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The Post-Standard

Don't punish counties

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

for voting fiasco New Yorkers by now are familiar with their state's embarrassing failure to comply with federal requirements and deadlines to upgrade their voting system.

Rather than perform its duty by selecting a new type of machine to replace the old lever-style devices, the state Legislature stalled and then handed the hot potato to county election commissioners. At the same time, the state has not certified any machines as meeting its specifications.

The bottom line is that New Yorkers will again use lever machines in this fall's elections, in violation of the 2002 Help America Vote Act. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a suit against New York for its failure to adopt a system that is fully accessible by disabled voters and capable of creating a permanent paper record.

The DOJ is now considering a plan that would require the state to take an interim step - equip each polling place with at least one device to provide fuller access by disabled voters. To Onondaga County, that would mean spending up to $1.6 million on ballot-marking devices or more than $600,000 on a phone-in system.

There are two good reasons to oppose this plan. For one, advocates for disabled voters say each of the alternatives is inadequate as a permanent solution and they fear any temporary use could "open the door" for similar options to be adopted nationwide. Secondly, the cost to the county for this temporary solution would come out of the $4.97 million in federal funds the county has budgeted to purchase replacements for its lever-style machines. There is no assurance that the equipment will have any value beyond this year, or that the state will cover the difference, even if its own nonfeasance created the funding gap.

Onondaga County and advocates for disabled voters agree the best course of action is to postpone full implementation of HAVA until 2007. This fall's elections should be held the same way they have been for the past 80 years.

And when all voters get to the ballot lines for their state representatives, they should consider the legislature's shoddy record in this vital matter.