January 5, 2008
In U.S. District Court in Albany on Friday, the New York State Board of Elections submitted a plan for replacing all of the state's lever voting machines by September 2009.
As part of the state's plan, proposed to Judge Gary Sharpe, a handicapped-accessible ballot-marking device will be placed in every polling place in New York before this September's primary.
The ballot-markers cost about $5,000 apiece.
Sharpe, who last month ordered the state to have a plan by Friday, is likely to rule on the proposal next week, according to Lee Daghlian, state BOE spokesman.
From discussions in court, state officials expect the plan will be accepted and implemented as proposed to the court.
The plan makes it likely that counties will purchase optical scanners when they install new voting systems in 2009, ending a long debate on future equipment.
Some elections officials had preferred direct-recording electronic device _ expensive, electronic-based voting machines promoted for their ease of use _ while others said optical scanners, which record paper ballots, are more secure and reliable.
Counties will likely be spending millions of dollars this year to buy the ballot markers, ``and that's about half the cost of the optical scan system,'' Daghlian noted.
``It's hard to imagine anyone spending all that money, then throwing the equipment out next year to buy DREs,'' he said.
The state has received about $200 million from the federal government to pay for buying the equipment and training people to use it. The amount may be enough to cover costs if the ballot-marking devices are kept in service and used with scanners. The counties' elections commissioners are entitled to select equipment, Daghlian said, and expenses beyond the allotment of federal money will be borne by the counties.
Hank Nicols, Otsego County's Democratic elections commissioner, said he and others at the local BOE have been looking at ballot markers that use auditory and sip-and-puff technology to aid people with disabilities.
All voters will vote on paper ballots _ some with assistance and some without _ and ballots can be recounted in close elections to validate results.
Sheila Ross, the county's Republican deputy elections commissioner, said the local office is ready to comply with whatever the judge orders.
``At this point, I can say we will be getting scanners,'' she said.
Rep. James Powers, R-Butternuts, recently elected chairman of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, said he was glad the county will end up with optical scanners.
``It's the right way to go,'' he said.
The county board voted last year to recommend that if its lever machines were to be decommissioned, they should be replaced with optical scanners.