As New York decides on new voting systems, a key question is how
many voters can reasonably be served by each voting machine? This
number is essential to estimate costs and avoid excessively long lines
for voters. To provide a better answer to this question, NYVV Board
Member William Edelstein, PhD, has applied queuing theory, the
mathematical study of waiting lines, to carry out computer simulations
of realistic elections.
Read
the NYVV report
Paper Ballot Optical Scanners (PBOS's) may
have problems, any technology does, but they pale by comparison to
the magnitude of problems experienced and threatened by Direct Recording
electronic voting machines (DRE's). NYVV has researched and analyzed
the evidence and offers a summary report on this subject.
Read the NYVV report [~26 kb PDF]
Should we question optical scanners in the light
of recent news about grading errors with the Scholastic Aptitude Tests? Recent
news about thousands of scoring errors in the grading of Scholastic
Aptitude Tests (SATs) has been seized upon by opponents of the paper
ballot-optical scan voting system (PBOS). They circulate these reports
as a "red herring" that
aims to deflect attention from the many hundreds of errors that are being
reported from election districts that have implemented direct recording
electronic voting machines (DREs).
Read the NYVV report [~15kb PDF].
Does the "Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail" Resolve
Worries about DREs?
New Yorkers are being told that they should not worry about the numerous
failures on the part of direct recording electronic voting machines (DREs)
around the country, because NY law requires a "voter verified permanent
paper record."
Read the NYVV report [~20kb PDF].
NYVV board member points out the bias toward
DREs in the widely circulated
Electionline 2006 Report [~25kb PDF].
Electionline claims to be the "only non-partisan,
nonadvocacy website" providing information about election reform. Close
analysis of this recent report, however, calls into question the claim that
its orientation does not advocate a particular voting system.
Problems with Electronic Voting
Reports from Europe identify costly and troubling problems with electronic
voting. The LibertyVote machine appears to be identical to the NEDAP
PowerVote machine used in Europe. Here is our critique and three recent
articles on the issue from the United Kingdom:
Are LibertyVote DREs the Answer
to New York’s Voting Needs?
Problems with electronic voting in Ireland
Electronic Voting Unlikely to be used in Next Election
Powervote
bags €4.2m from system
not yet deemed safe
Problems with DREs continue to raise questions about electronic voting:
Summary of New Mexico
2004 Phantom Votes
Report on New Mexico 2004 Phantom Votes
Recent Problems in Electronic Elections
Problems with Sequoia Voting Equipment
Problems with ES&S Voting Equipment
New York Reports and Rebuttals
Reports and responses specific to New York State.
In October 2005, Onondaga County Election
Commissioners sent out a press release incorrectly claiming that
optical scan systems are not HAVA compliant, and only DREs are! NYVV
has rebutted this unsupportable argument many times, but the pro
DRE crowd continues to spread misinformation about optical scan systems.
Download the original press release and the latest NYVV rebuttal:
Onondaga
Election Commissioners PR and the NYVV
rebuttal.
New
York State Editorial Endorsements for Optical Scan
In June 2005 the Election Commissioners’ Association
of the State of New York released a report intended "to give
boards of elections a summary appraisal for which they may use as
a foundation to narrow their selection of a voting system".
But it's voting system comparison is flawed and contains incomplete,
misleading and incorrect information. Download the report and
our critique:
NYS Election Commissioner's
Review of Voting Machines
NYVV Critique of ECA Voting Systems
Report
The New York City Electronic Voting Systems
Department Preliminary Report is a cost comparison analysis of different
types of voting systems. However, it exaggerates the costs of precinct
based optical scan systems and underestimates the cost of full face
ballot DREs. Download the EVSNYC
report and our critique:
NY City Board of Elections
Draft Report
NYVV Critique of NYC Report
Information Sheets on Paper Ballots/Optical
Scan
Single page summaries
Costs
The following reports discuss cost issues of different voting
systems
Miami Dade County
The Supervisor of Elections recently recommended abandoning the counties 24.5
million dollar investment in DREs and replace them with paper ballots and optical
scanners.
Miami Dade County Recommends
Abandoning DREs for Optical Scan
Miami Dade Supervisor of Elections Report (1.9 Mb)
Other Reports
Useful reports for advocates of paper ballot and optical scan
systems.
Return to the Paper Ballots
for NY home page
|
