http://www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15905883&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6
01/11/2006
Most
accurate voting measures not yet in place
By: James V. Franco , The Record
Peter Durkee claims an aged voting machine malfunctioned
last November costing him as many 70 votes and his bid for another term on the
Rensselaer County Legislature. He lost by only 12 votes.
The Help America Vote Act of 2002, passed by Congress to
make such mishaps a thing of the past and make voting easier and more accurate,
was supposed to be fully implemented by Jan. 1.
But officials concede a main HAVA provision, new electronic
voting machines, will likely not be in place statewide in time for the September
primary. And because of fears that forcing the issue would turn voting into
chaos, some say the state should ask for a waiver until 2007.
"It's possible it won't happen because there just won't
be enough time to finish the certification process. Some counties may have new
machines, others may not," said state Board of Elections Spokesman Lee
Daghlian. "If the state Legislature passed the (HAVA) bills in '04 we
would not be in this position, but they waited until '05, which does not give
us enough time to get everything done in time. We were under the gun to begin
with."
Counties remain on hold until the state finalizes
specifications and the companies submit machines to get certified. Once the
list of certified machines is compiled, which may not be until mid-March, the
counties have to issue a request for proposal for their chosen machine and then
they have to be ordered, built, delivered and workers have to be trained.
"As time goes by, we are realizing that we would be
using the old machines, or at least a combination (in the September
primary)," said Ed McDonough, the Democratic Rensselaer County elections
commissioner. "As of today's date, not one of the machines has been
certified. We can look at a machine tomorrow, fall in love with it, and if it
is not certified by the state, we can't buy it."
After the 2000 presidential re-count debacle in Florida, the
federal government passed HAVA, allocating $3.9 billion to help states replace
lever and punch type voting machines, train poll workers, implement statewide
voter databases and make the electoral process accessible to the disabled.
New York state's cut is $220 million, with $190 million
earmarked for new machines. Rensselaer County will get $1.7 million but nobody
is sure if it will be enough to replace the county's 230 voting machines or
not.
Also, counties will now pick up the cost of paying
inspectors and running all the elections, rather than the clerks of cities and
towns. McDonough's Republican counterpart, Commissioner Larry Bugbee, said
regardless of what machines are used, he expects the elections will go
smoothly.
"The lever machines have been around for years, and if
we use them one more year, we will have a good credible election just like we
have in the past," he said, adding the board did not have to hire any more
staff to handle the extra workload.
Absent a waiver, if counties do use the lever-type machines
this year, it would be in violation of federal law and sanctions are possible.
The state did narrow choices down to two types of machines.
An optical scan type, which would read ballots that are similar to a high
school standardized test like the SAT, and a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE)
type, whereby voters would cast a ballot electronically and the machine
produces a paper trail for verification.
Regardless of what counties choose, the machines have to
accommodate disabled voters and present the entire ballot like the old lever
types.
John Graziano, the Albany County Republican elections
commissioner, said state government waited too long to pass HAVA - it was not
signed into law until July 12, 2005 - and now a "crisis looms" if
counties are forced to buy the machines and try to train employees by
September's primary. He also cited the state's lack of leadership and
direction.
"As a result of these factors, the most fundamental
right of a democracy will be in hands unprepared to meet the challenge,"
he said.
Blair Horner, the legislative director for the New York
Public Interest Research Group, said voters would be better served if the state
asks the U.S. Department of Justice for a waiver and concentrate on giving new
machines and the local boards their first trial run in 2007, when only local
candidates run and voter turnout will be significantly less than this year when
statewide candidates run.
"The worst thing they can do is to think they have to
get it done and ram it down people's throats," he said. "The worst
thing you can do is to have chaos at the polls."
ŠThe Record 2006
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of political, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.