Source:
Associated PressNY Sets Voting-Machine Upgrade Schedule By RICHARD RICHTMYER
Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- The New York Board of Elections on Friday gave a federal judge a timetable under which it plans to replace all of the state's lever-action voting machines by September 2009. It also will have at least one handicap-accessible machine at each polling place for the September state primary, according to the plan filed in U.S. District Court in Albany.
The upgrades are required by the federal Help America Vote Act enacted after the disputed 2000 presidential election. The U.S. Justice Department sued New York in March 2006 because it was the only state that still hadn't complied. U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe rebuked election officials at a hearing last month and ordered them to produce a timetable that they will stick to, reminding them several times that he could jail them for contempt of court if they don't.
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State election officials have said part of the problem is that state requirements for voting machines are stricter than federal ones. The plan submitted Friday doesn't say what kind of machines New York would use to comply with HAVA, but Daghlian said none of the touch-screen machines currently on the market meet state standards. The only other type of machines that would qualify in New York are optical scanning devices that read markings voters pencil in on paper ballots, Daghlian said. The delay in implementing HAVA has confounded officials in some counties, which are responsible for running elections.
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Some voting advocates, however, say New York's delay in implementing HAVA has given New York the benefit of learning from other state's mistakes with the newer high-tech machines. For example, states including California, Ohio and Florida have found that touch-screen voting machines are inadequate. "Given what has gone on in the rest of the country, New York doesn't have to jump off the abyss and waste money on failed technology," said Barbara Bartoletti, of the League of Women Voters.
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