Municipalities Must Choose Between DRE and Optical Scan Machine-- NY

[FogerRox]

Fights Ensue Over Voting Machine Selection
Municipalities Must Choose Between DRE and Optical Scan Machines

By Amanda Erickson
Spectator Staff Writer
September 22, 2005
As New York City gears up for the mayoral race on Nov. 8, the State and City Board of Elections are preparing for a much bigger challenge: figuring out what machines voters will use to cast their votes in the future.
While the state legislature’s “Help America Vote Act,” passed late in this session, provides federal funds for states to update their voting equipment once they develop a plan to implement the changes, it has left the major issue of what type of voting machines the city will buy.

Under the state’s new rules, each municipality, including the City, will be able to choose what type of machine to use. This choice has concerned several legislators and good government groups, who worry that not regulating machine choice will result in certain counties choosing less secure machines.

Barbara Bartoletti, executive director of the New York State League of Women Voters, is pushing the state to purchase optical scan machines, which require voters to fill out a paper ballot and then scan it into a machine, creating a verifiable paper trail.


http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/09/22/43324d53bee23

2004 ERd thread--

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394511

[xray s]

1. be careful. Optiscan give a false sense of security

It's the tabulator you have to watch for.

The have been know to come up with erroneous results.

[HootieMcBoob]

2. but at least there's a paper trail right?

or am I wrong?
which of these machines is best?

[msongs]

3. optical scan cards CAN be hand counted->they can be doctored or ->

forged cards can be submitted in place of legitimate ones. Much harder to do those things on a huge scale however than pushing a button and falsifying computer/electronic votes.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/clark2008.htm

[xray s]

4. yes there is a paper trail

and that is good. I would choose optiscan over a touch screen type system. They use optiscan where I live.

But we had an election where the results were tabulated wrong. Luckily the error was found and a recount changed the results.

But it the main computer tabulator can still be tampered with.

[HootieMcBoob]

5. I wish we could just go back to plain old paper ballots

Just drop the paper ballot into a clear/transparent box with a lock on it. Have armed guards to make sure that nobody tampers with anything.

So what if it takes a little while to count everything. The important thing should be accuracy.