Laura
09-19-2007, 08:55 AM
While electronic voting machines hold out the promise of making voting easier/more accessible for some with physical disabilities, it is not an unqualified good, being subject to fraud, tampering, etc. in new and less-detectable ways than the old-fashioned methods.
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=3&aid=73749
Politics
Another Election Passes Without New Electronic Voting Machines
September 18, 2007
Tuesday was primary day in New York City, and with voter turnout quite low, it would have been the perfect opportunity to give new electronic voting machines a test drive.
But as NY1’s Molly Kroon explains in the following report, the selection process is still stuck in neutral.
Voters in Tuesday's primaries still used the same lever machines that New Yorkers have been pulling for decades. But it wasn't supposed to be this way.
Last year, election officials said they were on track to finally certify electronic voting machines in time for the primaries. What a difference a year makes.
"We are nowhere," said John Ravitz of the New York City Board of Elections.
In fact, the state's been so slow in implementing 2002 requirements for new machines it was sued by the federal government.
But the state's dysfunction may have actually saved it enormous headaches and even bigger piles of cash. States around the country are now going back to the drawing board, after rushing to comply with federal deadlines – only to find troubling defects with the machines they purchased.
"If we do it, we want to do it right the first time,” said Lawrence Norden of Brennan Center for Justice. “We don't want to go back and have to repurchase new machines."
The federal government has promised the state $50 million to off-set the costs of updating the machines.
New York's using the most rigorous testing standards in the nation, but early this year, the company contracted to do so was barred after problems with its inspections nationally. After months of searching, the state Board of Elections says it recently found a new lab, but the state comptroller's office turned it down.
It's back to square one, and officials say retesting may not begin again until December.
“It's been frustrating because a lot of it is out of our control," said Ravitz.
The state is also waiting for a federal decision on whether they'll be required to have ballot-marking machines for disabled voters in every poll site by the September 2008 primary –something that could cost tens of millions of dollars to implement.
Some officials say they don't expect the state to certify machines for another year, which would then take another six months or so for counties to buy and roll out. That makes it highly unlikely they'll be available for the presidential election, which experts say may be just as well, with a surge of voters going to the polls.
- Molly Kroon
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=3&aid=73749
Politics
Another Election Passes Without New Electronic Voting Machines
September 18, 2007
Tuesday was primary day in New York City, and with voter turnout quite low, it would have been the perfect opportunity to give new electronic voting machines a test drive.
But as NY1’s Molly Kroon explains in the following report, the selection process is still stuck in neutral.
Voters in Tuesday's primaries still used the same lever machines that New Yorkers have been pulling for decades. But it wasn't supposed to be this way.
Last year, election officials said they were on track to finally certify electronic voting machines in time for the primaries. What a difference a year makes.
"We are nowhere," said John Ravitz of the New York City Board of Elections.
In fact, the state's been so slow in implementing 2002 requirements for new machines it was sued by the federal government.
But the state's dysfunction may have actually saved it enormous headaches and even bigger piles of cash. States around the country are now going back to the drawing board, after rushing to comply with federal deadlines – only to find troubling defects with the machines they purchased.
"If we do it, we want to do it right the first time,” said Lawrence Norden of Brennan Center for Justice. “We don't want to go back and have to repurchase new machines."
The federal government has promised the state $50 million to off-set the costs of updating the machines.
New York's using the most rigorous testing standards in the nation, but early this year, the company contracted to do so was barred after problems with its inspections nationally. After months of searching, the state Board of Elections says it recently found a new lab, but the state comptroller's office turned it down.
It's back to square one, and officials say retesting may not begin again until December.
“It's been frustrating because a lot of it is out of our control," said Ravitz.
The state is also waiting for a federal decision on whether they'll be required to have ballot-marking machines for disabled voters in every poll site by the September 2008 primary –something that could cost tens of millions of dollars to implement.
Some officials say they don't expect the state to certify machines for another year, which would then take another six months or so for counties to buy and roll out. That makes it highly unlikely they'll be available for the presidential election, which experts say may be just as well, with a surge of voters going to the polls.
- Molly Kroon