How Albany picks a new voting machine

[cal04]

There's a million-dollar battle raging over what kinds of voting machines New Yorkers will use starting next year. Thanks to the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida, New York's mechanical lever machines should be gone by the November 2006 election, the result of a sweeping federal voting law requiring, in part, that voting systems be accessible to the disabled.

The decisions state officials make in the next two months will change the way New Yorkers vote. And lawmakers aren't making those decisions in a vacuum.
Since Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002, voting machine vendors have spent nearly $1.2 million trying TOUCH- to influence New York's choice of voting system.

The battle boils down to touch-screen electronic devices vs. optical scanners that tabulate paper ballots. Advocates for touch-screen machines, which are more expensive up front, say they are cheaper in the long run and easier for voters to use. Voters simply touch squares bearing the name of their candidate on a screen. Optical scanning advocates say their devices are more accurate and reliable because they read actual paper ballots marked by voters.

The delays and the debate are sure to be central topics when county elections commissioners from across New York gather for their three-day annual meeting today through Wednesday at DeWitt's Wyndham Hotel. Although Wright said the Assembly has held a number of public hearings, Rachel Leon, executive director of Common Cause New York, says the Legislature's lack of action and open debate are leaving the public out of the decision. "Whatever machine we pick is going to dramatically change the way we vote for decades, so this should be a public discussion," she said. "The Legislature hasn't really done their job."

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1115023330293390.xml&coll=1

[Bill Bored]

1. The Syracuse Post-Standard is doing a pretty good job covering this! nt

[trogdor]

2. Fortunately, our state legislature is the most dysfunctional in the USA

Consensus, such as that which produced the first on-time budget since 1984, is so rare, one of my favorite jokes is that they can't decide what color ties to wear on St. Patrick's Day. Action will be slow on this, and for once, it's a good thing.