ALBANY - Federal officials sued New York on Wednesday over its worst-in-the-nation record of complying with the Help America Vote Act, the first time the Department of Justice has sued a state over the new voting requirements.

The HAVA requirements, adopted in the wake of the disputed 2000 presidential election, were designed to update the nation's voting systems. New York has been tagged by the Department of Justice and other critics as the state that has made the slowest progress in complying with the legislation.

Justice Department officials have also been in talks with other states about their progress in meeting HAVA requirements.

In a strange twist, a frequent critic of New York's slowness in complying with HAVA requirements said the federal lawsuit “may do more harm than good” by forcing New York to quickly move to buy new voting machines that aren't up to snuff.

That, said Neal Rosenstein of the New York Public Interest Research Group, could “throw this (2006) election into chaos.”

“It's absurd to rush such a process,” said Rosenstein. “The rotten HAVA implementation process on the state level shouldn't be mirrored by a rotten judicial enforcement process.”

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Albany and charges that the state has failed to put in place a system that will allow disabled voters to cast their own ballots which are capable of generating a paper record and of failing to create a statewide computerized voter registration database.

“HAVA contains important reforms designed to ensure that elections for federal office will both allow access to all voters and ensure the integrity of the process,” said Wan Kim, assistant attorney general for civil rights, in a statement released by the department. “We believe today's lawsuit will help ensure that New York voters enjoy the benefits of these important reforms.”

The state has been negotiating with Justice Department officials for weeks in an attempt to avoid the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the state to promptly submit a plan detailing how it will comply with the law signed by President Bush in 2002.

The provisions at issue in Wednesday's lawsuit took effect Jan. 1 of this year.

Thus far, New York has received $221 million in federal aid to help it comply with HAVA requirements, including $49 million specifically dedicated to helping pay the cost of replacing the state's lever-action voting machines.

A news release from the Justice Department said New York could lose the $49 million if it does not have new voting machines in place by the state primary election in September. State officials have said it is unlikely they would be required to return the money.

On Tuesday, top state Board of Elections officials said New York would use its lever action voting machines again for the 2006 elections and have new machines in place for the 2007 elections.

They said new machinery would be made available for disabled voters and that a form of a centralized voting registration list would be in place by this fall's election, although not one fully compliant with HAVA requirements.

There was no immediate response Wednesday to the lawsuit from state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Compliance with HAVA requirements was slowed in New York by partisan bickering involving Republican Gov. George Pataki, Republicans who control the state Senate and Democrats who run the state Assembly.

Much of the fighting didn't even have to do with HAVA, but with control over the state Board of Elections.

Legislation allowing federal funds to flow to New York and to push the HAVA process forward wasn't finally adopted until last summer.