Arnold Gore

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be heard on the issue of our new voting equipment.

I'm Arnold Gore of the Consumers Health Freedom Coalition. I live in upper Manhattan and have been a poll watcher for many candidates running for office in recent years. The fairness and accuracy of the final vote totals have been transparent and reflected full recording of votes.

The recent problem reported in the 2006 election in Sarasota,Florida as reported in the article "Florida Recount, 2006-Style" by CBS News, where the Touch Screen Voting machines failed to record a choice for the hotly contested and close contest for Congress on over 18,000 ballots or nearly 16% of the votes cast on election day in Sarasota. This compares with only 2% of voters not voting in this Congressional race on paper ballots counted by Optical Scanners in Manatee County, the second most populous County in the district.

The mandated recount in this contest will be only a re-tally of the same results on an electronic voting machine. Even if a paper trail had been printed, this would not be the official ballot in case of a recount under state law.

The Supervisor of Elections, Kathy Dent who had previously advocated Electronic Voting has now come out for a switch to paper ballots and Optical Scanners as reported in the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

I believe we should not gamble with the confidence of voters in the assurance that every vote is counted. I urge you to select optical scanner systems for New York City.