NY NewsDay: New Fix, But Voting Woes Linger

[Wilms]

As e-vendors undoubtedly know by now, New Yorkers are a tough audience.

New Fix, But Voting Woes Linger

One Long Island election official labeled it the start of "HAVA hell."

June 25, 2006

by Rick Brand

snip

Among the worries about the new systems are security, the amount of space needed, and whether counties will have to buy more machines because the capacity of computerized voting machines are far smaller than lever machines. The final question is whether Nassau and Suffolk can get delivery of 3,800 machines in time for next year's vote.

"The new systems are going to create more problems than they are going to solve," warned Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, fearing the $14 million in federal aid to Suffolk will not fully cover putting a new system in place. "The $14-million is the tip of the iceberg," Levy said.

Beyond hardware, local election officials also worry that the new machines will require extensive training of election workers and a large number of new hires to replace inspectors, who may not want to learn the new system.

Others say the new systems may not do much for the handicapped for whom the machines are being made more accessible. William Biamonte, Nassau's Democratic elections commissioner, said a survey of 6,000 voters who use absentee ballots because of age or infirmity, showed little interest in new voting machines. "Their biggest response was lower my taxes," he said.

snip

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-lipol264795520jun25,0,6192644.column?coll=ny-news-columnists

[bleever]

1. "Hava Hell"?? Welcome to the world. Please, take the time to

decompress. Don't try to take it all in at once, and we'll get you back to true atmospheric pressure.

You're doing great; we'll get through this okay. Keep breathing evenly, and keep your eyes open.

:thumbsup:

[JimDandy]

2. Diebold: Draining Dollars and Democracy Day-by-Day.

Okay, don't know if they're Diebold machines, but "Diebold" was the only name that worked with my alliteration. :evilgrin:

[Bill Bored]

3. Diebold is so far little more than a bad joke in this part of the world.

When you have bi-partisan election administration, it's pretty hard to buy anything from a blatantly partisan seller. So far Avante seems to be leading the way in NY, but we are still early in the process.

[EFerrari]

4. Out here, Diebold is doing so well that my paper didn't even report

they were re-certified.

Now, THAT'S a big fat vote of confidence, isn't it? Or, maybe I meant confidence game.

[JimDandy]

5. Diebold is a joke here too, an all too real one tho...

It sounds like your administrators are on the ball. I think real bi-partisanship (or multi-partisanship)is the key to a healthy democracy. When any party becomes excessively dominant, real oversight ceases to exist and corruption flourishes. When it's really bad, like here in Utah, even members of the dominant party, recognizing the illness, start to call for the kinds of changes that will bring more moderation.