I voted for the first time, I had to fill out a printed ballot. Today, we have it so much easier and you should take advantage of it, if you can.

You’ve got two options to achieve this. The first option for exercising your right to vote is to use an absentee ballot. One advantage of voting absentee is that you can do it at your leisure and avoid all those big lines on Election Day. Just go to your local voting place and request an absentee ballot or go online to Vote.org to get one through the mail.

I go to their office and just fill out the form and – boom – it’s done! No worries. No having to get time off from work on Election Day.

A second option is available for voting if you want to vote on Election Day or if you’ve got a thing for standing in lines.

If you do choose to vote on Election Day, remember to take your photo identification with you. A lot of states now require you to have an ID – vision impaired or not. With your ID, you go to the voting location, talk to the person who’s running the voting, and tell them you would like assistance filling out the ballot.

They will give you two options at this point. The first option is that you can use a talking voting machine. Basically, to use a talking voting machine, you put on a pair of headphones connected to the machine. The staff will set it up for you. You then will be able to hear what the voting options are and you will then be able to make your choices.

A lot of people like the privacy of using a talking voting machine. That is one of the biggest benefits to using this option.

The second option for getting sighted assistance at the voting booth is to have them fill out the forms for you. This is my preference. I just want to get in there and get out as quickly as possible because there is usually a long line and I really don’t care who knows whom I voted for or what I vote for. So, I go to the registrar, show them my photo ID, and then I request cited assistance.

Filling out the paperwork and casting my vote only takes a few minutes and I don’t have to deal with the hassle of them setting up the talking voting machine and instructions on how to use it. You know, blah-blah-blah.

The last denomination is the quarter– The twenty-five cent piece. The reason they call it a quarter is because in the olden days, the way they made change from a dollar coin was they cut it into quarters; fourths. You got really weird shaped edges, but that’s where we got the term quarter.

I tell them what to fill in and, “Bob’s your uncle,” I’m done!

I like to do the final step of casting my vote myself. I take my filled-in ballot and run it through the scanner. In Virginia, we fill out paper ballots and then run them through a scanner to be counted.

In the past, it was a lot more complicated for the vision impaired to vote. Today, people are working to make voting accessible to everyone and this is great news.

There are ways to vote if you have any sort of vision impairment. A disability doesn’t have to be an excuse for not voting.

So, exercise your rights. Exercise your options to choose your own future by voting!