An Alternative Plan for New York State’s Voting Machines

Tuesday, December 19, 2006
New Voting Machines, But No Earlier Than 2009

By Bo Lipari, New Yorkers for Verified Voting

For Original Article

It is now all but official that New York State’s current plan to replace lever voting machines by September 2007 is not going to happen. Certification testing of new voting systems has been delayed due to the vendors’ inability to meet the New York’s rigorous standards, and their irresponsible practice of submitting continuous bug fixes and changes, requiring that testing be continually restarted. I’ve written in detail about the problems and issues encountered in New York’s testing process here.

On December 18, 2006, New York State Board of Elections announced at a meeting of County Commissioners of Elections that the State will undoubtedly miss the September 2007 deadline, without elaborating on what plan might replace the current one.
It is time for New York to discuss alternatives. But simply delaying it one more year until 2008 won’t do. I propose that New York State must delay any introduction of new voting machines until at least 2009.

Is Full Implementation by 2008 a Good Idea?

The natural assumption is that if the State does not change voting systems by 2007, then full implementation would simply be delayed one year to 2008. But New York State must consider the risks of the first time use of new voting systems in a Presidential election, where high voter turnout will stress the system to its limits and beyond.

In general, it is a good principle to avoid introducing a new voting system during major election years. The likelihood that insufficient training, machine breakdowns, lack of experience with new procedures and high voter turnout will lead to long lines, frustrated voters, questionable results and subsequent legal challenges is high, and should be avoided at all costs.

Even under the best of circumstances , the 2008 Presidential election would be a bad time to roll out a new system—but given their track record thus far, it is valid to question whether the State Board of Elections’ current approach can be relied on for adequate planning and preparedness for a 2008 rollout.

An Alternate Plan –Implementation by 2009

Given the dangers of rolling out new systems in a Presidential election year, a sensible alternative is to delay a complete switchover to new voting machines until at least September 2009 - a full two years from the current target date. This plan would call for a replacement of lever machines with precinct ballot scanners to be in place by 2009. An interim step for 2007 and 2008 would require that accessible ballot marking devices be in place in each polling place to provide fully accessible voting and to meet HAVA accessibility requirements. It is important that the State Board of Elections require that any ballot marking devices used accessibility in 2007 and 2008 be fully compatible with precinct ballot scanner systems. They must not allow counties to choose ballot marking devices that won’t work with scanners – as many counties did last year, wasting precious HAVA funds.
There are many benefits to waiting until 2009 to fully replace the State’s lever machines:

* Sufficient time allowed for a thorough certification process and security review.
* Allows necessary time for voting machine vendors to achieve compliance with New York State statutory requirements.
* Allows needed time to fully develop plans and procedures for new systems at State and County levels.
* Provides needed time for adequate training of staff, poll workers, and voters in use of new systems.
* Interim implementation of ballot marking devices in each polling place by 2007 meets HAVA accessibility requirements.
* Avoids using an entirely new voting system for the first time in a Presidential election year.

The Department of Justice Lawsuit

New York State Election Law will need to be modified to allow a later implementation, but given the circumstances, the State Legislature is likely to cooperate fully. However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit resulted in a Remedial Order calling for New York State to replace lever machines with new voting systems by September 2007. It is clear that in order to implement an extended implementation plan as I have outlined here, a change to the requirements of the Remedial Order must be negotiated. I leave this to legal experts, but note that the original target date for HAVA implementation was 2006, and in accepting the eventual compromise the DOJ acknowledged that the risk of voter disenfranchisement and substantial disruption to smoothly run elections caused by rushed introduction of new voting machines outweighed the necessity to meet the deadline. It would seem that the same logic could apply here.

In any case it seems clear that the original target date of September 2007 will not be met. No matter what happens, New York State will again be in non-compliance, and will need to renegotiate schedules. We must press for a generous schedule that allows sufficient time to guarantee a well run election with well tested equipment. New York State must get new voting systems right the first time. A two year implementation plan helps assure that we do.