County wants to update voting

By Staff and wire reports

Cayuga County is ready to act on implementing new voting machines to comply with the Help America Vote Act requirements, but it first must wait for the state to set voting machine standards.

New York is in danger of being sued by the federal government over continuing delays in bringing new voting machines to the state and complying with other requirements of the HAVA, officials said Thursday.

A spokesman for the state Board of Elections this week said New York is so far behind in meeting the federal requirements that localities across the state may have to trot out their old lever-action voting machines this year for at least one more election cycle.

Dennis Sedor, Democratic commissioner for the Cayuga County Board of Elections, said if the state acts almost immediately, he is hopeful that the county still might be able to implement new machines by the federal elections this fall.

“As soon as the state does their job, we'll do ours,” Sedor said. “We're hoping we will have time to implement by, if not September (primaries), then at least November (elections).”

The county, he said, has done everything it can do to prepare for implementation except for purchasing the machines and educating the public, which cannot be done until standards are set.

“We're in holding position, but we're not sitting still,” Sedor said, noting that the county is in the process of exploring options with Onondaga County of doing a joint purchase in order to save money though a bulk order.

The HAVA legislation was adopted by Congress in the wake of the vote-counting fiasco in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

The legislation requires states to modernize voting systems and provides funding for such things as new voting machines. New York has trailed behind all other states in meeting HAVA deadlines.

In a letter received this week, New York officials were told by Wan Kim, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, that the state was lagging behind every other state in complying with the HAVA requirements.

Perhaps a bigger concern for the county than having to use old machines once again is the potential loss of federal funds allocated to help localities comply with the new requirements.

Sedor said Cayuga County has been allocated about $850,000 to purchase the machines and educate operators and voters on how to use them.

If the county is not able to comply because it lacks direction from the state, there is a potential that the money could be rescinded, Sedor said.

“They may say 'New York, you still have to implement the new machines, but not you have to do it at you own expense,'” he said.

Thus far, New York has received $220 million in federal funds to help comply with HAVA requirements.

Lee Daghlian, spokesman for the state Board of Elections, told the Associated Press he did not believe the state was in danger of having to give that money back.

In addition to not having voting machine standards adopted, New York has failed to compile a statewide, computerized list of registered voters, Kim noted.

“We are hopeful that we will be able to resolve this matter through a negotiated consent decree rather than through costly and protracted litigation ... (but) we are prepared to file a complaint if the matter is not resolved expeditiously,” Kim said in the letter sent to the state election board and to state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer, through a spokesman, declined comment.

Daghlian said the threat of a lawsuit came as no surprise given the delays New York has experienced.

The board spokesman said he expected state officials to seek a negotiated settlement and the letter from the Justice Department might actually speed efforts to get new voting machine standards adopted.

Until those standards are adopted by the state board, new machines can't be certified for sale in New York and counties can't begin to negotiate purchases with manufacturers.

“We know the official deadline for compliance with HAVA was January 1 of this year, so we knew we were going to miss that,” Daghlian said. “Of course, the real deadline, as far as we're concerned, is getting these machines and everything in place by the election this fall.”

Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group said state officials should consider asking for a federal waiver that would allow them to delay until the 2007 election the use of new machines. Horner said rushing decisions might lead to the purchasing of machines that might not be as good as they should be.

Adoption of legislation to comply with the HAVA requirements was delayed in the state Legislature until last year because of partisan bickering between Republicans who control the state Senate, Democrats who rule in the Assembly and Republican Gov. George Pataki.

A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to say whether any other states were facing possible lawsuits because of HAVA delays.

“We are evaluating the situation of each state and we will determine what action should be taken after that evaluation,” said Eric Holland.

Staff writer Anne Gleason contributed to this report

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