NY: "They certified the machines, sent them to us, and they’re not working."

[Bill Bored]

Malfunctioning machines cause ire
By Alex Costello July 24, 2008

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Nassau County is to receive 450 of the new machines, and has already received 240. There’s just one problem: of the 240, 85 percent don’t work. That’s right: 204 out of 240 of the new voting machines malfunctioned in one way or another.

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According to the Justice Department Web site, HAVA is intended to improve elections through three key means: creating a new federal agency to serve as a clearinghouse for election administration information, providing funds to states to improve election administration and replace outdated voting systems, and creating minimum standards for states to follow in several key areas of election administration.

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The government was also supposed to have created national standards for new voting machines in time for the first federal election in January of 2006....the 2005 election standards they passed were not posted in the federal register until January of 2006.

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Unfortunately, by the time the federal government fell through on their parts, New York State was already in violation of theirs, and was therefore sued into compliance by the government. According to William Biamonte, the Democratic commissioner of the Nassau County Board of Elections, New York State is currently 50th in compliance with HAVA.

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"We had major problems with paper jams, broken monitors, LCDs that weren’t working, busted wheels, and misaligned verifications that create security issues,"

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Everyone involved believes that the machines should be repaired or replaced by the time of the presidential election in November. However, if they’re not, the state could he held liable for the lack of accessible voting by the federal government. "If this is across the state, the Justice Department could then say you’re noncompliant with our consent agreement," said Biamonte. He did stress, however, that for this year, the lever voting machines would still be used, so citizens will still be able to vote in elections as they normally do.