By Liz Anderson
The Journal News
(Original Publication: October 24, 2006)
Advocates for people with disabilities chastised the Westchester County Board of Legislators last night for considering a resolution supporting the county's continued use of lever-style voting machines.
"Shame on you for considering this," said Michael Hellmann of Peekskill, who pronounced himself "appalled" by the measure. "Save face and withdraw it, please."
People who are blind or visually impaired and people with mobility issues, including those who use wheelchairs, may need assistance to operate the lever-style machines. Federal voting-reform measures call for the county to replace the machines with systems that provide more people with the ability to cast their vote independently.
The resolution, introduced by Legislator Thomas Abinanti, D-Greenburgh, calls on Westchester to join Suffolk County in suing the state Board of Elections for the right to continue using the lever machines, described as "reliable, user-friendly and cost-effective."
Abinanti said joining the suit would "not delay the responsibility of the county to move forward" in buying new voting machines. But he said he wanted to preserve the option of retaining some lever machines while purchasing others that would be more accessible.
The board's majority leader, Martin Rogowsky, D-Harrison, said at the start of the meeting that he expected to hold a vote that night, but the board vice chairwoman, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, later said she was prepared to invoke her right to have the measure delayed for two weeks. Instead, the bill was sent back to committee.
Stewart-Cousins, a candidate for state Senate, said she wanted to know more about Suffolk County's approach before supporting the move.
"Unless I can see that (information), I'm not prepared to vote for this tonight," she said.
Joseph Bravo, executive director of the Westchester Independent Living Center in White Plains, said lawmakers were proposing to embrace an "antiquated" system.
"This is such a blunder that the (board) would be making," he said. "What Suffolk County does is up to Suffolk County ... our legislature here should not be supporting technology that's 50, 60 years old. Let's embrace the future."
Melvyn Tanzman, executive director of the Yonkers independent living center Westchester Disabled on the Move, said joining the Suffolk suit would make Westchester "an active advocate for maintaining a status quo that is discriminatory."
In March, the federal government sued New York for delays in implementing the federal elections changes known as the Help America Vote Act, including New York's failure to replace the 22,000 lever-style voting machines in use statewide.