By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
—
In federal district court on Thursday, Judge Gary Sharpe ordered the New York State Board of Elections to present by Jan. 4 a specific plan to install new handicapped-accessible voting machines.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Sharpe spent much of the hearing ``expressing his disgust with the state for its failure to meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act while every other state took action. He reminded officials several times he could jail members of the state Board of Elections for contempt of court.''
Sharpe also warned that he can appoint a ``special master'' to force the state into compliance with HAVA, the AP reported.
After the hearing, Lee Daghlian, state Board of Elections spokesman, said the state's plan will likely call for installing a handicapped-accessible ballot-marking device in every polling station in New York next year.
BMDs allow people with various handicaps to record their votes with technologies including audio and sip-and-puff.
Daghlian said the BMDs cost about $5,000 each and typically work with optical scanners.
The scanners, which count actual ballots marked by voters, are one of two systems that county boards of election have been told will replace lever machines.
The other option is the direct-recording electronic device, or DRE, a computerized machine that resembles a large-screen television.
Advocates for people with disabilities have argued for how easy DREs are to use, but opponents of DREs have said they are untrustworthy because there are no paper ballots to recount in close elections.
Thursday, Chris Zachmeyer, executive director of the Catskill Center for Independence, said she was pleased that Sharpe ``is taking this seriously.''
Zachmeyer said Sharpe told BOE officials they were suffering ``paralysis by analysis,'' with their labored debate on how to proceed.
She said she has an open mind on which type of system the counties should buy and is looking forward to seeing the latest equipment.
``Technology is evolving, getting better, and that's a good thing,'' she said.
Daglian said the state's plan will call for replacing all lever machines in 2009.
Sheila Ross, Otsego County's Republican deputy elections commissioner, said those machines will be optical scanners, made to work with the ballot-marking devices that will be installed in the coming months.
``With all the money they're going to spend on ballot markers, I don't see any way we're going to have anything but scanners,'' she said.
Counties may not have a choice, Ross said, and the federal government has provided about $200 million for purchasing equipment.
In the coming weeks, county elections officials and others will be looking at ballot markers, trying to see which ones are best, she said.
As soon as state officials put a plan into motion, Ross said, ``We're ready to go.''
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