Voters in the Auburn, Vashon and Snoqualmie school districts, which are running special elections Tuesday, will soon get to experience the new accessible voting service that King County is trotting out for the first time.

The short-term, accessible voting center provides equipment for voters to cast an audio or touch-screen ballot in English or Chinese. The idea behind the large font, high-contrast, key pad device is to make voting easier for disabled people.

King County Elections mailed out ballots to all registered voters Feb. 18, about 67,030 in all. As of 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, voters had returned 16,615 ballots, a 24.279 percent return rate, and 7,640 of those had come from Auburn.

In addition to the accessible voting center open at the Elections Office in Renton, a team of elections staff will be in Auburn from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday, March 9, at Auburn City Hall, 25 West Main St to open an accessible voting center.

An HAVA accessibility grant provided funding for this the pilot program. At this time, King County has not budgeted community-specific accessible voting centers beyond this special election.

Auburn School District Proposition 1, the $239 million school improvement bond, requires a 60-percent yes vote and a minimum turnout of 12,349 voters. Proposition No. 2, a $46.4 million capital improvements levy, requires a simple 50-percent majority plus one.

Tabulation will begin around 9 a.m. on election day and the first results will be posted at 8:15 p.m.

For more information on the March 10 election and to see if you are eligible to vote, visit www.kingcounty.gov/elections.