Without mentioning Sequoia or Lever Machines or Judge Sharpe by name he recommends using the levers until the optical scan meets NY standards and opines it would be a bad idea if NY is pressured to drop it's standards.
Schedule Slips and Slippery Slopes
July 24th, 2008
by bolipari
Voting Machines Can’t Meet NY Standards in Time for 2009It’s become obvious that New York State’s new voting systems will not be able to complete New York State certification testing in time for the scheduled 2009 rollout. The state sets the highest bar in the nation for approval of voting machines, one that vendors have never been required to meet before. Their performance in New York demonstrates that they are a long, long way from understanding that
the public will not stand for poorly designed, badly tested and outrageously overpriced equipment, and a business philosophy of let the customer be damned.snip
The problem is that the voting machine industry has thus far been able to get away with selling expensive equipment that frequently breaks down, failing at a rate that we would never, ever accept for toaster ovens, let alone a machine that counts the vote. But now New York State comes along, and prodded by citizen advocates demanding high certification standards, sets the bar higher than it’s been before. But rather than act like a company that has just signed a multi-million dollar contract and wants to make sure that their products meet all the customer stated requirements prior to shipping it out,
the vendors take the same old broken approach – a quickly thrown together, poorly designed product; not validated by user testing; manufactured in haste with no discernible quality control standards; let the buyer beware.
The question now is what will the State Board of Elections do – allow the schedule to slip or compromise the regulations? At their meeting on July 22, there seemed to be agreement that New York should not allow any system to be used that does not meet all of the state’s standards. But there was also talk that the Board of Elections could perhaps overlook what was described as “unimportant” discrepancies from the New York regulations.
This would be a dreadful mistake, for
once you start down this slippery slope, there’s no going back - and what was once a shining example becomes a muddy mockery.
New York must not reward the vendors for this typically abysmal performance. The State Board of Elections must protect New York’s voters – they must not approve any machines that do not meet every single one of the State’s requirements.http://www.nyvv.org/boblog/2008/07/24/schedule-slips-and-slippery-slopesIt appears as though there may be a wake for the ImageCast.
Long Live Levers!