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Help Monroe shop for new voting machines

By Chris Hildebrant and Sally Brown

(January 4, 2006) — If the act of voting is the linchpin of democracy, then democracy in New York is riding on critical decisions being made this month by the New York state Board of Elections.

The Help America Vote Act mandates that all states, including New York, upgrade their voting machines. HAVA includes regulations about voter verification and accessibility.

Disability rights advocates around the country view the legislation as a voting rights act for people with disabilities, but are concerned that new machines may not meet access needs. Good-government groups, such as the League of Women Voters, have raised concerns about transparency and security.

In order to equip polling sites with voting machines that are HAVA-compliant, the state Board of Elections must soon decide what kind of voting machines local election boards can buy.

With the voting rights of people with disabilities at stake and with serious concerns stemming from reports of voting machine irregularities in Ohio and Florida in 2004 and 2000, many local groups and individuals are following the selection of voting machines very closely.

This summer, the Monroe County Board of Elections hosted a demonstration by voting machine vendors. Many community groups attended the demonstrations and found that none of the machines was accessible to people with disabilities, nor were the vendor representatives able to adequately answer questions about security.

More recently, concerns were heightened when the state Board of Elections released a draft of the voting machine certification guidelines that allows for the use of wireless networks, increasing susceptibility to hacking and tampering. The guidelines also allow voting machine companies to maintain a proprietary computer code for the voting machine programming. That's like Detroit telling us that we can't look under the hood of our car because of "trade secrets."

By caving in to corporations' demands to keep their voting machine computer code secret, the state Board of Elections is allowing for the possibility of conflicts of interest (a CEO of at least one voting machine company has contributed significantly to one of the political parties) as well as leaving local election boards in limbo if voter machine tampering is suspected.

The state Board of Elections is in this position because, rather than requiring voting machine companies to design machines in compliance with standards dictated by New York (as we do with auto emissions, for example), the state is basically "shopping" for what the corporations already have on the market.

The problem is that none of the available options is acceptable.

Several local groups, representing thousands of area voters, have come together as the Every Vote Counts Coalition. We maintain that to protect the integrity of New Yorkers' votes, voting machines must be secure, accessible, reliable with mature technology, auditable and cost-effective.

On Thursday, the Monroe County Board of Elections will host a demonstration of voting machines at the Dome Center. Our coalition encourages everyone to attend and provide input on the machines presented.

Some questions you may use to guide your input:

# How many functions are computerized? How secure are those functions?

# How can you know your vote is recorded correctly?

# How can the machine be used by someone who is blind, by someone with mobility or dexterity impairments, or by someone who cannot read?

# How will the machine work in a recount situation?

# Has the machine been used in other states? For how long?

# Who programs the machine and how? Will the persons setting up elections be local officials or vendor technicians? Will the persons setting up the computers for each election be able to modify software and hardware?

# How many machines will be needed and how much will it cost the county to buy them?

It isn't too late for New Yorkers to demand that the state Board of Elections hold the voting machine corporations to the highest standards. HAVA has given U.S. citizens a unique opportunity to effect historical change in the voting process.

We urge New York state voters to get involved and ensure that their vote counts.

Hildebrant is director of advocacy, Center of Disability Rights; Brown is co-president, Rochester Area League of Women Voters.

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