Voting machine committee proposed

County to be impacted by costs

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — David Fanslau, the new manager of Sullivan County, proposed forming a committee to interface with the board of elections on the selection of new voting machines.

Fanslau made the recommendation at a meeting of the General Services Committee on Thursday, October 5. The county’s two election commissioners will ultimately make the choice of which machines the county purchases. But Fanslau said the legislature should be able to offer input on the choice because, depending on the machine that is selected, the county’s cost to maintain and operate the machines could be significant.

For instance, there are machines that serve about 200 voters per day, as opposed to some can handle three or four times that many voters, which could result in a dramatic difference in cost. Moreover, moving the machines to the polling places will be more expensive than in the past, because many of these machines are delicate, and many municipalities use specialized movers to transport them, which adds to the operation costs. So, it might be more cost-effective to select fewer machines that could serve more voters. Another budget factor is the cost of storing electronic voting machines, which will require a climate-controlled environment; larger machines will require more space to store, and climate-controlled space is relatively expensive.

The state has allocated about $900,000 to pay for new voting machines in Sullivan County. In a subsequent phone call, Fanslau said that the allocated funds might cover only 50 percent of the cost, depending on the machines.

In another area of discussion, election commissioner Fran Thalmann said officials at the state level in Albany “would like to see direct recording electronic (DRE) systems” in place rather than an optical scans system. DRE systems have drawn criticism from local and national voting activist groups because of reliability and security concerns.

Fanslau said that in recent weeks, various local groups have also expressed reservations about DRE machines, including senior groups as well as disabled and minority groups.

Thalmann, who, along with fellow commissioner Tim Hill, has seen demonstrations of various machines on the market, said that state officials would probably not “certify” a list of machines from which county officials can choose for at least another month. That leaves little time for further evaluation because machine orders must be placed by January 5, 2007.

Legislator Leni Binder suggested the county might put off the selection, in order to have time to make a better selection.

County attorney Sam Yasgur said that is not a reasonable option. New York is the last state in the country to comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which was passed in 2001. The state is under a federal court order to have the new machines in place in time for elections in 2007. He said missing the January 5 date for placing orders could place the county in legal jeopardy.

Yasgur said the most important issue driving the push for new machines is providing “accessibility to people with disabilities.” The old lever machines are no longer an option because there is no viable way they can be retrofitted to meet the requirements of the law.

“You can’t put people with disabilities in a situation where they are singled out and treated differently than other voters,” Yasgur said.

The new electronic machines, both DRE and optical scan systems, have been designed to meet the accessibility requirements of the HAVA act.

Fanslau, however, said there are “rumblings” among county officials in other parts of the state of possible litigation to allow counties to continue to use the lever machines while the electronic machines are studied further.

He said the committee he proposed, made up of four legislators, the county treasurer, the county attorney and the election commissioners, would look at all issues connected to voting machines. He said it was likely that the legislature would hold public hearings on the subject.