Help! What kind of voting system do they use in New York City?

[ClintCooper2003]

[skids]

1. mostly lever machines I think.

You should be able to find out more here:

https://voteprotect.org/?jsc=1

[lcordero]

2. I used a machine

where I had to use switches and one huge lever.

HTH

[proudtobeadem]

16. So did I

[aquart]

3. Lovely levers.

I love my levers.

[Tace]

4. Lever Machines In Midtown Manhattan

[Winamericaback]

5. Levers

Seems to work great.. why does NY still use them and almost nobody else? Who knows..

Oh wait.. yes so the Republicans can always win ;) I mean if they cam out with a win in NY you wouldn't need vote protection agencies people would be marching on the streets right after the results came in as that would be really obvious!

[ClintCooper2003]

6. Any chance that levers can be tampered with?

Because if you compare the returns from 2004 to 2000, Kerry actually got less votes in New York City than Gore did. And Bush's numbers increased.

I guess that has to do with the "9/11 effect" but the problem is this: the exit polls in New York showed Kerry leading by about 25 points. He only ended up winning by 18. Maybe the exit polls were way off after all.

[Winamericaback]

7. I don't know

My family lives in Brooklyn which is how I know levers and I remember seeing the machines when I was in elemenatry school there. Voting day was the "everyone be silent day" in school.

I think it is possible that the exit polls were off, they could have showed a bias. Upstate NY and NYC are 2 completly different entities. So you cannot base the exit poll just on one. The difference between the 2 is like 2 different countries.

[badc0der]

9. yes, and they were

link as soon as I find it.

EDIT: strange... I heard about an election to the NY state legislature being tampered with on the radio but can't seem to find anything on it now.

[demodonkey]

12. Lever Machines COULD be tampered with, BUT...

they are completely mechanical (work like analog odometers on a car), so you would have to open EACH individual machine, and do something to the actual mechanism like file a cog off of a gear, or jam a gear with a toothpick, etc.

Also getting inside one would be tough unless you have the key for each machine. Otherwise they are heavy steel (meaning you would need a large hammer, crowbar, etc and obviously that would leave, uh, "fingerprints"). If machines WERE opened and tampered with it would most likely have to be an inside job by someone connected with the election (election official, machine repair person, etc). Your average pollworker could probably NOT do this. Nor could it be done AT the poll -- would be extremely obvious to take one of these babies apart as you would be pulling out gears, etc. And again you would have to do EACH individual machine.

Note: I am a poll worker in PA and we use lever machines so I am VERY familiar with them. I feel pretty confident that these machines are "clean".

The central tabulation point (where the results from the lever machines get recorded) would be a LOT easier to hack, cheat, steal, break into, glitch, whatever... especially if they are using un-certified or insecure software or machines to do the tabulations!

[skids]

11. I liked the levers too

Opscan since 2002, levers before that. The lever machines always had a neat "retro" feel to them, like you expected them to jet steam from a release valve or something.

But they do get old and NY had issues with them this year, for sure.

[emlev]

8. www.verifiedvoting.org has the answer

Go there and search for the county/counties you need. You can also get reports on what sorts of problems particular electronic voting machines have had in the past.

[ClintCooper2003]

15. Man, verified voting.org is even better than...

election line.org. Much more specific information! This website totally rules.

[bluetrain]

10. I saw a map which colored the country by voting machine type

and it showed all of NY using levers. I used one this year in the Village and previously in B'klyn. I have to admit I'm not entirely sure how it works. Is it punching into a paper? A card inside? Does anyone know?

[jfern]

13. Basically the entire state uses them

except 2 minor counties.

They're about 600 pounds, and use levers and odometers to store the votes until someone records them. Circa 1890 technology, but it seems to work better than a lot of newer stuff.

[demodonkey]

14. Actually lever machine weighs about 735 pounds according to...

what I was told by our county's long-time machine repair man. (This after I once tried to lift one 1/4 inch onto a carpet -- and damn near got myself a hernia!)

Can't sneak one of these babies away in your car trunk, either!

:-)


<<They're about 600 pounds>>