What's next
The state Board of Elections plans to approve new voting regulations on Feb. 28, then it will begin certifying new voting machines for use. County election
boards hope to have new machines in place this summer, in time for the September primary.
State election officials are just about conceding that they won't be able to meet federal guidelines that require new voting machines for this year's election.
Lee Daghlian, spokesman for the state Board of Elections, said last week that the timeline to buy new machines and have election inspectors trained by the
September primary is simply becoming too tight.
"We're going to try, but I don't think there is going to be enough time for training and such," he said.
If the deadline is blown, the state faces losing some of the roughly $220 million designated by the federal government for the machines and training.
It also means that the old mechanical lever machines that date back decades will once again be used this year.
Following the 2000 presidential election voting controversy, the federal government adopted the Help America Vote Act requiring states to implement new
regulations this year. But New York has been the slowest to adopt new regulations.
New York also has failed to compile a statewide computerized list of registered voters as required by the act. The Justice Department last month threatened
to sue because the state already has missed the Jan. 1 deadline for meeting the guidelines.
If the state can't have the new machines in place by the September primary, Daghlian said election officials are considering buying some type of scan machine
that would assist voters with disabilities in marking paper ballots - a way to temporarily meet some of the the act's requirements.
Chemung County election officials are disappointed they probably won't be able to roll out new machines this fall.
"I'm fairly sure we're going to be using the lever machines in '06," said Democratic election Commissioner Keith Osborne. "We're very disappointed. We had
hoped to have everything in place by the gubernatorial elections. This is going to put us about a year behind.
It's probably good that the state wants to take time to make sure the system is done correctly, Osborne said, but his Republican counterpart said the state
can't delay things too long.
"We were hoping that we would have the new machines, but due to circumstances because of the state, things haven't worked out the way we had hoped," said
Chemung County Republican Election Commissioner Martin Kain. "Some of that delay is good, but in '07, we have to have them. So hopefully by then we'll
have them."
Timing is becoming everything. The state elections board allowed citizens until late January to comment on newly proposed regulations. The state board plans
to publish any changes this month, then give final approval Feb. 28, Daghlian said.
After that, the state would certify models for use, likely a mix of ATM-like touch screens and optical scanners that read ballots like standardized tests
in schools. Then each county would pick what it wants to buy.
All of that is supposed to happen in the next few months. Then elections inspectors would need to be trained.
But part of the problem is that there is no guarantee that private manufacturers can quickly produce the 20,000 machines needed in the state. So having
the new machines ready to go for the 2007 elections, not this year, is looking more like a viable option.
Star-Gazette reporter Jeff Murray contributed to this report.