Lawmakers poised to let counties choose voting machines

By MICHAEL HILL
Associated Press Writer

May 10, 2005, 3:24 PM EDT

ALBANY, N.Y. After protracted negotiations over how best to modernize New York's voting booths, a key legislative committee is poised to let counties choose on their own.

The pending deal between negotiators for the state Senate and Assembly is designed to help bring New York into compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in time for the November 2006 elections. A stumbling block has been whether to replace old voting machines with either ATM-style, touch-screen machines or optical scan technology that allows machines to "read" marks made on a paper ballot.

Keith Wright, a Manhattan Democrat and chairman of the Assembly Election Law Committee, said Monday that despite months of talks, the two houses have been unable to agree on a single system. Instead, negotiators are working on a deal that would give individual counties the authority to choose a system.

Long Island Republican John Flanagan, chairman of the Senate's Elections Committee, said though voters in different counties would be able to vote on different types of machines, the machines would still have to meet HAVA standards.

Government reform groups complained such a hodgepodge voting system goes against the thrust of HAVA, which was adopted after the disputed presidential election in Florida in 2000. Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group said that election districts spanning multiple counties could potentially employ more than one machine for a single election.

"The potential for this to be a real mess is significant," he said.

Horner noted the lawmakers' actions come after intense political pressure from multiple quarters. The touch-screen voting-machine industry alone spent about $1 million last year on lobbyists at the state Capitol.

Under HAVA, the states must have modern voting machines in place for the 2006 elections. New York risks more than $200 million in federal HAVA funding if the new systems are not in place.