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http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/New_voting_machine_endorsed/5836.html

New York Metro

New voting machine endorsed

by patrick arden / metro new york

NOV 22, 2006

CITY HALL — Just hours before a public hearing yesterday on the city’s long-delayed selection of new voting machines, civic groups gathered here to call on the Board of Elections to reject touch-screen systems in favor of optically scanned paper ballots.

“After all we’ve heard about problems in other states, New York may make its own severe mistakes as we move to electronic voting,” warned Lawrence Norden, an attorney at NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice. “To ensure that we accurately record voters’ intentions, we endorse optical scan machines for New York City.”

According to a study by the Brennan Center, 15.4 percent of votes cast on the touch-screen systems currently being considered by the state were not counted in the 2004 general election. By contrast, 8.8 percent of voters using optical-scan machines did not have their votes counted.

“In a big turnout year, this difference could mean the loss of approximately 175,000 votes in New York City alone,” noted Norden.

“This data should sound the alarm for anyone who cares about accurate elections,” said Bo Lipari of New Yorkers for Verified Voting. “Put simply: If we buy touch-screen machines, thousands of voters will be disenfranchised.”

The city was supposed to have picked new electronic machines by the end of this year to comply with the Help America Vote Act. But now the state has said it won’t select any machines eligible for the city’s consideration until February 2007.

That worries John Ravitz, executive director of the city’s Board of Elections. By missing the federal deadline, the state could lose almost a quarter of the more than $200 million in aid the U.S. government is providing to implement HAVA here. “This would be a huge fiscal hit for New York City,” Ravitz said. The city has already budgeted $65 million to cover anticipated shortfalls.

Ravitz also fears any further delay will make it impossible to fully implement a new voting system by the 2007 elections.

That’s spurred the Board of Elections to start holding public demonstrations and hearings to evaluate all of the systems that have applied to the state for consideration.

The endorsement of optical scan machines was meant to combat what some voting-rights advocates believe is an administrative prejudice against any system involving paper ballots.

Neal Rothstein of the New York Public Interest Research Group said county boards of elections are “scared of moving to a system where all of sudden there’s all this paper — they’re going to have to develop new protocols or warehouses for their storage.” Touch-screen electronic systems, are consequently viewed as “this dream come true.”

Ravitz acknowledged that one of the city’s chief concerns is “volume.”

“We’re talking about 1,369 poll sites, we’re talking about a ballot that has to be produced in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean,” he said. “When the commissioners ultimately select a voting system, it will be one because it was the right system for New York City. That’s our number one priority.”