FROM:
Teresa
Hommel
Chair, Task
Force on Election Integrity, Community Church of New York
TO:
New York
State Board of Elections
40 Steuben
Street
Albany, NY
12207-2108
Comment on
Draft Voting Systems Standards
Section
6209.8 Rescission of Certification
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SBOE DRAFT
A. If at any
time subsequent to the State Board's approval of a voting system, the State
Board
determines that the voting system fails to fulfill the criteria prescribed by
statute and
these rules,
the Board shall notify any users and vendors of that particular voting system
that the
State Board's approval or certification of that system for future sale of that
system
in New York
State is to be withdrawn.
B. Such
notice shall be in writing and shall specify the reasons why the approval or
certification
of the system is being rescinded. Such notice shall also specify the date on
which the
rescission is to become effective.
C. Any
vendor or user of such voting system may request in writing that the State
Board
reconsider
its decision to rescind approval or certification of the voting system.
D. Upon
receipt of such request to reconsider, the State Board shall hold a hearing for
the
purpose of
reconsidering the decision to rescind the approval or certification. Any
interested
party shall be given the opportunity to submit testimony or documentation in
support of
or in opposition to the Board's decision to rescind approval or certification.
E. The State
Board may affirm or reverse its decision.
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HOMMEL
REPLACEMENT
A. The State
Board shall post on its web site a form that members of the public, voters,
Election Inspectors, and County Board staff can use to report voting system
malfunctions and failures.
B. The State
Board shall notify all County Boards that voting system malfunctions and failures
of the following types, as well as all others, should be reported within five
business days of their occurrence. Such notice shall be posted for public
display at all County Boards.
1. A voter
sees his or her vote switched to a different candidate on the screen.
2. A voter
touches a touchscreen or pushbutton for a candidate, but the vote does not
register.
3. The
screen when it first appears contains votes already registered that the voter
did not enter.
4. One or
more candidates or questions are missing from the ballot displayed.
5. The wrong
ballot is displayed on the screen.
6. The final
summary screen does not accurately contain the voting choices made by the
voter.
7. The voter
cannot change a vote displayed on the screen.
8. The voter
verifiable permanent paper record does not contain the votes entered by the
voter.
9. The
number of votes recorded by the machine is greater than the number of voters
who used it.
10. The
printer or accessibility attachments do not work.
11. The
ballot cannot be displayed in minority languages for which is has been
programmed.
12. The
machine fails to boot up at the beginning of the election day.
13. The
number of blank votes (also called undervotes) for the top three races on the
ballot
is higher than one-half percent.
14. At the
end of the election day the votes cannot be extracted from the voting system or
its
memory devices.
15. At the
end of the election day the memory devices are blank.
16. The
Election Day Activity Log contains incorrect information or is blank.
C. The State
Board shall notify all County Boards that any specific voting system that
malfunctions or fails during election day shall immediately be taken out of
service, and for the rest of the election day Election Inspectors shall provide
voters with emergency paper ballots on which to vote; and that the Election
Inspectors of that Election District shall immediately fill out and sign a
report in which they describe the malfunction or failure, the time it occurred,
and list the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all witnesses of the event
who are willing to be so listed, including Election Inspectors of other
Election Districts in the same poll site, Election Observers, Police Officers,
voters, and any other persons who are present.
D. Within
five business days after such malfunction or failure, the County Board shall
send a copy of the report from the Election Inspectors to the State Board and
also provide the serial number of the specific voting system and the location
of the poll site at which the event occurred. The County Board shall handle
reports from persons other than Election Inspectors in the same manner.
E. For each
certified voting system the State Board shall maintain a permanent Log of
Reported Malfunctions and Failures. Such Log shall be retained while the voting
system is certified and in use in New York State, and for five years after the
voting system is no longer certified or in use in New York State. Such Log
shall contain all notifications of malfunctions and failures, and the State
Board's responses to such notifications and the resolution of each report. The
Log shall be posted on the website of the State Board and a paper copy shall be
available in the office of the State Board for public inspection. The State
Board shall make paper copies of such Log available to any member of the public
upon written request for a reasonable fee not to exceed 25 cents per page.
