Sally Jones

Statement

November 21, 2006

New Voting Equipment for New York City

I am glad the Board of Elections is giving the people of New York an opportunity to give our opinion on this issue.

I am concerned because, if you read the news on the internet, it seems like electronic voting machines have had problems in every election in which they have been used. They are prone to failure, and we have no way of knowing if the failures are intentional or unintentional.

Voters need real confidence in the voting machines we use. We've had confidence in the mechanical machines we use now, and we should not replace them with machines that are not as good.

We need election equipment that does not require us to rely on outside commercial businesses. Our election staff, poll workers, and voters need to be able to manage our own election equipment.

For these reasons, I urge you to select paper ballots and optical scanners for our new equipment. We need to stay away from machines that people don't understand and don't trust.

Thank you.