Electronic voting draws protest
Marchers tell state board they don't want private companies counting the ballots
  
By JAMES M. ODATO,    Albany Times Union   October 12, 2005  
ALBANY Two dozen people upset that New York officials may buy electronic voting machines confronted the state Board of Elections on Tuesday and won the unprecedented right to address the commissioners.

Neil W. Kelleher, chairman of the board, allowed comments from demonstrators, some holding signs and marching into the meeting room straight from a small rally outside the board's offices. All promoted paper ballot machines.  
"We don't want our elections run by private companies," said Barbara Murphy of Clifton Park. Her town is one of the few statewide using direct recording electronic machines, also know as DREs, that allow touch screen voting.

The system is made by Sequoia Voting Systems, one of the powerhouse election-machine companies promoting DREs in New York. Murphy and other members of a campaign against electronic machines said at the board meeting that manufacturers are steering county elections commissioners toward DREs and away from optical scanners that read paper ballots.

Murphy said she is so distrustful of DREs that she refuses to vote at Clifton Park precincts and sends in an absentee ballot.

Two brothers, Wayne Stinson of Schoharie County and Richard Stinson of Delaware County, handed in petitions signed by 1,000 people supporting paper ballots and optical scan machines for purchase under the Help America Vote Act of 2002. New York counties will share almost $200 million statewide to replace lever machines with new voting systems. The petitioners don't want county leaders to acquire "elaborate, expensive and untrustworthy direct recording electronic voting machines," the petition reads.

William Sell, a delegate of the Public Employees Federation, submitted a resolution unanimously approved last month by PEF's 800-member board of delegates. The resolution, which President Roger Benson said he will begin pushing, touts optical scan machines and raises concerns about DREs and hiring nonunion labor to handle voting administration.

Kelleher, a former assemblyman from Rensselaer County, assured the protesters the three commissioners will consider their concerns. The commission is expected to vote on regulations for the machines Oct. 26 and hopes to set criteria for certification of the machines before year's end.

Manufacturers say DREs are a perfect fit for New York. They say the optical scan machines can't handle the full-face ballot required under state legislation and that paper ballots can be a huge financial burden.

However, proponents of optical scan machines say paper ballots and scanning machine systems are a cheaper route than DREs and can be modified to handle full-face ballots.

Susan Zimet, an Ulster County Democratic legislator, said she wants to lead a revolt against any type of new machine. "I'm recommending our county advocate for staying with lever machines and that we ask the entire state to continue using them. Let the federal government sue us."

The lever machines don't conform with federal requirements, such as being more accessible to people with disabilities.