To Whom It May Concern:

I am disturbed at the news that there is an intention to disallow absentee ballots by people with poor handwriting.  The most notorious class of people with terrible, illegible handwriting are physicians, whose prescriptions inevitably need a call to go from the pharmacy to determine what has been ordered.  So the proposed disqualification is obviously meant to deprive physicians as a class, of their voting rights!  Unfair to doctors! Class action suit pending from the MDs!

But seriously, I have worked with people with disabilities for a number of years, and to say that a person with excellent handwriting has more right to vote than a person with tremors or with poor hand muscle control is unfair and discriminatory.  This regulation would effect older people with infirmities such as Parkinsons' Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, or in recovery from strokes.  It would affect younger voters with Cerebral Palsy and auto-immune conditions, and some with Rheumatoid Arthritis.  Perhaps most seriously, it would disenfranchise disabled veterans or wounded warriors with poor handwriting because of wounds sustained in defence of our country who would not be allowed to vote absentee if the need arose. What about people in hospitals  or rehabilitation centers in lengthy recovery after burns or accidents? Making voting a handwriting competition is just not an intelligent thing to do.

Recently I was at my high school reunion and sat next to my friend Bob who lives with Cerebral Palsy.  Bob said he had D's in high school, largely because of timed written tests and his inability to write quickly and neatly, but had received accommodations in college and was able to raise his grades so much that he was admitted to Columbia University's MBA program after college graduation.  He went on to run a national department for a very large bank. My friend Bob wouldn't be allowed to vote absentee by your proposed regulation.  His HANDWRITING has never improved. Does that mean he shouldn't be allowed to vote if he has to travel to another City for his job on election day?

Sorry, whoever is reading this, I think this regulation is a very poor idea.  

Yours sincerely,

LYNN KABLE