New York State’s HAVA Plan - June 2006

New York to vote on lever machines in 2006, but complacency is not an option

There’s a good deal of well deserved confusion about the situation in New York State regarding HAVA implementation. The question on concerned citizens’ minds is: will New York be voting on new systems in the 2006 elections? So let’s clear up what’s going on in the Empire State as of June 2006.

For starters, here are four important facts:

1) New York will NOT be replacing lever machines in 2006.
2) In 2006, a small number of ballot marking devices will be provided at a central location in each county for disabled voters.
3) Lever machines are scheduled to be replaced by the September 2007 elections.
4) Purchasing decisions for 2007 voting systems will be made over the next few months in 2006.

It’s well known that New York got a very late start on making plans for HAVA. By the time the US Department of Justice (DOJ) sued NY for HAVA non-compliance on March 1, 2006, it had become clear to those who understood the size and complexity of the task that any attempt to replace NY’s lever machines by September would result in an electoral train wreck. I’ll talk more about the Department of Justice lawsuit in my next post, for now skipping ahead to the end – the DOJ, the State of New York and the US District Court have agreed that it is not possible to replace lever machines this year, and have agreed instead to an interim option, colloquially referred to as “Plan B”.

Plan B for 2006 – 12 Dozen Ballot Markers for New York State

The so called Plan B option, to be implemented for the 2006 elections, calls for a small number of accessible ballot marking devices for use by disabled voters to be centrally located in each of New York’s 62 counties. Each county must purchase the devices from their share of New York’s HAVA funds. An important point - the Plan B devices will only be used to mark ballots, not count votes. How the county counts the ballots is up to individual counties. Since only ballot marking devices are authorized for Plan B use, and no DREs or ballot scanners, NY’s 2006 solution momentarily avoids the contentious issues regarding the relative merits of paper ballot based voting systems vs. Electronic Touch Screen machines.

For Plan B, most counties have elected to have only one ballot marker available on Election Day (the total number and model of ballot marker selected by each county can be found here). Given that only 144 ballot markers will be purchased for the entire state, New York State is doing as little as possible this year, and has received the Department of Justice’s agreement that this, for now, is okay.

But for New York citizens, complacency is not an option, because the agreement between NY and the DOJ doesn’t stop with 2006. While the settlement calls for New York to keep lever machines in place this year, the state is still obliged to replace them with new voting systems by the September 2007 election. And in a somewhat confusing nomenclature, the implementation plan for replacement of lever machines in 2007, which will happen after Plan B, is being referred to as “Plan A”!

Plan A for 2007 – Deciding the Future of Voting in New York

The Department of Justice made it clear that it wants New York to have new voting systems in place by 2007. Plan A describes the huge and complex task of certifying, selecting, and ordering new voting systems, followed by the acceptance testing, installation, training of poll workers and voters that must take place in each county before first use in September 2007. The State Board of Elections (SBOE) must provide its Plan A schedule on August 15, 2006. As stated in the court order, “no later than August 15, 2006 the SBOE must file with the Court a proposed detailed schedule for implementation of its long term proposal for replacing all lever machines…”.

For New York State advocates who have been resisting the rush to Electronic Touch Screen Voting not much has changed. We have certainly not bought much time, a few months at best. County election officials are even now considering voting systems, talking to vendors, and making Plan A purchasing decisions. It will only be a few months before final decisions are made and contracts are signed. This Summer and early Fall will be when the future of voting in New York State is decided.

This is no time to be complacent. New York needs your help. You can get started by helping out New Yorkers for Verified Voting with our Accountability Campaign.