Board plans to demonstrate voting machines

By Tom Grace    The Daily Star    11 August 2005

The Otsego County Board of Elections plans to have a demonstration of voting machines for the public and county board in late September.

"We?ve been contacting vendors, trying to have them here on Sept. 28," Hank Nicols, county Democratic elections commissioner, said Tuesday. "People will be able to come here and see how these machines work, and we?d like to have a presentation for the county board that day."

Makers of optical scanners and computerized voting machines, known as director recording electronic machines, will be invited to bring their hardware.
  
Most of the state still uses lever machines, which have been in service for decades. There will be no change for elections this November, said Lee Daghlian, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections.

A year from November, however, the new machines will be in place in many counties.

Daghlian said the state Legislature has set guidelines for machines that will be used in the state, approving DREs and optical scanners. The guidelines stipulate that machines must show a full-faced ballot, which requires a list of all candidates for all races, and provide a paper trail to make recounts possible.

All machines also must comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, a measure meant to make it easier for people with disabilities to vote in polling places.

Companies that make voting machines are seeking to have them certified by the federal government. Manufactures of machines that comply with federal standards will then be eligible to apply for certification in New York state, Daghlian said.

"I don?t expect we?ll be certifying anyone before late this year," he said.

The state test will be rigorous, Daghlian said.

"We?ll be running the equivalent of an election with 20,000 ballots to test how well the machines perform," he said.

Because New York is the only state to require a full-faced ballot, it is uncertain how many manufacturers will design a machine for the state, he said.

After testing in New York, the state Board of Elections will draw up a list of acceptable machines, and county elections commissioners will make their choices.

According to Sheila Ross, county Republican deputy elections commissioner, if the commissioners disagree, the choice will be made by the state Board of Elections.

The federal and state governments have pledged to pay much, if not all of, the cost of the machines at a rate of about $17 per registered voter. For Otsego County, this means $651,000 will be available, she said.

Daghlian said the choice of voting machines has become controversial, as some voters believe that the totals registered on DREs are suspect. A meeting of the state Board of Elections was picketed Monday, he said.

"Some of these people just won?t listen to anything you say," he said.

David Grodsky of Morris, a proponent of optical scanners who has addressed the Otsego County Board, said he understands the protest.

"It?s rare that you?re able to do the right thing and save money, but that would be the case if we opted for scanners," he said.

Grodsky, who is helping organize a petition drive for scanners, said DREs are operated with proprietary software so voters and officials will not be able to verify that the machines count accurately.

Ross has said ballots for optical scanners might be very expensive, and counties will be stuck with recurring bills.

Daghlian said vendors in the state have said that ballots for scanners will cost just under a dollar apiece, as they must be printed on good-grade paper and display all races on one sheet.

Grodsky said such ballots can be purchased more cheaply out of state. He and Nicols said some large printers in New York state are closely associated with firms trying to sell DREs.