State to test voting machine; groups upset

Electronic device does not have paper backup system

By Tom Grace    Oneonta Daily Star   07 December 2005

The state Board of Elections is being criticized for testing an electronic voting machine that does not generate a paper trail as required by state law.

The testing comes as the state prepares to scrap its mechanical voting machines and buy thousands of new ones. However, before any county in the state can buy a voting machine, a prototype of that machine must be tested and certified by state elections officials.

Earlier this year, the state Legislature set minimum requirements for electronic voting machines, mandating, among other things, that they must produce slips of paper that can be recounted when the electronically tabulated results are challenged.

Spokesman Lee Daghlian said Tuesday that the state Board of Elections has agreed to test a Liberty Elections Systems machine this week.

The firm has not supplied the needed paper backup system, but it has agreed to do so later, Daghlian said. The state will test the machine as is and then will test the other components separately in an effort to speed up the testing process, he said.

Among groups that criticized this approach are the League of Women Voters of New York State, the New York Public Interest Research Group, New Yorkers for Verified Voting and Common Cause.

Aimee Allaud, spokeswoman for the League of Women Voters, said, "The (state Elections) Board has consistently misrepresented the machine ion process to the public and continues to operate in near secrecy, despite a need for full visibility and transparency in the machine ion and certification process."

In an interview with The Daily Star on Tuesday, Allaud also faulted the state board for beginning the testing of machinery before its own voting machine regulations have been finalized.

"This is a slap in the public?s face. It is a subversion of the process, which the public comment period is designed to accomplish," she said.

Daghlian said the state?s proposed regulations have been published and the public is invited to comment on them for a period of 45 days, beginning today. After the comment period ends, the regulations may be amended before taking effect.

The preliminary testing of Liberty?s direct recording electronic (DRE) machine will likely be done this week, he said.

Among critics of this process locally is Hank Nicols, the Otsego County?s Democratic elections commissioner.

"It makes no sense to me, and it seems we?re rushing," Nicols said. He added that he faults the state Legislature, not elections officials, for the controversy.

"The Legislature essentially passed the buck," he said, "and now we have a mess."

Nicols said that testing voting machines in stages, rather than when units are complete, is wrong.

"It would be like test-driving a car, and they tell you, ?Well, when the radio?s in, it?ll probably sound good,"? he said.

David Grodsky of Morris, who has addressed the Otsego County Board of Representatives on the subject of voting machines, said, "They?re treating the paper backup as an add-on, but it?s much more important than that."

With many people worried that DREs can be manipulated to skew results, the paper backup is essential for showing that a machine counts honestly and accurately, he said.

Greg Relic, R-Unadilla, chairman of the county?s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, said Tuesday that many of those who have criticized the state Board of Elections have spoken out against electronic voting before.

"I don?t see this as a big problem," he said.

If the Liberty machine passes the tests and then is equipped with a working paper backup, he said, it should be certified for use.