NPR and Op Ed News: Who Controls Voting Machines?

[Bill Bored]

Science Friday Host Ira Flatow Interviews William Biamonte, Democratic Commissioner of Elections for Nassau County, New York
http://www.opednews.com/articles/NPR-Who-Controls-the-Voti-by-Rady-Ananda-081024-501.html

by Rady Ananda

Today, National Public Radio released a nine-part video interview of William T. Biamonte, Democratic Commissioner of Elections from Nassau County, New York on its Science Friday program. Biamonte details the problems with transitioning from machines that allowed for complete control by election officials to those completely controlled by private for-profit corporations with no accountability to the public. He discusses the constitutionality of laws and court rulings that require the use of machines that cannot be certified as accurate and reliable, and includes a cost analysis for taxpayers.

New York was the first state in the nation to adopt paper ballots. When rampant paper ballot fraud then ensued, New York was the first state in the nation to adopt lever technology – specifically to remove paper from the process. It is also the first state in the nation to resist the adoption of software driven voting systems.

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From the Interview:

The co-chair of the State Board of Elections sent out a email to the Elections Commissioners about a month ago saying that he was very concerned that they weren't going to be able to meet established timelines under this federal consent decree and it's possible these machines may not be able to be certified.

And, in that case, Nassau County has purchased $5 million worth of machines that can't be used for the purpose of actually scanning and counting the ballots. Right now, the machines that we have now have – has a optical scanner and a handicapped accessible ballot marking device. The theory was that we could have used, under the Consent Decree, we could have used one in each one of the 400 polling places this November and continue to use the lever machines, and then come '09, replace the lever machines and get an additional 800 optical scanners, keep the ballot marking device in each one of the polling places, and the optical- the additional optical scanners will fill in the place what the levers are doing now.

If these machines can't be certified for use, they can't be used. So, that creates a problem because the judge has demanded a timeline. The Justice Department and the State of New York has agreed to a timeline that says this happens in September of '09.

And then it becomes a constitutionality issue. Can they force us to use machines that are not certifiable? That can't be done or haven't been demonstrated to be absolutely accurate and, and auditable, and reliable.

Link to NPR's Science Friday video:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/series/3/

[Bill Bored]

1. .

[Wilms]

2. It about time somebody kicked this thread! n/t

[Bill Bored]

3. Better than the usual crap, eh Wilms? nt