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By MEG HECKMAN

During last Tuesday's primary, polling places across the state struggled to comply with a 2-year-old federal law intended to make it easier for disabled voters to cast their ballots, according to complaints filed with the Disabilities Rights Center.

Election officials, the center says, seemed unprepared to accommodate blind voters, who may cast their ballot through a booth equipped with a telephone and fax machine. In several cases, the phone system didn't work. In other instances, poll workers hadn't set up the equipment properly.

"Only a fraction of the poll workers received training in the accessible system leading up to the primary," James Fox, a staff attorney at the center, said in a written release. "Voting is a constitutionally-protected right. . . . It is imperative that every step be taken in the future to ensure that every person have equal access to exercise that right."

Under a federal law known as the Help America Vote Act, states were required to roll out accessible voting tools by Jan. 1, 2006. Between the last primary and the 2006 midterms, New Hampshire's cities and towns shuffled polling locations to more accessible buildings (in Concord, for instance, Ward 8 now votes at the Bektash Temple instead of the Heights Community Center). Communities also received voting booths designed for people with disabilities.

The secretary of state's office is responsible for monitoring the new system. A message left at the office yesterday was not returned.

The booths are large enough for two people and contain a fax machine, a phone, a wheelchair-height table and chairs, as well as a bright light and a magnifying glass to help people who are visually impaired see a traditional ballot. An election official enters the booth with the voter, calls the secretary of state's office and leaves. The voter uses a keypad to indicate which candidate he or she supports. The system generates a paper ballot at the secretary of state's office, which is then faxed back to the voter, who turns it in to election officials.

The idea is to allow blind voters to cast their ballots without verbally announcing their choice to poll workers. But, according to the center, that isn't what happened at some polling locations last Tuesday.

Carol Holmes of Derry told the center her voting experience was a "disaster." Holmes, who's blind, said the fax machine repeatedly spit out blank ballots after she cast her vote by phone. The poll worker was unable to fix the problem.

Gill Vickery had a little more luck with the system, but it took nearly a half hour for Littleton election officials to get the system working. Vickery, a longtime advocate for people with disabilities, said he had spent a week boning up on the system, practicing on his home telephone.

The Disabilities Rights Center has worried about the voting system since it was introduced two year ago. Center staff have requested a meeting with the secretary of state to make sure things run more smoothly come November.