Assemblywomen urge paper ballot

Michael DeDora Jr.   Rochester Democrat and Chronicle   01 March 2005

(March 1, 2005) ? ALBANY ? Two lawmakers concerned that the state might buy new voting machines that leave no paper trail on Monday urged the state instead to buy a system that uses paper ballots and optical scanners to count them.

Assemblywomen Sandy Galef, D-Ossining, and Barbara Lifton, D-Ithaca, want a system that requires voters to fill out a paper ballot and run it through an optical scanner to count it.

They oppose the purchase of more expensive electronic touch-screen voting systems that they said do not provide paper ballots and thus no written record of ballots cast.

Under the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, the state must come up with a uniform voting system by the first election of 2006, or lose about $200 million in federal funding for the system. Most of the money would be used to replace lever machines now in use in most parts of the state but which are no longer being manufactured.

All options need to be considered, said Aimee Allaud of the state League of Women Voters.

"We support an open and full exploration of all available voting technologies which meet our criteria of being secure, accurate, recountable, and accessible," she said.

A bill that mandates the state Board of Elections to adopt a uniform voting system has passed the Senate and is being considered by the Assembly. The bill also would require that such a system produce a countable paper record.

But Lifton said the bill is too vague.

"The problems with electronic voting include higher costs to taxpayers, electronic failures ... and faulty machines," Lifton said. "With this system, you have an actual paper ballot ? you have the possibility of actually recounting the real paper slip."