Politics & Government
Electronic Voting Makes its Way to New York
New York is last state to adopt scan machines for casting ballots.
Voters in Tuesday's primary elections will be among the first in New York State to use the new OPTical scan electronic voting system.
The Nassau County Board of Elections sponsored a public demonstration of the new machines on Aug. 31 at the Glen Cove Senior Center, and on Sept. 8 at City Hall, in order to familiarize voters with the new technology. The demonstration was meant to show just how easy it was to use the new machines and to prove that the changes would not hinder any citizen's ability to cast their vote.
"If you can use an ATM you'll have no problem with the new machine," an election board representative said.
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A City resident agreed with the assessment: "I like the new system," said a voter and poll worker who wished to remain nameless. "A lot of people will want to know how it works."
Lucy Van Horn, Activities Coordinator of the Glen Cove Senior Center, was pleased the Board of Elections is teaching people, especially seniors, to use the new machines.
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"Seniors may find these new machines a bit confusing. Seniors vote. If we don't do anything else, we are voters," Van Horn said.
The state of New York is the last to implement OPTical scan machines into the voting process. Following the confusion of the fallout from the 2000 Presidential election, Congress voted to upgrade the nation's voting machines under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002. However, New York is only now complying with the ruling, one many residents still adamantly oppose. The state's Election Reform and Modernization Act (ERMA) of 2005 mandated that lever machines be replaced with software-based voting machines. Nassau County in particular disagrees with the decision, and lost a recent legal bid this year to avoid deploying the new machines.
"We are going to state court and we are going to have ERMA decaled unconstitutional," Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli said in a statement.
Due to the proximity of the primaries, the electronic voting machines are the only ones which will be used. It is not clear if a case will be brough to court and ruled upon before the general election on November 2.
For more information call the Nassau County Board of Elections at 516-571-VOTE (8683) or log on towww.nassauvotes.com.