F. If at any
time subsequent to the State Board's approval of a voting system, the State
Board receives notification of voting system malfunction or failure from a
County Board or any person who is a witness to such an event, the State Board
shall take the following actions within five business days.
1. acknowledge receipt of such
notification to the sender,
2. record the notification in the
Log of Reported Malfunctions and Failures
for that voting system, and
3. send a copy of such notification
to all county boards where voting systems of that type
are in use and to the
vendor.
G. Within 45
calendar days of receiving notification of malfunction or failure of a specific
voting system, the State Board shall examine such voting system, including a
comparison of its components with the Escrow Component List.
1. Upon determination that the specific
voting system's malfunction or failure cannot be
verified and that its components are exactly the same as those on the
Escrow Component
List, the State Board shall notify County Boards and the vendor of that
determination
and confirm that certification of the voting system remains in effect.
2. Upon determination that the
specific voting system's malfunction or failure can be
verified or that its components are not exactly the same as those on the
Escrow
Component List, the State Board shall immediately rescind certification
of the voting
system.
3. All persons who witnessed the
malfunction or failure, or their representatives, may attend
these proceedings of
the State Board including the examination to verify the malfunction
or failure of the
specific voting system, and may provide assistance to the State Board in
verifying such
malfunction or failure.
4. The State Board shall post notice of all proceedings for
resolution of reports on the web
site of the State Board, and shall send
notice by mail and email to all persons who were
witnesses to such
malfunction or failure, provided that such persons have provided their
email address for such
notification..
H. Within
three business day of rescission of certification of a voting system, the State
Board shall notify in writing all County Boards and the vendor that the voting
system's certification for use or future sale in New York State has been
rescinded, the reasons for such rescission, and the date on which such
rescission has become effective, and such notification shall be posted on the
website of the State Board.
I. The
vendor of a voting system for which certification has been rescinded shall
determine the cause of the malfunction or failure, or why the components of the
specific voting system were not
the same as
those on the Escrow Component List, and shall notify the State Board of such
reasons, and shall correct the voting system including the procedures for its
use to prevent future malfunctions or failures or uncertified modifications to
such voting system. The vendor shall pay for such corrections and for
re-certification testing.
J. If the
corrected voting system passes re-certification testing, the State Board shall
create
a new Escrow
Component List, and may re-certify such system. Within 30 calendar days of
re-certification
and prior to use in any election, each voting system of the same type
in the state
of New York must be modified by the vendor to correct the causes of rescission
of certification, and the State Board must determine that the components of
each such modified voting system are exactly the same as the Escrow Component
List.
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Relevant
section of the Election Reform and Modernization Act
Page 4,
Lines 15-30
15 3. If at any time after any machine OR
SYSTEM has been approved pursu-
16 ant to the provisions of subdivision one or
two of
this section, the
17 state
board of elections has any reason to believe that such machine OR
18 SYSTEM does not meet all the requirements
for voting machines OR SYSTEMS
19 set forth in this article, it shall forthwith
cause such machine
OR
20 SYSTEM
to be examined again in the manner prescribed by subdivision one
21 of this section. If the opinions in the
report of such examinations do
22 not state that such machine OR SYSTEM can
safely and properly be used by
23 voters at elections under the conditions prescribed
by this article, the
24 state
board of elections shall forthwith rescind its
approval of such
25 machine OR SYSTEM. After the date on which the approval of any machine
26 OR
SYSTEM is rescinded,
no machines OR SYSTEMS of such type may be
27 purchased for use in this state. The state
board of elections
shall
28 examine
all machines OR
SYSTEMS of such type which were previously
29 purchased, to determine if they may continue
to be used in elections in
30 this state.