The Brief

Writer Andrew Leland started losing his sight 20 years ago, when he was in high school, as a result of a progressive eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition that leads to the deterioration of the retinas.

Leland first experienced it as night blindness, in which he was confused that everyone else seemed to see in the dark so much better than he did. Over the years, his disease progressed gradually. He's now legally blind, although he still has a narrow field of vision, which allows him to see about 6% of what a fully-sighted person sees.

Leland likens his vision to the view you might get by looking through a toilet paper tube or a keyhole.

"It's really a narrow aperture that I'm pointing around," he says. "Imagine having that toilet paper tube strapped to your head and trying to walk down the street; there's this whole field of things that you don't see that you really ought to, like curbs or toddlers or dogs or fire hydrants."

In the new memoir, The Country of the Blind, Leland writes about losing his vision and preparing for blindness — and how his condition impacts his identity, how the world sees him and his marriage.

Contrary to what many people think, he says, his blindness is not a state of "lights out — total darkness." Rather, he describes the progression of his disease as a "drip-by-drip" vision loss, in which even the question of when one becomes blind can be confounding.

"The place I'm at now is I want to be able to enjoy vision, and I want to be able to enjoy everything from my son's face to TV that we're watching," he says.

"But practically speaking, I have to learn the skills and I have to be able to function without [vision], because it comes and goes during the day, depending on light conditions or my eye fatigue. And also, the fact of my condition is [my vision is] going to go away over the next few years."

Interview highlights

<em>The Country of the Blind,</em> by Andrew Leland

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On what it means to be legally blind

Blindness being a spectrum, it is a sort of arbitrary metric that really only emerged when government assistance programs had to sort of decide who was eligible. And so there's two main ways that legal blindness is measured: One is in acuity and the other is visual field. So acuity means if you can't read that giant E at the top of the chart with corrective lenses, you're legally blind by that measure. And then the one that affects me is visual field. So if you have I think it's 20 degrees of vision or fewer and I have something like six degrees, then you're legally blind.

On being both inside and outside the blind community

One of my first encounters with a blind community was when I was living in Missouri ... and there was a meet up of the National Federation of the Blind local chapter, and I had no idea what that was, but I was just starting to feel more isolated and more blind, and I wanted to find a community. So [my partner] and I went and we showed up late. So most of the blind people didn't know we were there and the sighted people there didn't alert anyone to our presence. And so we really were just standing at this uncomfortable remove at this park under this gazebo. And I felt very uncomfortable.

And I'm struggling to explain exactly what it was. It's something that I experienced as a non-disabled person my whole life, just this feeling of difference and almost fear. I don't know what I was afraid of. It's not like I'm in any danger, but it was like a fear of difference. And I think that was certainly exacerbated by the sense of like, is this me? Am I now a part of this sort of sad, strange world? I think there's certainly pity there. ... I hated myself as I had these feelings. ... If I really wanted to boil it down, it's just a fear of difference.

On not letting his blindness diminish his work

I did encounter statistics about, for example, violence against people with disabilities, and it is documented that people with disabilities are assaulted and victims of violence, including sexual violence. So I want to be very clear about that dynamic. But I don't think it's helpful to hear a statistic like that and then say, "OK, I am now de facto more vulnerable in the world and I should change in some fundamental way what I'm going to go and do." So I don't feel more vulnerable, necessarily. But I do have to rely on other people to help guide me in certain situations.

On how his blindness affects his marriage

Every marriage has that negotiation of who's doing what, and is there parity? I did the laundry, but you did the dishes. And I think certainly her life has changed just in the sense of she's the driver. And then there's other more subtle things like in our house, if there's lead paint that's chipping, I'm not going to see those paint chips. So I think there's like a sense of visual vigilance that she has that she wouldn't she might not otherwise have. And I think that that can create tension, certainly.

I really have made an effort to not be the kind of blind person who just says, "Well, I don't see very well. And it's going to be so much easier for Lily to find the trash can in this restaurant. I'll just let her clear our table," [and] instead to say, "It's going to be annoying and I might bump into a stranger's table or I might go into the wrong corner at first, but I don't want to be that guy just sitting there and letting her do everything for me." So one of the things that I think about a lot is ways in which I can push back against that inertia.

On something he learned at a blind training center

All of the instructors at the center are blind. And so you're out there in Denver intersection with a blind instructor wearing sleep shades and they say, "OK, cross the street," and they teach you how to listen to traffic and how to feel the curb with your cane to get yourself perfectly oriented and to know exactly when it's safe to cross. And that skill I'll take with me for the rest of my life.

