NY HAVA News

[Bill Bored]

<http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=371117>

A lot of interesting stuff in this story.

[foo_bar]

1. that $220 million will make someone's nephew real happy

The counties "expressed concerns" but mainly want a piece of the $220m:

NYSAC expressed concerns to the State Board and Legislature over the long term financial implications that centralization will have on counties in terms of maintenance, storage and annual distribution of the machines. Currently, voting machines are owned by the towns, cities and villages, however under centralization these municipalities will play a reduced role in administering elections, although counties will have the option of charging their municipalities for election costs they may incur.

http://www.nysac.org/story.asp?i=89109

Slightly off-topic, but related in a Google free association way, I found a Delarue annual report explaining the effect of HAVA on the bottom line:

"In May 2002, we announced the acquisition of 85 per cent of the share capital of Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., one of the largest providers of voting equipment, software, ballot printing and election services in the USA. Sequoia offers hardware products in all major segments of the North American elections market, including direct recording equipment and optical scan systems. In October, as expected, the Help America Vote Act 2002 was signed by President Bush, releasing over US$3.9bn of Federal funding (plus matching State funding) for the upgrading of election systems over the next four years. We believe that this will now accelerate the evolution of the market to adopting highly secure automated election systems.
...
In March 2003, we announced our intention to outsource Sequoia’s ballot printing operations to a third party and the closure of our Exeter, USA, production facility with the loss of about 60 jobs. This action was in line with our intentions at the time of acquisition. As the market increasingly moves to electronic voting systems, we believe it is more cost effective to outsource the production of paper ballots than to continue to sustain the high costs of production ourselves in a declining market. The costs of this action will result in an exceptional charge of £2.8m and is expected to be completed by the end of May 2003."

http://www.delarue.com/images/InvestorCentre/2003_pages20-21.pdf

[LightningFlash]

2. This has to be stopped for certain.

Everyone who can make a difference here needs to begin mass mailing/calling their represenatives in each county, spread the word through-out newyork!!!!

They are attempting to centrally "federalize" elections for New York, and employ the standards for all voting machines like they intended to do! This can't be allowed to stand! Its just one state but if they are not stopped, soon they will go forward in federalizing elections meaning no more fair elections. There needs to be a storm of fire over this for NYC, and you know why don't you.....They are trying to eliminate the ability of counties and local elections agencies to do anything! :mad: :mad: :banghead: :thumbsdown:

[Bill Bored]

3. Actually

They have so far said the counties can decide on voting machines. The state legislature are only going to set standards. It's much more likely that there will be a decentralized solution resembling FL 2000 (or FL 2004 for that matter) but without the punch cards and WITH bipartisan BOEs.

So far some of the standards agreed to are much better than the federal ones, which are pretty much nonexistent. For example, we will have mandatory manual random auditing of voter-verified paper.

The real issue is that DREs should not be allowed at all because they offer little or no benefit and increase the risk of fraud. But nobody in Albany has the wherewithal to face these faces.

I hope there can be lawsuits if and when elections are privatized. Otherwise, no vote will be safe from tampering.

[foo_bar]

4. HAVA was "only going to set standards"

New York resisted the longest, but the money is too moneylicious:

“The most important thing is that we get the money and have an opportunity to spend the money,” Rosen said. “If we don’t spend it this year, it’s gone.”

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/23/4241227160636

"We all know that the clock is ticking," Wright said. "We don't want to abdicate our responsibility and have to give the money back."

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=371117

(edited link)

[Bill Bored]

5. That money isn't even enough to replace the lever machines.

The issue is and always has been accessible machines for disabled voters and it's been used as a wedge issue by the Repukes all along.