Time to Look at New Voting Equipment

After the 2000 presidential election, when those discredited punch card machines were tossed out, resulting in the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and new voting equipment.

Now, the newer machines are starting to wear out.

Election officials are trying to figure out what to do before there's another big voting disaster and vendors have lined up to help.

During their annual meeting in Washington, D.C., this week, state election officials previewed the latest voting equipment.

Kathy Rogers, a senior vice president at ES&S who used to run elections for the state of Georgia, says companies have to be more flexible than they were 10 or so years ago.  Both the technology and how people vote is changing rapidly.

"Some are moving to all vote by mail; some are increasingly becoming early vote sites," she said.  "We have some that have moved as far away from direct record electronics as they possibly can, and then we have others who love that technology."

We use their optical scanning voting systems in New York City.

Some states including Maryland are scrapping touchscreen voting machines in favor of paper-backed equipment, because of security concerns.  But in a sign of the times, Maryland is leasing its new equipment from ES&S, instead of buying, just in case something better comes along in a few years.

The big problem is figuring out who's going to pay for all these new machines.  After the 2000 elections, Congress gave states $3 billion, but no one expects that to happen again.  State and local governments will have to figure out what to do, and soon.

Vendors say they're well aware that there's a tough sell ahead, that people are searching for something that's easy to use and accurate, but also cheap.

Election officials, at this conference, were still just kicking the tires.

I think we need an national independent professional voting operation using one voting system.

For a voting system, I would use Louisiana's, no primaries, just a general election ballot with all candidates and all voters getting one ballot, with Rank-Choice voting.  Then a separate ballot for party official elections with only party members voting.

How would you run an election?











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

450,000 in VA May Lack Proper ID Needed to Vote

Under a state law that took effect this year, Virginia voters must present a driver’s license, a U.S. passport, a photo ID issued by the federal government, a student ID card that has a photograph and was issued by a school in Virginia, or an employee ID card with a photograph.

Voters who show up to the polls without acceptable identification may cast provisional ballots, but they must present a valid form of identification to their local registrar — or apply on the spot for an ID — by noon on the Friday after the election for their votes to be counted.

Driver’s licenses are the most common form of identification in the state, and 457,931 voters in Virginia are without those, according to data from the state board.

In areas where elections may be close, the potential for confusion caused by a lack of proper ID has generated some concern, particularly among Democrats who say they are more likely to attract voters affected by the new law.  Many Republicans said they are not worried.

The makeup of voters without driver’s licenses depends largely on where they live, officials say.  In Arlington, home to many young professionals who don’t drive, a significant portion of the 4,000 people listed by the DMV are in their 20s and 30s, said Linda Lindberg, the general registrar in Arlington.

“We don’t know whether they have other forms of ID or not,” she said, adding that there are also seniors in the county who are more likely to be affected by the new law.

In Fairfax County, seniors make up the bulk of people who may not have proper identification, Quinn said.

Her office has been trying to increase awareness of the new law through “road shows,” where staffers with cameras offer to produce voter IDs on the spot.  State election officials are also mailing fliers about the law to voters.

“We want to make sure we get the information to voters who need it,” Quinn said. “We want everyone who wants to vote to be able to vote.”

The Federal Help America Vote Act mandates that all states require identification from first-time voters who register to vote by mail, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.  But in Virginia, people who are home-bound are not required under the law to have a photo ID and can vote through an absentee ballot.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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New York Lever Voting Machines May Still Be Around

Those pesky, antiquated, unverifiable lever machines continue to rear their ugly heads.

New York Governor Cuomo is currently considering a bill that would allow lever machines to be used for the next year in local school board elections.

This bill was sent to the Governor's desk on August 1st and currently awaits his signature.

The right to vote in elections that are accessible to all has been clearly established by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) as well as New York State law.  However, there are continual attempts to undermine the use of Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) and revert to the sole use of lever machines in local elections.

The Bills, A.09321A/S07371A, would allow for the use of lever machines for another year in village, fire district, library district and other local elections.

Some Talking points from The Association of Independent Living:

- Lever machines are not being manufactured any more, not since 1982, and replacement parts are hard to come by.  It is short-sighted and very poor planning to indefinitely rely on them.

- Lever machines aren't infallible.  When a lever machine breaks down, it makes lines at polling places longer.  Or if there is a malfunction with the counter mechanism, it may not be detected until after polls are closed.

- Using lever machines as well as the accessible voting systems is recipe for disenfranchisement.  Poll workers will be more likely to forget about setting up the accessible machine causing a voter who wants to use it an embarrassing wait or worse, poll workers discovering only then they don't know the machine well enough to turn it on, or they can't find the ballots for it.

- Lever machines do not work well for voters with varying types of visual, mobility and cognitive disabilities.  Voters with visual disabilities are not able to read the ballot; voters with limited mobility capacity are not able to reach and/or operate the levers; voters with certain cognitive limitations are not able to visually focus on the current ballot style associated with the old system.

- Continued use of lever machines with no end in sight is confusing to the electorate and will prolong the acclimation phase for poll workers and further delay public acceptance of the new voting systems.

The Governor has 10 days to act on this bill, so please contact Governor Cuomo's office now at 518-474-8390 (press 3) and tell him to veto bill A.09321A/S07371A.

Temporary backslides in accessibility are NOT acceptable and should not be tolerated. This legislation must be defeated, A.09321A/S07371A.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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