Lack of voting machine aid feared

Officials hope state inaction won't stick Cayuga County with the cost for
machines.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

By David L. Shaw Staff writer

Dennis Sedor and Cherl Heary, Cayuga County election commissioners since
Jan. 1, are hoping the state will get its act together soon and pass the
required legislation needed to help pay for the county's new voting machines.
"The county Legislature here may pass a motion to encourage Albany to get
moving," said Sedor, a Democrat. "I don't want to have to come before the
county

Legislature to say we need $800,000 for new electronic voting machines
because the state didn't do its part." Under the federal Help America Vote
Act, new electronic machines must be in place by the November 2006 elections. And
state election officials say they need at least 18 months to replace all the
voting machines in the state.

New York's Legislature has stalled, leaving New York as the only state in
the country that hasn't passed the necessary legislation. Leaders in the
Democrat-controlled Assembly and Republican-controlled Senate are
blaming each other for the delay.

Meanwhile, some state officials are fearful the state's lollygagging may
cause New York to lose out on some $220 million in federal aid to help
implement the Help America Vote Act - and that costs will end up falling
on local municipalities.

In Cayuga County, the Help America Vote Act means replacing the county's 100
circa-1940s mechanical, pull-lever voting machines with modern electronic
voting machines. "If the state passes this legislation shortly, I think we'll be able to
implement the new machines in time," said Heary, a Republican. "But they've
got to get moving."

Heary isn't sure it will take 18 months, as some have said, to have the new
machines picked by either local or state government officials, delivered,
set up and made secure, with people trained to use them.

Sedor agrees, but he hopes the state acts quickly so as not to jeopardize
the possibility of the state getting the money for the new machines. For
Cayuga County, that would translate into an estimated $800,000 in costs.

Both elections commissioners said it appears the choices have boiled down to
an optical scanning-type machine or a touch-screen machine.

Related issues are what to do with the old machines, how and where to store
the electronic machines in a climate-controlled environment, security
issues, training, maintaining a paper trail and informing the public on their use.

The commissioners say the current machines are basically reliable and
accurate. But they say the machines are cumbersome and difficult for voters
with disabilities to use. The machines are also susceptible to tampering.

"It would be nice to have these machines available for a test run for this
fall's local election, but that's not going to happen," Sedor said.