~ Paper ballots vs. Keeping the lever machines ~

The issue of safe, secure reliable voting is very important in the progressive community.  DFNYC has been one of the many groups concerned about the problems with electronic voting, specifically computerized "touch screen" machines (DREs) that many states adopted due to the federal Help America Vote Act ("HAVA"). 

Your Opinion Wanted!
We are still gathering information about the workings of the lever machine in terms of security and preventing fraud.  We would like to know what you think, and what information you have learned if you are a part of the secure voting movement.  Please email Emily of DFNYC at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . (replace -at- with @).

Outline of Arguments:

Production & Repair of Lever Machines:
The company that services our lever machines has stated that it can continue to maintain them and possibly make new ones; they just have not received orders for several years.  Contrary to our previous beliefs about lever machines, it is possible that replacement parts would be available.  Voting Machine Service Center, based in Gerry, New York, sent a letter in January of this year stating that they have been servicing the Automatic Lever Voting Machine, or "AVMs" as they call them, and it would certainly be possible that these machines could be maintained in New York indefinitely.  To read the letter, visit this link to a pdf:  http://www.wheresthepaper.org/VotingMachineServiceCenterletterJan23_09.pdf

Fiscal Responsibility:
We are still researching this, but it is apparent that maintaining our current lever machines and replacing them as needed will be far cheaper than switching to a new voting system.  There is some question about whether we need to replace the lever machines in order to be in compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act.  HAVA would make funds available to New York for a new voting system.

Security Concerns:
With any voting system, security will be an issue.  While lever machines seem to be very secure in the sense that they are not computerized and not connected to each other through computers, there have been serious issues of tampering, specifically in the 2004 election for State Senate in Westchester (Andrea Stewart-Cousins v. Nicholas Spano) in which the final difference was 18 votes.  Because there are no paper ballots with a lever machine, when something goes wrong, it is not possible to do a full recount of the votes as the voters intended to cast them. The secure voting movements of the past several years have focused on the importance of a voter being able to verify their vote - to see exactly how their vote is recorded.  With lever machines, the voter turns the switches for each race and then moves the big red lever to the other side of the machine to make the machine record the vote.  While this gives the voter the sense of having "told" the machine his or her vote, this is not the same "voter verification" of the paper ballot optical scan system where a voter sees their vote right on the paper and feeds it in the scanner.

Update March 24th:  However, in terms of verification of the workings of the machine, lever machine programming is verified by vidual inspection and simple mechancial tests.  On the other hand, verification of the software and mechanics of optical scanners that would count votes in the PB/OS system is much more complicated.  Several New York Counties purchased optical scanners with ballot marking devices (for disabled voters), but lever machine advocates are concerned that Sequoia has a record of dishonest dealing with local governments.

Preserving the Laws Enacted by the PB/OS movement:
New Yorkers for Verified Voting ("NYVV"), is still strongly in favor of PB/OS, despite the January 2009 letter.  For those of you that are familiar with NYVV, Bo Lipari is still on the Board, but has stepped down as Executive Director to focus more on national issues. He still does technical support and media relations for NYVV, and continues to strongly support PB/OS over lever machines.  Wanda Warren Berry is the new Executive Director, and she works with the Board and Steering Committee.

NYVV argues that lever machines are unauditable and unverifiable, two things which were the prime issues concerning our fight for paper ballots. Also, the current legal situation may very well be that NYS Election law would have to be changed in a way that would reopen the door to DREs, since retaining lever machines would require removal from the 2005 law passages which require a voter verifiable paper ballot, something lever machines do not provide.  Essentially, the election integrity movement has made significant progress in New York voting law, progress that may have to be rolled back if we accept lever machines.

Links:

Arguments in favor of keeping lever machines:

http://www.wheresthepaper.org/ny.html#ny2009

Arguments in favor of continuing the movement for Paper Ballots with Optical Scaners (PB/OS):

http://nyvv.org (specifically the top link to the pdf)

Letter from company that services lever machines (PDF):

http://www.wheresthepaper.org/VotingMachineServiceCenterletterJan23_09.pdf

Updates:

March 24th, 2009:  Joanne Lukacher, of Election Transparency Coalition of New York, in favor of keeping lever machines: http://www.re-mediaetc.org/.

March 29th, 2009 CORRECTION:  We previously stated that Bo Lipari has "left" NYVV, but this is not true.  As stated above under the heading "Preserving the Laws Enacted By the PB/OS Movement,"  Bo Lipari is still on the Board of NYVV, but has stepped down as Executive Director to focus more on national issues. He still does technical support and media relations for NYVV, and continues to strongly support PB/OS over lever machines.  Wanda Warren Berry is the new Executive Director, and she works with the Board and Steering Committee.