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Elmira Star
Gazette
Opinion for
Tuesday 3/29/05
How we will
vote
N.Y.
lawmakers should offer optical-scan mode as choice for local governments.
New York
legislators face more than a budget deadline. Time also is running out on them
to make a decision about new voting machines to replace the state's 20,000
lever-style dinosaurs now in use.
If lobbyists
for the voting-machine companies have their way, the lawmakers will be
smooth-talked into high-priced, touch-screen equipment that looks and feels
high-tech but carries liabilities.
A better
alternative, in voting security, cost and ease of storage, would be the
optical-scan systems that have been used safely and successfully for the past
20 years in a number of states. Oklahoma, for instance, has all but one of its
3,000 optical-scan machines still in operation after 15 years, says Bo Lipari,
an Alpine resident and director of New Yorkers for Verified Voting.
Lipari, too,
is lobbying the Legislature but not with the big bucks of his competitors. His
group likes the optical scan because it allows voters to mark a paper ballot,
much like a lottery ticket, and have it scanned right after they vote.
Mismarked ballots get kicked back, allowing voters to correct mistakes. And the
obvious advantage: a paper copy for disputed votes or recounts.
Touch
screens cost twice as much as optical scans and can come equipped with paper
receipts, but they also can malfunction or be immobilized by power failures.
Under the
Help America Vote Act, New York is supposed to make up its mind on voting
machines in time for the fall 2006 elections, and lawmakers already are working
on borrowed time, Lipari points out.
The federal
government covers about 95 percent of the purchase price of the first batch of
machines for counties, but maintenance and future placement costs are up to
counties. That fact ought to make optical scans an easy choice for local
governments. They cost half of touch screens, last longer and require simpler
storage.
At best,
lawmakers should require the optical scan statewide, but at least, they should
give counties a choice. In Chemung, for example, the optical scan would be
$531,880 cheaper. In Steuben, the savings is $335,640, according to New Yorkers
for Verified Voting.
In less
populous counties, such as Schuyler and Tioga, the savings run between $14,000
and $16,000. That's because each voting precinct in the state will require at
least one touch-screen version for disabled voters who cannot fill in the paper
ballot.
In more
populous counties, one scanner can handle several voting precincts in one
building, as opposed to one touch-screen per precinct. And then there's the
storage dilemma. The touch-screens have to be stored in temperature-controlled
rooms. The optical scans require less pampering.
Scan
machines make more sense for cash-strapped counties. They also make sense for
voters, who deserve the peace of mind that their vote has been counted and
noted on a nonelectronic record. For lawmakers, this really should be a simple
choice. The optical-scan ought to be their pick, but if not, at least a local
option.
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