In 2008, the paper ballots created by these new machines will probably be counted at each precinct by hand after the polls close, with the results added to the counts from the mechanical machines and then reported to the Board of Elections office. All existing lever machines will serve their final election in 2008 and be completely replaced with, hopefully, privacy booths and paper-ballot scanners in 2009. Assuming there are no significant problems with the initial batch of machines purchased for the handicapped, the vendors that win these initial contracts will almost certainly have a leg up on the larger contracts for 2009.
The NYC Board of Elections has chosen the ES&S Automark ballot marking device. Kudos are also given to Commissioner Anthony Como for breaking ranks with his fellow Republican commissioners and siding with the Democratic commissioners, thus preventing the partisan paralysis that has dragged this process out for years.
51 of New York's 62 counties chose the Sequoia ImageCast, another paper-ballot/optical-scan (PBOS) system which was the only PBOS system approved by the State Board of Elections prior to legal action by manufacturers that forced the other machines back onto the list. Three counties chose the Premier (formerly Diebold) AutoMark, which is virtually identical to the ES&S machine chosen by NYC.
For now, the only county in NY State to chose an all-electronic system with no auditable paper trail is Hamilton County, a sparsely-populated region northwest of Albany that is located entirely within the Adirondack National Park. Hamilton chose the Liberty Election Systems LibertyVote, a very problematic machine that was banned in The Netherlands, the manufacturer's home country. The few, good people of Hamilton County lean conservative and are represented in Congress by Republican John McHugh. Liberty was leading the legal fight to undo the State Board of Elections' decision to not certify any DRE machines, but one has to wonder whether if Liberty's litigation expenses will end up being higher than the profits they can turn on the 11 fabulously-expensive machines that Hamilton County will purchase.
The machines for 2008 are being put in because a federal judge has ordered it. Passing tests is not on his radar. Once those machines are in, New York will officially be HAVA-compliant. (Of course, that doesn't necessarily make them good, but look at who was writing the laws in 2002.)
The next step will be making our election system compliant with the state's 2005 Election Reform and Modernization Law (ERMA). That requires full testing for all voting systems to prove worthiness for certification to state standards. Fortunately, and thanks in large part to both Doug Kellner and all the wonderful people who have been working on this for years (including Bo Lipari, Teresa Hommel, and David Kogelman), the state has actual standards.
Use the above link to see the entire list of selected voting machines by county.
Michael H. Drucker
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