Feds Sue New York Over Voting Rights (sic) Reform

[Wilms]

Last I checked it was a HAVA issue, not VRA. But what do you want from the press?

Feds Sue New York Over Voting Rights Reform

March 1, 2006

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Federal officials sued New York on Wednesday over its worst-in-the-nation record of complying with the Help America Vote Act, the first time the Department of Justice has sued a state over the new voting requirements.

The HAVA requirements, adopted in the wake of the disputed 2000 presidential election, were designed to update the nation's voting systems. New York has been tagged by the Department of Justice and other critics as the state that has made the slowest progress in complying with the legislation.

Justice Department officials have also been in talks with other states about their progress in meeting HAVA requirements.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Albany and charges that the state has failed to put in place a system that will allow disabled voters to cast their own ballots which are capable of generating a paper record and of failing to create a statewide computerized voter registration database.

snip

http://www.wnbc.com/politics/7584257/detail.html


Here's the DoJ's press release.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=61677

[kster]

1. I hope

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer opens up a good old fashion can of



on the Feds and exposes these corrupt election theft machines once and for all.

[Wilms]

2. And I hope he read this letter from Larry Rockefeller

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=411211

[kster]

3. Eliot Spitzer "The Enforcer"

I don't think he will lose any sleep over their little lawsuit, He was probably waiting for them to do it.



I have read that, is very good. I'm sure Spitzer read it, but just in case he hasn't.

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/

[Wilms]

4. VoteTrustUSA has more, and the pdf of the DoJ whining.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=984&Itemid=26

[Bill Bored]

5. NY: Proud to be HAVA-FREE! nt

[nicknameless]

6. I thought Diebold hadn't complied with the requirements for disabled.

That's the case in California, anyway. Here's part of CA State Senator Debra Bowen to POS SoS McPherson:

Your decision to re-certify Diebold’s machines also violates Elections Code Section 19251(a). As you know, as of January 1, 2006, all DRE voting systems have to come with an accessible voter verified paper audit trail (AVVPAT). The AVVPAT must be “provided or conveyed to voters via both a visual and a nonvisual method, such as through an audio component.” The Diebold TSx doesn’t comply with this provision of the law. Instead, it provides an audio read-back of how the voter’s ballot was recorded electronically, not how it was captured on the AVVPAT, which makes the AVVPAT on the Diebold DRE useless for blind or visually-impaired voters. Given that fact, it appears Diebold’s voting systems don’t comply with Elections Code Section 19251(a) and therefore can’t lawfully be certified for use in California.

K&R for those courageous New Yorkers

[Bill Bored]

7. In my opinion, this is HUGE...

...and it's NOT limited to Diebold.

[nicknameless]

8. Yes.

Bowen is pointing out Diebold's violation of CA Election Laws. So this isn't a HAVA violation, I guess.

I had doubted that this noncompliance was limited to Diebold -- thank you for confirming it.

[Wilms]

9. .

[iconoclastNYC]

10. Some how I think this means NY's electoral votes won't matter in 2008.

Who wants to bet the SCOTUS rules them invalid or some shit?