Supporters of optical scan voting machines that read paper ballots plan a county-by-county lobbying campaign as counties prepare to choose new voting systems.
Voting machine vendors have spent more than $1 million lobbying for the main alternative to optical scan - electronic touch-screen machines.
The state Legislature is expected to approve a bill this week giving county elections commissioners the option to choose between touch-screen machines and the optical scan devices.
Most county elections commissioners in
The federal 2002 Help America Vote Act, prompted by the 2000
Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-Ithaca, said the optical scan machines would produce more reliable election results and would cost less to use and maintain over time.
The first generation of touch-screen machines "will be prone to problems," Lifton said at an
Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. and Election Systems & Software, both of which manufacture each kind of machine, have been lobbying for the touch-screen machines. Officials for both companies said they would provide whatever machines counties want.
Optical scan advocates say their machines, much smaller than touch-screens, are cheaper to buy and store, will last longer and will produce a more reliable result through hard evidence of votes on sturdy paper ballots.
Touch-screen advocates say their machines won't require the ongoing expense of large, heavy-stock paper ballots and that they more closely resemble the current lever machines, lessening the need for and cost of training.