In the wake of the 2000 election debacle, the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). One of the provisions of this problematic piece of legislation was that states were supposed to replace punch card and mechanical lever systems with computerized machines by January 2006.

The legislature (prodded by State Board of Elections Co-Chair Doug Kellner) established policies mandating fairly high standards for new machines that would assure maximum reliability and transparency so that all votes would be counted. Perhaps most notable in the 2006 election law is a requirement that the source code for the software that runs computerized machines be placed in "escrow" so that it could be audited for flaws that could result in inaccurate counting or malicious tampering with election results. Since all leading voting systems use proprietary software (notably the Windows (tm) operating system), the escrow policy prevents adoption of most new machines as they are currently being sold. And when the state simply performed honest tests on the current machines against "voluntary" federal security standards, none of them passed. However, the hope is to be able to get new machines purchased and tested in time for the 2009 elections, which will have light turnout and offer a lower-pressure setting for reliably deploying a complex new voting system.

But on November 6, 2007, not content to defer to state's rights, Bush's Department of Justice filed papers with the Federal Court asking that the Court take over our State Board of Elections for the purpose of forcing compliance with federal law by buying new voting machines for NY State by September 2008. ( Albany Times-Union) The judge could rule as soon as next month although there will undoubtedly be appeals and, even with a prompt ruling, it is doubtful whether machines could be purchased and deployed statewide in time for the 2008 election.

For now, all we as voters can do is wait for the outcome of the legal process. But it would be to your advantage to keep an eye on the issue at New Yorkers for Verified Voting. You might also consider writing your City Councilperson and ask them to support Resolution 961, which will urge the State Board of Elections to adopt an open source, precinct-based optical scanning system - cost-efficient technology which is provides the best environment for reliable tabulation and, when necessary, dependable recounts. And in the meantime, we get to keep the venerable old mechanical machines that have served the city well for half a century.