NYC to Use Lever Voting Machines for Primary and Runoff Elections

On Thursday, the New York State Legislature (House and Senate), passed a bill that allows New York City to use lever voting machines for the 2013 Primary and Runoff.

The bill also moves the date of a possible runoff election from September 24 to October 1.

The New York City Board of Elections had called for the return of the lever machines because they claimed there would be no time to reprogram the optical scanners for a possible runoff.

Of all the races, the Democratic Mayoral race with seven candidates, could require the runoff, as no candidate could get the 40% to win the primary.

The New York City Board of Election Day Operations will have to request for the Commissioners’ authorization to spend one (1) day training the poll workers in the Train the Trainer Classes on the lever machines using the 2009 Poll Worker Procedures. There have been no changes to the lever machines since 2009. A consultant is currently assisting the Board revising the poll worker exams and poll worker curriculum. Monitors will be using hard copy reports because the Tablet App is currently designed for the electronic voting systems and there is not enough time to redesign and reprogram the Tablets.


But using lever machines brings many legal problems like: No required paper trail, not ADA compliant, not HAVA or state approved, and not able to display all the new approved New York City languages. There is also the need to get the run-off ballots to overseas and military voters. And finally, many of the lever machines in storage need mechanical repair that will require the expense of cannibalizing machines for parts and finding technicians who know how to fix them and a printer who knows how to print lever ballots.

We will have to wait to see who gets a restraining order so the courts can determine if this bill is constitutional.

What do you think?










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NYC BOE and Primary Run-Offs

While the city primary elections are four months away, the New York City Board of Elections has already sounded the alarm that it will not be able to implement a run-off election with the procedures required for the new voting machines that were put into place in 2010. State law requires that a run-off election occur between the top two finishers two weeks after the primary for citywide offices (mayor, public advocate and comptroller) if no candidate receives 40 percent of the vote.

The new procedures following the passage of the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, require more time for the printing of paper ballots, the testing of scanners to read the ballots, and transportation of the machines to and from the poll sites. Even with the old lever machines, the top two candidates for a run-off were sometimes not known until days before the run-off. The already tight schedule has been exacerbated by the new voting machines.

Some good government groups are recommending the state legislature pass Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) to replace the separate run-off election. With IRV, voters rank candidates from first to last based on preference. The process starts by the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Ballots assigned to eliminated candidate are recounted and assigned to one of the remaining candidates based on the next preference on each ballot. This process continues until one candidate wins by obtaining more than half the votes.

Another option besides IRV includes extending by a week to three-weeks the timing of the run-off election. Other less favorable options include using the old lever machines, pre-printing all possible ballots in advance, using ballots with “candidate A” and “candidate B” as placeholders for actual candidates made known through a separate card given to voters at the poll.

State Senator Marty Golden has sponsored a bill, and the Senate passed it, that would require the New York City Board of Elections to bring back the old-fashioned lever machines.

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said there were no plans to take up the Senate bill and passed an Assembly bill allowing for three weeks between the primary and a runoff, which they feel should be sufficient to reprogram the new machines.

But using lever machines brings many legal problems like: No required paper trail, not ADA compliant, not HAVA or state approved, and not able to display all the new approved languages. There is also the need to get the run-off ballots to overseas and military voters. And finally, many of the lever machines in storage need mechanical repair that will require the expense of cannibalizing machines for parts and finding technicians who know how to fix them and a printer who knows how to print lever ballots.

Now we have to see what the Governor will do.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NY Senate Bill Would Eliminate Primary Runoff

Around 7 percent of registered Democrats voted in the New York City primary runoff last week, in which Councilman John C. Liu of Queens won the party’s nomination for city comptroller and Councilman Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn won the nomination for public advocate.

With such low turnout, the roughly $15 million cost of the runoff meant that the election cost something like $72 per vote cast, according to State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., a Queens Democrat who announced legislation on Monday to eliminate runoff elections in New York State. Mr. Addabbo’s bill comes after critics have questioned the need for the runoff system, which was created after a New York City mayoral primary 40 years ago.

Other options are “instant runoff,” in which primary voters cast indicate their top choices by ranking their top choices: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3. If no candidate received at least 40 percent of the No. 1 rankings, an instant runoff would take place between the top two vote-getters by allocating the ballots from the defeated candidates to whichever of the top two candidates was ranked next on that ballot. The candidate with more votes would win.

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
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