Ulster County & Voting Machines

Resolution for public hearing at 6 PM tomorrow, UC office Bldg:
http://www.co.ulster.ny.us/resolution-archives/2007/433-07.pdf
Proposed local law:
http://www.co.ulster.ny.us/resolution-archives/2007/ILL%20No.%201%20of%202008.pdf
From Gary Bischoff:
"I have strong feelings about what type of voting machine Ulster County should have. There is no question in my mind that we should have Paper Ballot - Optical Scan (PB/OS) as opposed to Direct Recording Electronic (DRE). "
There have been many problems with DREs, and in fact several states including Maryland, Colorado, California and Ohio are scrapping DREs. There have been problems starting the machines on election day, machines dying during an election (just like when your PC dies due to a Windows problem), voter confusion, mysterious lost votes and outright hacking. Computer professionals who know and understand computer software and voting technology are against DREs. With DREs there is no paper trail built in. In other words, if there is a failure at any point during an election, the votes can not be retrieved. No recount is possible in a close election. DRE manufacturers have tried to correct this by adding a printer that prints out a paper record of each voter's selections. The added printer caused more problems. The printers have been another source of failure and the printer port added another security exposure because a hacker could get into the inner workings of the machine via the printer port. It takes longer for a voter to vote on a DRE than a paper ballot, causing either election day lines or more expense for additional machines.
PB/OS has many advantages, with the most important being that there is a verifiable paper trail with a ballot that is actually marked by the voter. It is a less complex system and a proven technology. It is less costly not only for the initial purchase, but for storage, maintenance and less reliance on expensive professionals employed by the vendor. When an election district grows, all that is necessary is to add more privacy stations where voters can fill in their paper ballots. One optical scanner machine can service many stations since it only takes a few seconds to put the paper into the machine, where it is read and the paper ballot falls into a locked box.
There was a decision late in January by the New York State Board of Elections regarding voting machines that should be used in every polling place in New York for handicapped accessible voting. New York State has rejected DREs and approved only the Automark and the Sequoia ImageCast scanner/marker for use in 2008 polling places. This decision by the State Board of Elections virtually guarantees that New York State will vote on paper ballots and ballot scanners when it finally replaces lever machines in 2009. However, Liberty, a manufacturer of DREs, has announced that they are resorting to legal action to try to change the State BOE decision. There will be other pressures and we need to remain vigilant since there is so much money involved in the implementation of voting machines across New York.
The law we are proposing for Ulster County is simple in that it requires any voting technology to provide a paper ballot that is marked by the actual voter. Ulster County would be the first county in New York to have a more stringent law regarding voting machine technology than the state or federal government. The hearing will be held at the Ulster County Office Building, 244 Fair Street, Kingston at 6 p.m. on February 6. Members of the public are invited and encouraged to speak at this hearing.

Gary Bischoff



Ulster County Legislators in Friend of Court appeal on Voting Machines...Legislators, Susan Zimet, D-New Paltz and Gary Bischoff, D-Saugerties joined in the submission. In Dutchess County, Legislator Joel Tyner submitted a brief.
See the Press Release here http://gary4ulster.com/media/pr/press_release06.html

Read Andi Novick's explanation of the suit to be filed in the
US vs NYS BOE and NYS here http://gary4ulster.com/inside_out/page/other/voting_mach/andi_novick.html

Declaration of Voting Principles
a well written piece on voting by Mary Ann Gould herehttp://gary4ulster.com/inside_out/page/other/voting_mach/voting_principals.html

For Gary's side by side analysis of Voting Machines click here
http://gary4ulster.com/inside_out/page/other/voting_mach/voting_principals.html