New Yorkers face another election with lever-action machines

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:06 p.m., Tuesday, February 28, 2006

ALBANY -- As the state tried to ward off a lawsuit over its worst-in-the-nation failure to comply with the Help America Vote Act, the bottom line became clear Tuesday: The lever-action voting machines used for generations will be in service again this November.

"There is no way New York state is going to be able to go forward with any kind of voting system other than continuing this year to maintain the lever machine system," said former state Assemblyman Neil Kelleher, a co-chairman of the state Board of Elections.

New York has made the least progress of any state in complying with HAVA, adopted after the disputed 2000 presidential election. For weeks, federal officials have threatened to sue as state officials have tried to satisfy their demands and avoid being dragged into court.

An aide to state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said lawyers for the state and the U.S Justice Department were talking by telephone again Tuesday.

"There are still intense negotiations going on," said Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Pritchard.

Justice Department spokesman Eric Holland declined to comment specifically on New York 's situation, saying only that "we are communicating with various states, including New York . We're evaluating each individual state's situation and at the conclusion of the evaluation, we'll determine what actions should be taken."

State board spokesman Lee Daghlian said the outlines of an agreement have been worked out, but even that might not thwart a lawsuit.

"They may want to sue anyway just to make an example of us," he said.

On Monday, state election board commissioners quickly ended a public meeting to go behind closed doors to continue the negotiations. The board is scheduled for another public meeting March 7.

Thus far, New York has received $220 million in federal aid to buy new voting machines, make voting fully accessible to the disabled and compile centralized voter registration lists, among other things.

Daghlian said for the 2006 election, most New Yorkers will again be using the lever-action machines first demonstrated in Lockport , N.Y. , in 1892 and which soon became the dominant system across New York and much of the nation.

"They always did their jobs," said Kelleher, who spent 25 years in the Assembly. "Sure, they had some breakdowns, but nobody is going to tell me that these new, fancy machines aren't going to have some breakdowns. There's going to be more recalls on this than you could shake a millions sticks at."

Disabled voters will likely be offered a system where they can use special machinery to mark paper ballots, a telephone-based system or a combination, he said. Daghlian said the special equipment could cost up to $50 million statewide, money that would come out of the HAVA pot counties have been counting on to buy new voting technology. Some of the technology for disabled voters may be transferable to any new voting systems approved by the board.

The state board has yet to approve regulations for new voting systems.

"Our guiding principle is, we're going to implement HAVA properly the first time," said Douglas Kellner, a Democrat from New York City who is Kelleher's co-chairman at the state board.