http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=440402&category=OPINION&BCCode=&newsdate=1/17/2006

timesunion.com

January 17, 2006

State of chaos

New York risks losing federal money by dragging its feet on voting machines

Way to go, New York.

Bravo. Kudos. Take a bow.

You're last again.

The federal Justice Department says the state has the worst record in the country when it comes to complying with the Help America Vote Act. A lawsuit is likely now, as the federal government runs out of patience with New York's disregard for a law designed to spare the country more election debacles like the one in Florida six years ago that left the outcome of the 2000 presidential race in doubt.

How unsurprising.

This is the state, of course, that less than two years ago was cited for literally having the most dysfunctional legislature in the country. It took that sense of collective shame and embarrassment, along with the attention and pressure it brought, for New York legislators to take some steps toward government reform last year.

A similar sense of urgency is necessary once again. By state election officials' own admission, New York counties are in danger of not having enough time before the Sept. 12 primary election to buy new voting machines and get them to work properly. Just as troubling is the increasing possibility that the $220 million the federal government has set aside for New York to modernize its voting systems won't be there much longer.

Imagine state government having to pay for voting reform, and because of its own indifference to what the law requires. That's a prospect that the state Board of Elections needs to take much more seriously.

Yet the bickering continues over just what sort of voting machines New York should use. Many good government advocates prefer optical scanning voting machines. Others favor touch-screen electronic machines known as DREs. Lost in the argument is any acknowledgment that either technology will bring the state into compliance with the new voting law.

The argument is reflective of many pointless disputes in the Legislature, where different, but often only slightly so, versions of legislation in the Assembly and the Senate prevent passage and keep the far more unattractive status quo in place.

The Legislature also should face up to the reality that requiring "full face ballots," meaning all the candidates in all the races are listed on a single page, no longer makes any sense. No other state requires such a thing, for which voting machiines have to be specially designed.

The problem in New York -- regarding voting technology, that is, not government generally -- couldn't be much simpler. How nice, and how different, it would be to see that problem just get fixed.

Only with the Justice Department breathing down the necks of state elections officials, the greater concern seems to be avoiding a lawsuit for noncompliance with the Help America Vote Act, not actual adherence to the law.

"We think we can still negotiate," says the Board of Elections' Lee Daghlian.

That might indeed be possible. But so, clearly, is joining the rest of the country and embracing the election law of the 21st century.

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