Dems urge choice of optical scanners

By Tom Grace    The Daily Star   26 November 2005

The tug of war over the future of voting in Otsego County continues as Hank Nicols, chairman of Otsego County?s Democratic Party, has asked the state Board of Elections to make sure counties have the ability to buy optical scanners next year.

Nicols said Tuesday that he wrote to the state BOE on Monday at the urging of the county?s Democratic Committee, which worries that counties may have no choice but to buy the computerized voting machines that some think are unreliable.

"The issue for me is that if people don?t trust the voting machines we buy," he said, "it?s going to discourage them from voting."

Nicols said the committee also wants to ensure that decisions about voting equipment are arrived at in public forums and that private corporations do not take over functions that are now public.

The letter of concern from Otsego County comes as New York state, which has been pressured by the federal government, is forcing counties to give up lever machines that have been in use since the early 20th century. Before September?s primary elections, each county in the state must buy and install new voting machines. Federal and state money are available for the purchase.

Two types of machines have been promoted by firms and individuals: optical scanners and direct recording electronic, or DRE, machines. With scanners, voters mark paper ballots that are scanned and counted electronically. Scanners can be outfitted with devices that allow handicapped people to use them, so they comply with the federal Helping America Vote Act.

DREs, which look like large computer monitors, also comply with HAVA, because handicapped people can use them. Firms that make and sell DREs tout their ease of use and the fact that they use far less paper than scanners.

Votes are recorded electronically on DREs, and when a recount is required, officials will count the small slips of paper that are generated as a backup with each vote.

New York is one of a few states that require all candidates to appear on one page of the ballot. This "full-faced ballot" requirement is cumbersome for scanners and means they must scan large sheets of paper.

Nicols said experts at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law recently concluded that New York law does not require a full-faced ballot, but Lee Daghlian, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections, said Tuesday that state elections officials interpret the law differently.

"That?s been in effect for years," he said.

Politicians like the full-faced ballot, presumably because it facilitates party-line voting and ensures their names will be displayed on the first page of the ballot, Daghlian said.

He added that state regulations will reflect the legal requirements of the legislature. The regulations will be available early next month and the public will be allowed to comment on them, beginning about Dec. 7 for a period of 45 days.

After this, vendors may submit their machines for federal and state testing. Machines that pass the tests will be certified for use in the state, and then county elections commissioners will decide what to buy.

Charlotte Koniuto, Republican elections commissioner, said she has been impressed by a Sequoia Voting Systems? DRE, but added Tuesday that she wants to see which options are available before stating a preference.

"When the time comes, we?ll see what the choices and compare what?s available," she said.

Larry Tonelli, a state manager with Sequoia, said Tuesday that his firm will submit DREs and scanners for testing. The firm recently sold scanners to Chicago, but Tonelli said DREs are easier to use than scanners and are preferred by many who work at boards of elections.

Prices of the two systems are comparable, he said. Prices for systems from several firms have averaged about $9,000 per machine.

The League of Women Voters of the Cooperstown, which advises buying scanners rather than DREs, is asking area residents to watch the documentary film "Invisible Ballots" when it airs on Oneonta Public Access Channel 23 at 8 p.m. Monday.

The film focuses on DREs and the manufacturers who produce them, according to Ellen Tillapaugh, league president.