Press Conference Announcement

 

A press conference will be held on Monday, 2/28/05, at 1:00 PM, in Room 130 of the LOB in Albany.  Assemblywomen Sandy Galef (Westchester), Barbara Lifton (Tompkins), New Yorkers for Verified Voting, and a coalition of organizations are calling for New York State to consider all voting equipment alternatives, and not allow our choices be limited by lobbyists and vendors.

 

Bo Lipari of New Yorkers for Verified Voting (www.nyvv.org) will be advocating for paper ballot/scanner/ballot marking systems as the best choice for NY. Other groups who do not specifically endorse PBOS will speak about the need to evaluate all of our options, and not let lobbyists limit our choices.

 

 

From Bo Lipari:

 

Citizens Groups Call for Full and Open Exploration

of All Available Voting Machine Technologies

 

Press Conference to be held Monday, February 28 at 1:00 PM in LOB, Rm. 130

 

A press conference will be held in Room 130 of the Legislative Office Building in Albany on Monday, February 28th at 1:00 PM. A broad non-partisan coalition of citizens groups will urge the Legislature and state election officials to review all available voting systems, including paper ballot and optical scan systems. New Yorkers must not allow our choices to be limited by lobbyists and vendors.

 

Adoption of a paper ballot and optical scan voting system could provide New York State voters many advantages over electronic touch screen technology. Ballot marking technology allows a paper ballot based system to provide accessible, private and independent voting for voters with disabilities.

 

Optical scan systems have been used in elections around the United States for over 20 years.  Currently used in 25% of all the precincts in the US, the states of Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio have all decided to use optical scanners to comply with the Help America Vote Act which mandates new machines for New York. Why has New York not considered this option?

 

The decision on the replacement for our current mechanical lever machines should be based on a full review of the best system available, not what vendor has the best lobbyist or which machine will make vendors the most money.

 

"A new era of computerized voting presents many dangers and challenges to citizens in a democracy" said Bo Lipari Director of New Yorkers for Verified Voting.  "But, the same vendors who supply the flawed touch-screen technology also make reliable, verifiable and fully accessible systems based on a hand marked permanent paper ballot coupled with an optical scanner at a significantly lower cost" said Lipari.

 

"The League of Women Voters of New York supports an open and full exploration of all available voting technologies which meet our criteria of being secure, accurate, recountable and accessible," said Aimee Allaud, Elections/Government specialist for the League. "Marking a paper ballot is familiar to anyone who has taken a standardized test or filled out a form at the DMV" said Andrew C. White of *Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region. "It's a reliable and auditable system that will be easy to learn and use for poll workers and voters. New York must evaluate this alternative to electronic touch screen voting machines."

 

For detailed information on paper ballot and optical scan voting systems

please visit www.nyvv.org <www.nyvv.org/>

 

CONTACT:

Bo Lipari :  bolipari@nyvv.org