http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/nyregion/28vote.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
The New York Times
February 28, 2006
By MICHAEL COOPER
ALBANY, Feb. 27 — With the federal government threatening to
sue New York State for failing to modernize its voting system, state officials
said on Monday that they are trying to avoid a lawsuit by negotiating a stopgap
approach that would leave the current system intact for this fall's elections
but improve access for disabled voters.
Top state election officials now acknowledge that it is
unlikely that many of the state's 62 counties will be able to upgrade their
voting systems by the fall, when New Yorkers will elect a United States
senator, a governor, an attorney general, a comptroller and all 212 members of
the Legislature.
So the state has begun negotiations with the federal
government to head off a lawsuit with a temporary solution that would improve
access to the polls for disabled voters.
The Justice Department has threatened to sue, warning in a letter to state officials last month that New York had fallen "further behind" every other state in complying with the Help America Vote Act, which was passed after the 2000 presidential election.
The negotiations have been secretive and, it appears, tense.
"The Department of Justice has been telling us every
day for the last three weeks that they're going to sue us tomorrow if we don't
agree to the last version of the consent order," said Douglas A. Kellner,
a co-chairman of the Board of Elections.
The state missed its Jan. 1 deadline for creating a database
of registered voters and has yet to come up with statewide standards dictating
what types of machines county election officials will be allowed to buy.
So far, New York has received $220 million from the federal
government to overhaul its voting system, and the state could stand to lose
some of that money if nothing happens.
On Monday, the board closed part of its meeting to the
public, saying that members planned to discuss the proposed settlement with the
federal government and that the Justice Department had requested secrecy. Asked
the reason for the request for secrecy, Eric Holland, a department spokesman,
declined to comment.
Mr. Kellner said the negotiations centered on the federal
law's requirement that state voting systems be accessible to disabled voters.
Since the counties will probably not have time to buy new systems by the fall,
he said, the current proposal is for each county to ensure access for the
disabled at each poll site.
Proposals under discussion involve machines that would print
out ballots, which could then be marked, and a system that would permit
disabled people to cast votes by phone.
Mr. Kellner said that he does not understand the need for
secrecy, and that even if the state and the federal government agree on a
settlement, he will not vote on it until a week after a draft of the order has
been released to the public.
"So if they want to take the position that all the
negotiations have to go on behind closed doors, then they have to realize that
it's going to be another week before they're going to get me to vote yes,"
he said. "And if that's a problem, then they'll have to sue us. We don't
want to be sued. We believe New York really is committed to implementing the
Help America Vote Act."
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
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