Fights Ensue Over Voting Machine Selection
Municipalities Must Choose Between DRE and Optical Scan Machines

By Amanda Erickson    Columbia Spectator

September 22, 2005
As New York City gears up for the mayoral race on Nov. 8, the State and City Board of Elections are preparing for a much bigger challenge: figuring out what machines voters will use to cast their votes in the future.

While the state legislature?s ?Help America Vote Act,? passed late in this session, provides federal funds for states to their voting equipment once they develop a plan to implement the changes, it has left the major issue of what type of voting machines the city will buy.

Under the state?s new rules, each municipality, including the City, will be able to choose what type of machine to use. This choice has concerned several legislators and good government groups, who worry that not regulating machine choice will result in certain counties choosing less secure machines.

Barbara Bartoletti, executive director of the New York State League of Women Voters, is pushing the state to purchase optical scan machines, which require voters to fill out a paper ballot and then scan it into a machine, creating a verifiable paper trail.

She and others worry, however, that counties won?t be given the option of buying optical scan machines. Bartoletti said machine-makers are pushing for more expensive computerized DRE machines?where voters log their choices into a computer which tabulates and prints out the totals?and which stand to earn companies more profit while ultimately costing counties and the state more money.

Machine-makers are ?out there trying to sell a product,? she said. ?They will offer [counties] DREs, but what they don?t tell people [is] how expensive the contract is down the road.?

Sequoia, a voting machine company lobbying for the contract in New York, denied the accusations, saying it is pushing for the DRE machines because they are the most financially viable options for the state.

?We offer both [machines] and would be happy to provide either,? Sequoia spokesman Alfie Charlessaid. We are advocating for ?DRE machines [because they] would be a much more cost-effective and easier way to go.?

While DREs may be initially more expensive, Charles said, the cost of buying paper ballots and building booths for the optical scan machines will ultimately cost the counties more money.

But while machine companies deny malicious intent, city and state officials said the machine-makers have been actively lobbying for the DREs.

City Board of Elections spokesman Chris Riley said that both Sequoia and ES&S, companies who manufacture the machines, have approached him and lobbied the city to choose their machines. But, he said, his Board will not make any decisions about what machines to consider until the State Board of Elections certifies them as appropriate for use in New York state.

?Guidelines are set by the state,? he said. ?It?s up to the [state] commissioners.? The state board has not made any decision about what type of machines to buy and denies any knowledge of companies pushing for particular models.

We have ?no knowledge that any companies are favoring one machine over the other,? said Lee Daghlian, spokesman for the State Board of Elections.

But Daghlian did admit that machine manufacturers may be able to decide which machines are approved by the state since they can simply choose not to submit optical scan machines for certification. And without certification, the machines cannot be sold in New York state.

We can only make a decision ?if and when they bring [the machines] to us for certification. Until then, we can?t favor one system over another,? he said.

Bartoletti said this practice may leave the counties with bad choices.

Machine companies are ?in this to get the biggest contract,? Bartoletti said. ?We foresee all kinds of problems.?

Many local officials have already weighed in on the issue, both now and when the legislature was voting on the HAVA bill.

Assemblyman Danny O?Donnell (D-Morningside Heights), a strong proponent of optical scan machines, said that he has faith the Board will ultimately make the right decision.

?It is up to the individual county people to make sure we have a voting system faithful to principles of one person, one vote,? he said. ?I hope our public servants behave like public servants and make decisions best for our democracy,? he said.