Senate, Assembly offer disparate election reforms
Albany Bills call for changes in voting protocol, but lawmakers have yet to meet on resolving differences
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By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau
First published: Tuesday, February 24, 2004
The state Senate and Assembly passed packages of bills Monday aimed at reforming the state's election system to qualify for federal funding, but the measures differ on key issues and negotiations to reconcile them have not begun, lawmakers said.

The Democrat-controlled Assembly approved five bills identical to those passed last year. Highlights include putting county boards of elections in control of voting machines and poll workers, requiring all counties to use the same kind of voting machine and establishing a computerized voter registration database.

The Assembly also wants to allow new voters who register by mail to use one of four kinds of identification at polling places, including a driver's license or a copy of a bank statement.

The Republican-dominated Senate's bills give more power to the state Board of Elections, directing it to set minimum standards for voting machines. The Senate also makes fewer provisions for identification, requiring either a driver's license or Social Security number. New voters with neither form would be assigned a number by the state.

Both the Senate and Assembly bills would require the use of voting machines that produce a paper trail to safeguard election returns and eliminate punch card ballots, which were the source of difficulties in the 2000 presidential election in Florida.

State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Monday engaged in the usual finger-pointing, each calling the other to come to the table and work out their differences via conference committees.

With these bills, the state Legislature is trying to meet the requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act, which was signed into law by President Bush in 2002. The HAVA act will give states money to improve their elections systems.

A task force appointed by Gov. George Pataki has submitted a HAVA plan to the federal government and is awaiting approval. But the Assembly Democrats and many good-government activists were displeased with the way the task force operated and said its plan lacked detail.

New York already has received $66 million in federal funding to help implement its voter database and other HAVA requirements. But the money has remained in the state comptroller's keeping for more than a year while the Assembly and Senate squabbled over how to spend it.

Leaders of the state Democratic and Republican parties recently broke a logjam that was preventing HAVA negotiations from moving forward when they agreed to new leadership at the state Board of Elections. But the final details of that deal have yet to be worked out.

Meanwhile, sources close to the HAVA issue described Monday's bill passages as the two parties "staking out their territories," and said serious talks on bridging the differences between the two sides have yet to begin.