NY: Group Rejects Voting Machine Switch in Greene County, Legislators Promise to Consider Resolution

[Wilms]

Group Rejects Voting Machine Switch in County

Change unwelcome, according to Citizens for Clean Elections

By Melanie Lekocevic

March 18, 2009

CATSKILL

snip

…a group of Greene County residents has a message of its own — they say ‘no thanks’ to change.

snip

“I urge everyone on this legislature to please go to the state legislature and ask them to make sure they will provide a way for us to use our lever machines and not switch to computers,” said Irene Miller of Palenville from the advocacy group New York Citizens for Clean Elections.

She was joined by more than a dozen supporters who don’t want the county to switch to the optical scan machines that will soon take the place of the lever machines, which were used in Greene County as far back as the 1920s, according to Miller. Opponents to the state’s plan say the computerized voting machines will be prone to hacking, can be manipulated to change election results, and will require substantial recounts.

According to Democratic Elections Commissioner Thomas Burke, the decision is out of the county’s hands. While he agreed that the lever machines could conceivably work better than the newer optical scan voting machines, the state leaves them with no choice — everyone will soon make the switch.

“Are the new machines as good as the old ones? I don’t think so, but everyone in the State of New York will have to switch to the optical scan machine,” Burke said. “We don’t know when the change will happen, but it will happen.”

snip

While it appears the change will happen whether local officials want it to or not, Greene County legislators promised to consider a resolution at their next government operations committee meeting that would urge the state to reconsider, a move other counties around the state have already made. However, officials do not hold out much hope that it will impact the state’s decision.

snip

http://www.thedailymail.net/articles/2009/03/18/news/news2.txt

[Wilms]

1. New Link

http://www.thedailymail.net/articles/2009/03/17/news/news2.txt