It's almost like balancing a stereo. Like you listen to the traffic crossing in front of you and you want to make sure that you can hear the car beginning to approach in your left ear. And then it sort of exits through your right ear and the tip of your nose has to be sort of finely balanced. And you use that and you kind of balance that with the parallel traffic going, you want to make sure that feels like it's right, on your shoulder and then you feel the curb and then once you hit some of the traffic patterns and you have a sense of when it's time to go, then you go.

On sight not being the most important thing

I'm not going to try to tell you that having vision is not an incredibly useful thing for a human being to have for a myriad of reasons. But when we talk about the experience of being alive and of being conscious, when James Joyce was going blind, to paraphrase him, I'm only losing one world among many, and vision is only a tiny sliver of experience.

I think if you look at the things that blind people are capable of imagining, [like] John Milton writing Paradise Lost as a blind person, there is this incredible richness to consciousness that vision has nothing to do with. And the tactile realm, the audible realm, the mental realm, the emotional realm — it's all so rich that I don't think vision ... [is] the ticket to entry to understanding the world that most people suggest that it has.

Heidi Saman and Seth Kelley produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Carmel Wroth adapted it for the web.

On a tour of Orange County’s voting headquarters on Wednesday, Registrar Bob Page demonstrated the careful, multi-step process through which voters’ ballots are validated and counted.

As the federal government raises the specter of unsubstantiated voter fraud, Page’s message was clear: “ I want voters to know that we're doing everything we can to make sure they can vote safely and securely."

More than 380,000 Orange County ballots have been returned as of Oct. 27, Page said. That’s about 80,000 more ballots than was received around the same time in 2022, the last mid-term elections.

Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page addresses the media and other members of the public in attendance as part of a tour of the voting operations on Wednesday, less than one week before Election Day.

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The journey of a ballot in Orange County

Collecting, and counting, all those ballots takes time. Page explained that two-person teams are dispatched to collect dropped-off ballots every day during election season.

The ballot drop-off boxes in Orange County are made of steel, weigh more than 1,000 pounds and are bolted to the concrete, Page said.

The ballot retrieval duos are required to follow a strict process to ensure the chain of custody remains secure, including taking photos showing they’ve picked up the ballots, properly locked the retrieval door and that the internal fire suppression canister is intact.

The locations of the two-person teams are GPS-tracked by separate teams, which also review the photo evidence before giving the ballot retrieval duos the green light to go to their next stops.

An overhead camera shows the process that occurs after the signatures on a ballot have been verified and the ballot is then ready to be counted.

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Signature verification

Once a ballot reaches the Registrar of Voters’ office, the next step is ensuring the signature on the envelope matches the voter's signatures in their registration file.

“If we do challenge [a signature], we’re required under state law to send a first-class letter notice to that voter,” Page said, adding that state statute affords voters until the day before Thanksgiving this year to correct errant signatures.

Page said three election workers must agree that enough of a discrepancy exists before the decision to challenge a signature is made.

Around 1.9% of the nearly 718,000 vote-by-mail ballots returned in the June primary election in Orange County were rejected, largely due to signature mismatch or because they weren’t received in time, according to the California Secretary of State.

Verified ballots are then separated from their envelopes and sorted before they’re prepared to be scanned and, finally, counted. The equipment used to tally votes isn’t connected to the internet, and access to the room the equipment is housed in is limited, according to Page.

Threats from the federal government

On Wednesday evening, a federal judge denied an emergency request from the Department of Justice to segregate 20,000 ballots across California that the federal government said were sent to “likely” noncitizens.

More than 1,750 of those people identified were in Orange County, according to a letter Bill Essayli, top federal prosecutor for the Central District of California, delivered to the county registrar’s office Monday.

The Department of Justice said it will appeal the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge David Carter, who, in his decision, said the federal government’s attempted move could “wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway.”

California Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta called the ruling an “important victory,” but warned “the fight is not over.”

On Wednesday, before the ruling came down, Bonta released resources about election integrity in the state, including guidance for local election officials if law enforcement attempts to “access election sites where ballots are cast, processed, or counted.”

Page said he’s fielded more questions from the public this year about the potential for law enforcement to interfere in the election. He said he will have open lines of communication with partners with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and  Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center should the threat arise.

What’s on your ballot?

