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The Journal News.

Counties scramble to modernize voting machines

By GLENN BLAIN

THE JOURNAL NEWS

January 8, 2006

Imagine showing up to vote on Election Day and finding an unfamiliar voting machine and election workers who don't know how to operate it.

Or worse, imagine your usual polling place locked or deserted on Election Day because the inspectors hired by the Board of Elections were never given the keys to open it.

Those are some of the nightmare scenarios that New York election officials are struggling to avoid as they contend with a slate of federal and state reform measures that take effect this year and, if all goes according to plan, will fundamentally change the way elections are run in New York.

"We don't want to predict chaos where chaos might not exist, but it is a possibility," said Aimee Allaud, an election specialist with the New York State League of Women Voters. "We have a lot of eggs being scrambled together at the same time."

Allaud's sentiment is shared by election commissioners throughout the Lower Hudson Valley, who expressed confidence that primary and general elections ultimately will run smoothly in 2006 but also acknowledged that great uncertainty still shrouds the entire process.

The greatest unknown involves the voting machines themselves, as local officials await word from the state about which machines they will be allowed to purchase and how quickly they will be available.

The new voting machines are required by the federal Help Americans Vote Act of 2002, which was Congress' attempt to deal with the controversies that dogged the presidential election of 2000. The state of New York, however, was slow to respond to HAVA, and allowed most of its own reform measures to get bogged down in the Legislature until last year, giving local officials little time to digest and adapt to the changes.

"I have to say I am terrified," said Ann Marie Kelly, Rockland's Democratic commissioner of elections, about the upcoming year. "We are out there grasping at straws."

Taken together, the new laws not only mandate the use of new voting machines by this year, but also give county boards of elections the total responsibility for running elections. Previously, many of the behind-the-scenes aspects of Election Day, such as the hiring of election inspectors, the ownership and maintenance of voting machines, and the siting of polling places, rested with cities, towns and villages.

Even small details that were once simple matters for town and village clerks, such as making sure keys are available to open polling places, are causing concerns for county election officials.

"It does add more to our overall responsibility," said Westchester Democratic Election Commissioner Reginald LaFayette. "And with anything that adds more to our overall responsibility, there is a certain urgency to it."

LaFayette, like other election officials, said he expects to work closely with municipal leaders to ensure a smooth transition and hopes that both the September primary and the general election will operate as before.

But that transition will be costly. Westchester, Rockland and Putnam have already increased funding to their boards of elections by hundreds of thousands of dollars and begun hiring new staff to deal with the added responsibilities.

Carolee Sunderland, LaFayette's Republican counterpart, estimated that the cost to Westchester alone could rise into the millions, as new facilities will be required to store and maintain the new voting machines.

But the state is still weeks away from telling the counties what machines they will be able to buy. So far, the state has given only general approval to two types of voting machines: optical scan, which uses technology similar to that employed in standardized tests like the SAT, and Direct Recording Electronic, or DRE, which resembles large automated teller machines.

The state Board of Elections is still writing the regulations to govern the certification and purchase of voting machines. The last in a series of public hearings on the agency's draft regulations is planned for Thursday in Carmel.

Once the board adopts its final regulations early next month, it hopes manufacturers will begin to submit their machines to the state for certification, said Lee Daghlian, a spokesman for the state board. It's hoped that a list of certified machines can be given to county officials by mid-March.

The federal government, under HAVA, is paying most of the cost of the new machines. It has allocated $190 million to New York to buy new machines and $10 million to train election inspectors and educate the public, Daghlian said. That money is being distributed to the counties based on their voter registration totals.

Daghlian said the state hopes machines can be delivered to the counties by the summer, in time for the September primary, but he conceded that is optimistic.

Local officials are far more skeptical, predicting that they will have to use the old lever machines on Election Day. Even if new machines are delivered over the summer, there wouldn't be enough time to train inspectors or teach the public how to use them, they said.

"The timetable just isn't there," said Anthony Scannapieco Jr., Putnam's Republican election commissioner.

Using the older machines would violate federal law and open the state to possible sanctions, but Daghlian said the state has been working closely with the U.S. Justice Department and hopes that as long as New York makes a "good-faith effort" to move the process forward, it will not be fined.

At a glance

Highlights of the federal and state election reforms being implemented in 2006

� Under the federal Help America Vote Act, all voting machines must be accessible to the disabled, effectively banning the lever machines currently used in New York.

� County boards of elections are now completely responsible for running elections, including hiring and training election inspectors.

� For identification, a new voter must provide a driver's license number or the last four digits of his or her Social Security number when registering to vote, or must present valid state identification when going to vote.

� The minimum training pay of election inspectors has been raised to $25 from $5. Inspectors must now be trained annually instead of once every three years.

What's next

The state Board of Elections will hold a final public hearing on its draft regulations for voting machines at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Putnam County Emergency Operations Center, Donald B. Smith Government Campus, 110 Old Route 6, Carmel.

Electronic ballots

New York has given general approval for two types of voting machines

� Optical scan: Voters would fill in ballots much the same way high school students take standardized tests like the SAT. The ballots would be read by a scanner.

� Direct Recording Electronic: People would vote on electronic machines that resemble automated teller machines.

What's next

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