February 4, 2020

People With Disabilities Are Not Always Keen on Paper Ballots

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The Iowa counting fiasco has prompted a resurgence of folks who think we should conduct all elections using paper ballots. It worked for decades, so why not now? Who needs all this techno gimcrackery anyway?

I happen to agree with this, despite paper ballots being responsible for the election of George W. Bush in 2000. However, many, many people with disabilities don’t agree, and they have the ADA on their side. So keep this in mind when you issue your clarion call for paper ballots. As a backup to machines they’re fine, but as a replacement not so much.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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