NY: Greene County Resolution to Keep Lever Voting Machines

[Wilms]

Greene County Resolution to Keep Lever Voting Machines

Whereas, Greene County has successfully used highly accurate lever voting machines for many decades with very few problems and wants to continue using them, and

Whereas, Greene County believes that continued use of lever voting machines is in the best interest of the public, that unlike optical scan computers, our time-proved lever machines can be relied upon to accurately count votes as cast and cost far less, and

Whereas, our lever machines now comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) because New York has installed ballot marking devices for voting by disabled persons, and

Whereas, New York State's enactment of the Election Reform and Modernization Act of 2005 (ERMA) predates installation of the ballot marking devices for disabled-person voting and New York now complies with HAVA, and

Whereas, the State's statutorily required elimination of lever machines through ERMA is no longer necessary, is inappropriate, and exorbitantly costly to Greene County tax payers, therefore be it

Resolved, that the Greene County Legislature hereby requests the New York State Legislature and the New York State Board of Elections to enact laws, rules, and regulations that specifically authorize continued use of our lever voting machines, and

Be It Further Resolved, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Governor David Paterson; New York State Senators James Seward, Malcolm Smith, and Dean Skelos; New York State Assembly Members Peter Lopez and Timothy Gordon; Co-Executive Directors of the New York State Board of Elections Todd Valentine and Stanley Zalen; New York State Board of Elections Commissioners James Walsh, Douglas Kellner, Evelyn Aquila, and Gregory Peterson; and Greene County Elections Commissioners Frank DeBenedictus and Thomas Burke.

http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/2009/04/greene-county-lever-resolution.html

[givemebackmycountry]

1. As a former resident of East Jewett New York, in Greene County may I add...

This is a good thing.
I miss my old stomping grounds.

[Captain Hilts]

2. There's no reason NOT to use these machines. If you can get spare parts for a P-51, then...

ER: You should be able to get spare parts for one of these...

[Wilms]

3. Spare parts ARE available! And will be for the forseeable future.

That's according to the two companies that service the AVM and Shoup machines in NY.

Here's a letter from one of them...

(.pdf) http://www.wheresthepaper.org/VotingMachineServiceCenterletterJan23_09.pdf


So all that BS about hard/impossible to find parts is, er, BS.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Exactly. That argument DOES NOT WORK. nt

[MarjorieG]

5. Yes on the AVM, not so sure about Shoup, but easily found in hardware or made in machine shops.

[Wilms]

6. Shoup, too!

Here's their letter...

http://sites.google.com/site/remediaetc/home/documents/ShoupMaint.pdf

[MarjorieG]

7. I know Andi, Howard and the PR. I don't think the machines in NYC have parts beyond cannibalizing.

[bobshin]

8. This is too logical for government to understand...

As someone who has been intimately involved in all aspects of local elections, I discovered that some of these machines have been in use for over 80 years! Talk about return on investment! Not only that, to be scammed these machines would have to be hacked individually- it just wouldn't be possible to throw an election with these things. Biggest challenge seems to have enough trained mechanics to fix them when they have problems.

Unfortunately the agencies that represent the handicapped seem to be run by right wing nutjobs who go out of their way to promote the computer junk as the only way to allow a disabled person to vote privately. Funny, how good is a private vote if there's no guarantee it will even count?

In New York's case, procrastination has proven to be a blessing. There's now a critical mass of informed voters and activists who've fought hard for this victory. And it's spreading fast. In my county, the two lazy bureaucrats running the board of elections are getting nastier the more the tide turns. They took for granted that people would look to them for making the right choice. This is great news! Good for Greene County! Let the wildfires begin...