Most accurate voting measures not yet in place |
By: James V. Franco , The Record |
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Peter Durkee claims an aged voting machine malfunctioned last November costing him as many 70 votes and his bid for another term on the Rensselaer County Legislature. He lost by only 12 votes.
But officials concede a main HAVA provision, new electronic voting machines, will likely not be in place statewide in time for the September primary. And because of fears that forcing the issue would turn voting into chaos, some say the state should ask for a waiver until 2007. "It's possible it won't happen because there just won't be enough time to finish the certification process. Some counties may have new machines, others may not," said state Board of Elections Spokesman Lee Daghlian. "If the state Legislature passed the (HAVA) bills in '04 we would not be in this position, but they waited until '05, which does not give us enough time to get everything done in time. We were under the gun to begin with." Counties remain on hold until the state finalizes specifications and the companies submit machines to get certified. Once the list of certified machines is compiled, which may not be until mid-March, the counties have to issue a request for proposal for their chosen machine and then they have to be ordered, built, delivered and workers have to be trained. "As time goes by, we are realizing that we would be using the old machines, or at least a combination (in the September primary)," said Ed McDonough, the Democratic Rensselaer County elections commissioner. "As of today's date, not one of the machines has been certified. We can look at a machine tomorrow, fall in love with it, and if it is not certified by the state, we can't buy it." After the 2000 presidential re-count debacle in Florida, the federal government passed HAVA, allocating $3.9 billion to help states replace lever and punch type voting machines, train poll workers, implement statewide voter databases and make the electoral process accessible to the disabled. New York state's cut is $220 million, with $190 million earmarked for new machines. Rensselaer County will get $1.7 million but nobody is sure if it will be enough to replace the county's 230 voting machines or not. Also, counties will now pick up the cost of paying inspectors and running all the elections, rather than the clerks of cities and towns. McDonough's Republican counterpart, Commissioner Larry Bugbee, said regardless of what machines are used, he expects the elections will go smoothly. "The lever machines have been around for years, and if we use them one more year, we will have a good credible election just like we have in the past," he said, adding the board did not have to hire any more staff to handle the extra workload. Absent a waiver, if counties do use the lever-type machines this year, it would be in violation of federal law and sanctions are possible. The state did narrow choices down to two types of machines. An optical scan type, which would read ballots that are similar to a high school standardized test like the SAT, and a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) type, whereby voters would cast a ballot electronically and the machine produces a paper trail for verification. Regardless of what counties choose, the machines have to accommodate disabled voters and present the entire ballot like the old lever types. John Graziano, the Albany County Republican elections commissioner, said state government waited too long to pass HAVA - it was not signed into law until July 12, 2005 - and now a "crisis looms" if counties are forced to buy the machines and try to train employees by September's primary. He also cited the state's lack of leadership and direction. "As a result of these factors, the most fundamental right of a democracy will be in hands unprepared to meet the challenge," he said. Blair Horner, the legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said voters would be better served if the state asks the U.S. Department of Justice for a waiver and concentrate on giving new machines and the local boards their first trial run in 2007, when only local candidates run and voter turnout will be significantly less than this year when statewide candidates run. "The worst thing they can do is to think they have to get it done and ram it down people's throats," he said. "The worst thing you can do is to have chaos at the polls."
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