Otsego board listens to input on voting devices

Machine choice ultimately belongs to county elections commissioners

By Tom Grace    The Daily Star    06 October 2005

COOPERSTOWN ? The pending change in voting machines in Otsego County came up throughout Wednesday?s meeting of the Otsego County Board of Representatives.

At the start of the meeting, speakers Dorothy Hudson of Cooperstown, Paddy Lane of Morris and Adrian Kuzminski of Fly Creek asked representatives to take an active role in guiding how voters will cast ballots in the future.

Hudson said that the New York League of Women Voters recommends that counties purchase optical scanners rather than computerized voting machines known as director recording electronic machines, or DREs.

  
When scanners are used, voters make their choices on paper ballots that are something like standardized tests. Scanners then count the ballots.

To conduct recounts, elections officials count the paper ballots by hand.

"Scanners have been in use for years, and this is the best way to vote in New York state," Hudson said. "If you have to, you can count the votes a hundred times."

Lane, who was speaking for a local group called the Coalition for Democracy of New York State, also said scanners are superior to DREs.

Kuzminski asked representatives to examine and take a stand on the issue of which machines the county should purchase. Canadians use paper ballots, as Americans did for scores of years, and "the system works beautifully," he said.

The issue has come up recently because federal legislation mandates that states use voting systems that are handicapped-accessible.

New York state in turn has given counties until November 2006 to have machines installed, replacing lever machines that have been in use since the early decades of the 20th century.

According to vendors who demonstrated machines in Cooperstown last week, scanners and equipment to make machines handicapped-accessible cost about $10,000 apiece, although one scanner can count the votes from more than one booth. DREs cost between $8,000 and $9,000 each.

The cost of outfitting the county with either type of machine is estimated to be between $500,000 and $600,000, and the initial purchase will probably be paid for by a federal grant.

Machines are guaranteed for only five years. The state legislature has left the choice of machine up to county elections commissioners. If the commissioners are at odds, the choice will be made by the state Board of Elections.

Outside the meeting Wednesday, Lucinda Jarvis, the county?s Democratic deputy elections commissioner, said she thinks DREs are likely to be ed.

Last week, Charlotte Koniuto, the county?s Republican elections commissioner, said she thinks DREs are easier to use for voters and elections staff.

A model from Sequoia Voting Systems seems particularly good, she said.

Hank Nicols, the county?s Democratic elections commissioner, said Wednesday that because no type of voting machine has yet been approved for use in New York, it?s too early to say which is the best choice.

Later at Wednesday?s board meeting, Rep. Kevin Hodne, D-Oneonta, asked Rep. Greg Relic, R-Unadilla, if the county?s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee will make a recommendation on the issue.

Relic, committee chairman, said the choice will be left to the county Board of Elections.

"It?s their job, and we?ll let them do it," he said.

Rep. Wendell Tripp, R-Cooperstown, said, "I think the board of representatives has not only the right, but the obligation to make a recommendation on which type of system we?re going to have."

Tripp said he has been more impressed with the scanner than the DREs.

Rep. Donald Lindberg, R-Worcester, criticized the tentative approval of a Board of Elections request to purchase two vans to transport the machines to and from the county?s polling stations.

"Remember how long it took us to approve a van to take our veterans to the hospital in Albany, but we turn around, and just like that, we approve two vans for voting machines," he said.

"I think we should keep the machines we have," he added.

Rep. Hugh Henderson, R-Oneonta, said he also has doubts about the pending purchase, but he noted that the new voting machines, unlike their mechanical predecessors, have to be kept in warm storage.