NYS Must Produce New Voting Plan By April 10

ALBANY---New York State has until April 10 to produce a plan that will comply with the provisions of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) which require that by the fall election, the state must have in place new voting machines that the disabled can use.

The state has the dubious distinction of being the first state ever sued by the Department of Justice for its worst-in-the nation record of complying with the Help America Vote Act.

The federal government filed its lawsuit against New York State last month in U.S. District Court, Northern District in Albany, after the state’s election commissioners said that they wouldn’t have new machines in place by this year’s election. Voters would have to continue to use the lever-action voting machines which have been used for decades.

The suit charges that the state has failed to create a system allowing disabled voters to cast their ballots and haven’t set up a system that can generate a paper record. The complaint also says the state hasn’t created a voter registration database that can be updated instantly as required by HAVA.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe is also requiring that the state show him a plan to ensure a centralized, statewide voter registration system.

According to the state Board of Elections, its likely that the plan that will be presented is an updated from the version that they had been working on at the time the DOJ lawsuit was lodged against the state.

DOJ says that New York is further behind every other state in the nation in comply with the requirements to modernize its voting system.

There was a deadline of Jan. 1 for the state to create a statewide database of registered voters. The state missed it.

A sum of $2.3 billion in federal aid was awarded to the states and territories to modernize voting machines and update the elections process. The changes to improve the voting system was made following the 2000 presidential elections and recount which was necessitated.

The state has to date received $220 million that was earmarked to replace the 20,000 old voting machines statewide and for training of election officials in how to use new machines but so far, the money is just sitting collecting interest and the state has taken no steps to create the voter database, purchase and implement the new machines or provide the training. Critics of the lawsuit say that it forces municipalities into buying technology that might become quickly obsolete. 4-1-06