http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/madison/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1148461637120690.xml
The Post-Standard
Machine costs $7,000, uses touch-screen, headphones. It
produces a paper ballot.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
By Alaina Potrikus
Staff writer
Madison County Board of Elections officials have purchased a
voting system for people with disabilities, making progress in New York's
continuing struggle to comply with a federal voting mandate.
The Help America Vote Act, among other things, requires
states to improve polling places for people with disabilities. In Madison
County, those voters will use Avante's Accessible Optical Vote-Trakker, a
$7,000 device that marks a paper ballot using a touch-screen and headphones.
After voters make their selections, a paper ballot is printed. The paper
ballots are counted by hand.
On Election Day, those who want to use the device can
arrange free transportation to Wampsville through the Board of Elections.
Other voters will submit absentee ballots or use the lever
machines that county officials have referred to as "old faithful."
County Elections Commissioners Lynne Jones and Laura
Costello should be gearing up for a complete replacement of the county's old lever
machines for September's federal primary elections. But delays at the state and
federal levels in identifying acceptable replacement machines left all New York
counties unable to meet the September deadline.
State leaders must certify voting machines before local
officials can begin selecting, installing and testing machines, training
election workers and educating the public.
In the interim, a deal between the state and the federal
Department of Justice gives counties until 2007 to be in compliance, which
means tossing out the old machines and replacing them with systems that come
with verifiable paper trails.
New York's inability to meet the federal deadline
jeopardizes the money promised to it by the federal government to fund the
changeover that's about $770,000 in Madison County. State and federal officials
are still negotiating how much if any money the counties will get.
Wanda Warren Berry, one of the leaders of New Yorkers for
Verified Voting, said the interim plan is a "minimalist" approach to
placate the federal government. But she said she approved of the county's
choice to use paper ballots for security and accessibility reasons.
"Disabled persons need to know for sure that their
ballots are being counted," she said. "The way to do that is a paper
ballot."
Costello and Jones expect the state to certify new voting
machines this summer. They plan to decide which machine to implement in Madison
County in the fall, after collecting public input.
Costello and Jones said they chose the Avante system for
disabled voters because other machines came with high incidental costs up to
$1,500 a day for training, and $120 an hour for programming, which could take
up to four days.
"The price was good and it seemed easy to use,"
Costello said.
Alaina Potrikus can be reached at apotrikus@syracuse.com or
470-3252.
© 2006 The Post-Standard.