Spitzer asks for new voting machines with "state-of-the-art technology" >

[Stephanie]

Has anyone been in touch with Spitzer recently to find out what he's advocating here? He is New York's best chance to oust Pataki - I hope he's up to date on these machines. Does anyone know his exact postion?

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/278757p-238858c.html

Spitzer: Fix voting or lose fed's millions

ALBANY - Attorney General Eliot Spitzer warned yesterday New York could lose $219 million in federal funds if it fails to update its aging voting system.

Spitzer called the state's failure to overhaul the system "an embarrassment" as he pressed for state-of-the-art technology to replace outdated lever machines. He also called for new Election Day registration rules to spur higher voter participation.

Computerized voter-registration rolls and the new user-friendly machines need to be in place by November next year or federal funding could dry up, Spitzer said.

The Democrat, who is running for governor next year, denied that changing the voting system favors his party, which holds a 5-to-3 enrollment advantage over Republicans. <more>

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[Melodybe]

1. As long as there is an aditable paper trail, I'm fine

otherwise, what the hell is he thinking?

[merwin]

2. Honestly though, changing the voting system does favor his party.

Since he will be able to update the voting system to a fair one that the rethugs can't rig.

[ooglymoogly]

3. the introduction of electronic voting machines is a pug trojan horse

[KoKo]

4. This is very worrysome..

Friends in NY tell me they love the old "lever machines" and can't imagine the type of things which have happened in Florida and Ohio because they feel secure with their machines..

Someone needs to send Spitzer the info on how the electronic voting machine code can be tampered with, immediately!

I hope he isn't getting big campaign contributions from the Diebolds for this.

I think of Spitzer as a good guy. I can't imagine why this should be the first thing he says to kick off his campaign. It seems very odd, if NY voters are happy with their machines.

[yurbud]

5. those lever machines sound like a Luddite version of Diebold

[Nite Owl]

6. They no longer make parts for

the lever machines. Going to a DFA meeting in a week or so about choosing the new machines. From what I understand NY is the only state that requires a full screen of all the candidates, all on one page and that limits the choices. Since the Senate is Republican and the Assembly is Dem they cannot get together to choose a company and that is another reason why we still, fortunately, still have the old tried and true.

[Helga Scow Stern]

7. Yeah, and he should be warned about what happened to Kevin Shelley

for standing up for integrity in the system.

[cry baby]

10. Maybe HAVA requires the updating of machines in order to get

federal funding. This may be an unintentional side effect of HAVA, but if states are threatened with the lack of fed. funding, they will go buy electronic machines that may not have a paper trail or other auditable system. As I understand it, Diebold has "just now figured out" how to make a machine with a receipt. Any states that bought machines before they could give paper receipts are just out of luck. They have spent millions of $$ for these machines. They can't just go trade them in for new auditable ones. We are in trouble!

On edit: Here is a thread by helderheid about HAVA, evidently HAVA doesn't require electronic machines. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=319305&mesg_id=319305Hmmm....

[Bill Bored]

8. I was thinking about Spitzer and will email him the MythBreakers doc.

Meanwhile, both bills in the NYS Legislature require VVPBs and random auditing. I hope the final version can be improved, but so far, they don't look too bad. But NYers should stay on top of this!

See: <http://nyvv.org>

[thanatonautos]

9. Here are some links. It appears Spitzer is not advocating VVPB, but

is advocating paper audit trails and compliance with
HAVA, whatever this may mean.

There was a report on NY State voting issues put out by Spitzer in 2001. It gives some background.

There's an updated version of that report here, together with a summary
of some of the significant points.

All of this worries me: but one could hope that Spitzer may
prove amenable to persuasion.

I think there is quite a bit of inertia in NY regarding reform;
the lever machines are well-liked. This is not an entirely bad
thing in my mind, even though the lever machines are rapidly
aging.

I'm going to write to his office and make a plea for voter
verified paper ballots, supplemented at worst by mark
sense optical scan ballots.

[glitch]

11. Be sure to specify mandatory random hand counts to verify machine count

after the vote --
"I'm going to write to his office and make a plea for voter
verified paper ballots, supplemented at worst by mark
sense optical scan ballots"

[thanatonautos]

12. Absolutely ... that's a key point. n/t