The ability to cast a ballot privately, without anyone knowing what or who you chose is a right enshrined in Michigan's constitution.
Lately, Detroiters who are blind have said the machine that is supposed to help them exercise that right — known as a Voter Assist Terminal — fails too often.
During an October 12 Detroit Election Commission meeting, Stephen Handschu told officials he’s had no issue voting privately in other cities he’s lived in.
“I have not been able to vote secretly with my right to privacy intact since 2016 when I came back to Detroit,” Handschu, who is blind, said.
Voter Assist Terminals are in place at every polling center in the state. They allow people to fill out their ballot using a touchscreen or large buttons to navigate, headphones to hear options, and larger text to make selections easier to read, alongside other accessibility tools.
In response to concerns raised by Handschu and others, City Clerk Janice Winfrey has repeatedly said the terminals are checked before every election and are “all working.” But in that meeting, she also said the machines are “trash.”
“They purposely, in my opinion, don't put a lot of thought and effort into [the Voter Assist Terminals] because they don't sell like the other machines,” Winfrey said.
Accessible voting options in Michigan:
- Using Voter Assist Terminals at any precinct in the state
- Having someone fill out an absentee ballot on the voter’s behalf
- Applying for an accessible electronic absent voter ballot that can be filled out online. Deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on the Friday before election day
A spokesperson for Winfrey declined an interview request and did not respond to written questions to clarify her comments.
The machines used in Detroit are made by Liberty Vote, formerly known as Dominion Voting Systems. Wayne County is responsible for choosing to purchase the machines, after they were approved by the Michigan Department of State. Sixty-four other Michigan counties use the same machines.
Michigan Public reached out to the company, Wayne County, and the state to ask if there are broad issues with design or manufacture of the Liberty Vote terminals. They did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
During the 2024 general election, a “programming issue” prevented voters from making a straight party selection on the Liberty Vote machines.
“A reversal”?
Detroit Advocates of the Blind President Richard Clay was “shocked” to hear the city clerk call the machines “trash.”
It felt like a “reversal,” he said, because Winfrey had defended the machines before. She said criticisms were "disingenuous" and “unfair.”
Clay is clear that his group is not saying the machines “never” work. It’s about a “50/50 chance” that all aspects will be functional, he said.
“The issue with the VAT machine is that there are so many ways for the machine to fail,” Clay told Michigan Public’s Stateside. “Some of the voters who have [other] disabilities, they're only using parts of what the VAT machine offers. Whereas the blind voter needs everything on this machine to work.”
If the headphones aren’t playing audio or the buttons don’t work, he said blind voters have few choices. They can wait for poll workers to troubleshoot the machine. Depending on the problem, it can be a quick fix or can take hours if they have to wait on a technician.
Alternatively, state law allows poll workers to help someone fill out their ballot — but that means voters with disabilities have to verbally share their selections with at least two people. And, Clay said, the people working in his precinct are often his neighbors.
“The information about how I vote could get to other people and could affect things in terms of my employment or my relationship with my neighbors and so on and so forth,” he said. “And that just should not happen for any voter, let alone a disabled voter.”
Voting absentee presents a similar issue for blind voters, Clay said, because they have to get a family member or friend to fill out their ballot for them — and trust that they will actually fill it in as instructed.
Clay said he and other advocates have been working to get guarantees that additional steps would be taken to ensure the machines work for every voter at every precinct from the county and city clerk’s office behind the scenes, for at least eight years.
“We've had more productive conversations over the years with (Wayne) County,” he said. “[But] you get to the point … where we kind of indicated to them like, okay, ‘it's time to put our foot down here. This is just not acceptable. It's a violation of our federal civil rights and we want something done now.’”
Eventually, the county stopped communicating “cold turkey,” Clay said. So, across multiple public meetings and media interviews in the lead up to the 2026 election, Clay and other voters who are blind brought up their concerns. They asked for additional poll worker training and more tests at every polling place.
Clerk Winfrey responded that there are trained staff at every polling place, who wear a special apron to make them easily identifiable as “Voter Assist Terminal specialists.”
“Their job is to test those machines before that precinct opens,” Winfrey said during the October 12 meeting. “So when that precinct opens, all of our devices are working.”
Clay does give “credit” that it seems like poll workers are more prepared than they have been historically. And, he says, the machines are usually set up before arrival — which wasn’t always the case.
As the state prepares to bid new contracts with voting machine companies, Clay hopes disability advocates will have a better say on which machines should “never see the light of day.”
Outlier Media's Detroit Documenters contributed to this reporting.