Our LAist Voter Game Plan is here to help guide you through the Nov. 3 election with guides to races across Los Angeles and Orange counties — and that long list of state propositions — to help you cast a ballot that’s in line with your own personal beliefs and values.

But the one thing we don’t do? We don’t tell you how to vote. That part is left up to you.

You can find it all at LAist.com/Vote.

The U.S. Justice Department has issued subpoenas to California officials in an escalation of its scrutiny of local election administration.

The Associated Press obtained copies of three subpoenas sent Oct. 21 to employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, ordering them to appear in court on Nov. 4, the day after the election. The documents request any records, documents and communications related to letters sent in July and October by federal officials to state election officials outlining allegations of noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. The subpoenas also seek information relating to the office’s “methods for screening for unlawful voting by aliens” and anything about efforts to prevent noncitizen votes from being counted.

The subpoenas were being issued by all four U.S. attorneys in California, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar, said, “threats and intimidated have no place in elections.”

Subpoenas come amid ongoing court battle

The Trump administration has sued to force California to set aside up to 20,000 ballots it suspects went to noncitizens and not count them until citizenship can be verified. A district court judge on Tuesday rejected that request, then on Thursday appointed a special master to evaluate the administration’s claims.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter did not specify the exact scope of special master Daniel B. Garrie’s responsibilities, but said he would be tasked with “developing the factual record” for the court.

In a Tuesday court hearing, Carter said he wanted to vet the federal government’s list of over 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters since there has been extensive debate over its reliability and both sides have agreed that it includes an unspecified number of citizens.

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Carter also said at the hearing that a special master could investigate California’s claims that it cannot logistically separate the ballots in time for the county election certification deadline on Dec. 3. The federal government has contested that assertion.

It is not clear what would happen if a special master did find a substantial number of noncitizen voters on the federal government’s list or whether it would affect the certification of California’s election results. The 20,000 people on the DOJ’s list constitute only a small fraction of California’s 23 million voters.

Trump administration appeals to higher court

Meanwhile, the Trump administration asked a federal appeals court to quickly weigh in.

The Justice Department said in a late Wednesday filing that it’s essential the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issue a ruling as soon as possible due to “irreversible ballot processing occurring on an ongoing basis.”

Carter’s decision was the latest legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to expand federal control over state-run elections in the midterms that will decide control of Congress for the rest of his term. The Justice Department has made similar demands in other states, including Washington. Noncitizen voting has been a central focus of Trump’s political messaging for years, although available data indicates it is exceedingly rare.

Trump blasted Carter’s ruling against the federal government on Thursday morning before heading to a campaign rally in South Carolina.

“California is very corrupt. The elections are extremely corrupt. The judge should not have done that but we’ll appeal that, of course,” he told reporters. Trump added without evidence that there are “hundreds of thousands” and then amended it to “millions, in my opinion” of “bad ballots” in California.

Carter, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, argued that the Justice Department’s demands were a clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits changes to voter rolls or election procedure within 90 days of an election.

A number of US citizens were included in the Justice Department’s list of names

Both sides agree that an unspecified number of citizens were inadvertently included. Carter argued that separating the ballots at this point would risk disenfranchising citizens and “wreak havoc” on the election certification process.

Over 500,000 votes have already been processed in Los Angeles County alone, according to court filings. The system also protects voter privacy: Once a vote is processed, it cannot be traced back to the person who cast it.

Carter is to rule on the government’s renewed request for a preliminary injunction, which would bar the state from counting the ballots until the litigation is resolved. He said he will do so after a Nov. 13 evidentiary hearing with input from the special master.

He said that if the federal government suspected noncitizens were voting, it could continue to prosecute those cases criminally. Federal authorities have charged over two dozen foreign nationals in California as part of a statewide sweep targeting people officials allege have illegally registered or voted in U.S. elections.

Appeals panel judges have said they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots this close to midterms

The appeal will be the second time that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the case.

The first time was just last week when the Justice Department argued before an appeals court panel that a fast ruling on its request was needed to stop any counting of the ballots.

Although the panel ruled it was premature for an appeals court to get involved before a lower-court ruling, two of the three judges wrote separate concurrences making it clear they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots at this late date. They questioned the accuracy of the federal government’s list of alleged noncitizen voters and argued that to set aside votes risks disenfranchising citizens.

One judge dissented, arguing that federal law bars noncitizens from voting and requires California to vet the potentially illegal ballots before counting them. The failure to do so, he wrote, would cause irreparable harm to the election.