Are iPads the Future of Voting for the Elderly and Disabled?

Could this idea catch on by the 2012 presidential election? Nursing home residents in five Oregon counties voted via iPad in the state's Congressional special primary election on Tuesday.

Election officials took iPads and portable printers into nursing homes as well as community and senior centers in an effort to enable more of the state's elderly and disabled population to vote. The iPad allows users with impaired vision to increase a ballot's font size and adjust the screen color to enhance readability. The device could also read each candidate's name aloud to the voter. Voters with mobility issues could use a "sip and puff" device to control the iPad's touch screen.

Election workers were then able to print out the ballots and mail them or put them in official ballot boxes.

The program was made possible through Apple donating five iPads to the Oregon program. The state of Oregon also contributed $75,000 to develop the software.