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The
Post-Standard
How Will New
Yorkers Vote?
Machines on
display in DeWitt; lobbyists' influence alleged
Wednesday,
May 04, 2005
By Marnie Eisenstadt,
Staff writer
The voting
machines with the plaid curtains and red levers will be looking for new jobs
come 2006 there's no question about that. The question is what will replace
them, and the company with the answer stands to make millions.
But Bo
Lipari, head of New Yorkers for Verified Voting, says money and corporate
influence, not the needs of the voters, could direct the ultimate decision
about how New Yorkers cast their ballots.
"Software
engineers say you never buy version 1.0. Well, New York is considering spending
$220 million on version 1.0," Lipari said, referring to touch-screen
voting machines.
Though
touch-screen machines are the front-runners in New York right now, they are
both flawed and more expensive than the alternative, Lipari said.
During a
news conference Tuesday at the Wyndham Hotel in DeWitt, where the state Board
of Elections is having its annual meeting, Lipari lambasted the board and the
Legislature for allowing lobbyists to sway them. Lobbyists for voting machine
companies have spent $1.2 million trying to curry favor with state legislators.
Lipari's
group and others, including The League of Women Voters, want the state to go
with an optical scan system, which uses paper ballots similar to the sheets used
for standardized tests. They would leave paper records that could be recounted
if there is a dispute.
Touch-screen
systems do not have paper ballots, but can generate reports on paper. But
Lipari said there are problems with touch-screen systems that can leave votes
uncounted or open to fraud.
In Miami,
hundreds of votes cast using a touch-screen system were accidentally thrown out
because of a computer coding problem. That community is considering scrapping
its touch-screen machines and replacing them with an optical scan system,
according to the Miami Herald.
Lipari said
companies are pushing the touch-screen voting machines because they stand to
make more money off them. Touch-screen units cost about $8,000, while optical
scan machines cost between $5,500 and $6,000.
But Sen.
John J. Flanagan, chairman of the Senate's committee on elections, said Lipari
and the other detractors have not considered all the facts. He said the cost of
purchasing and storing the ballots will make optical scan machines more costly
in the long run.
Flanagan
also tried to dispel the criticism of the lobbying by voting machine companies.
"This
is an open process," he said.
Lee
Daghlian, spokesman for the state Board of Elections, also said lobbying on
behalf of voting machine companies means little to the board.
While
politicians and activists were debating the merits of the different machines,
Charles Reichardt and other voters with disabilities were testing the devices,
which were set up in the hotel hallway. The Unadilla man, who is blind, said he
found touch-screen machines and an optical scan machine that fit his needs.
Both types had Braille options and devices that allowed him to listen to the
ballot being read.
"All of
the machines would allow me to cast a vote independently," he said. That's
something he can't do on New York's lever machines.
"Privacy
and independence are really out the window at this point," Reichardt said.
© 2005 The
Post-Standard. Used with permission.
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