Newsday.com

A federal judge is giving New York until Jan. 4 to develop a timeline for how it will comply with a federal election law to make voting more accurate and more accessible to the disabled.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe spent much of a court hearing Thursday expressing his frustration with what he described as the state's paralysis and 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.

"Why is it that New York thinks it can thumb its nose at the federal government?" Sharpe asked.

It's the latest extension in a federal lawsuit that was filed in 2006. The state has had 18 months to come into compliance, Sharpe said.

"If New York is so concerned about its disabled voters, why has it sat on its hands since 2006?" he said.

HAVA requires the state to provide at least one machine accessible to the disabled per polling place. New York currently has at least one disabled-accessible machine per county. The most pressing need in New York is to make sure that accessible machines are available to the disabled, according to the Department of Justice.

HAVA also requires New York to replace all pull-lever voting machines and to install HAVA-certified machines.

The elections board must first create a plan with a specific timeline for providing the disabled with access to voting machines, but federal attorneys and Sharpe reminded them they must also plan to come into full compliance with the law and determine if they will be able to replace pull-lever machines by the 2008 election, or if it will be delayed until 2009.

Part of the problem is that New York state's requirements for voting machines are more strict than the federal government's, and no machine has met the standard.

Sharpe said federal law trumps state law and that the board should have acted.

If the state doesn't act by Jan. 4, Sharpe says he will consider establishing a "special master" _ perhaps Gov. Eliot Spitzer _ to force the state into compliance with the law, which was enacted after the contested 2000 presidential election.

"If I've got to put somebody in place to do for New York what it can't do for itself, I will," Sharpe said.

"I'm optimistic from what I hear and what I know that we can produce what they want in time," said Lee Daghlian, a spokesman for the elections board.

The board's commissioners submitted two plans to the court _ which Sharpe said was a failure to perform their job to create one viable plan of action.

"The state Board of Elections has said `I can't do my job, here's two plans, you decide judge,"' Sharpe said.

One plan says the state could put one accessible voting machine in each polling place by the November 2008 presidential election. It also says the state could fully comply with HAVA _ by replacing all pull-lever machines _ by the fall of 2009. Attorney's for the Board of Elections said Thursday that they were already about a month behind their objective timeline for testing and approving a HAVA-compliant machine.

The commissioners' other plan is less specific, saying only that some accessible machines would be in place by the November 2008 presidential election. It also calls to replace lever machines in 2009 but contains no specific timetable.

Attorneys for each side and the judge will have a conference at some point before Jan. 4 to evaluate their progress. When the board submits its plan, Sharpe wants the federal government to issue an opinion on whether it's valid and feasible.

"I expect everybody's feet to be over the fire," Sharpe said.

Some voting advocates have objected to the federal government's desire to rush the state into selecting a machine. Testing and finding a HAVA-compliant machine and training poll workers and the public on how to use them is time consuming, said Barbara Bartoletti, of the League of Women Voters.

"You really risk electoral chaos if you do this, rush out these new technologies," she said.