New York's pathetic compliance with the Help America Vote Act hit another low this week when the co-chairs of the state Board of Elections declared lever-action voting machines will have to be used this fall and the federal government then filed a lawsuit against the state.

That announcement was hardly surprising - the federal government has already singled New York out as the worst in the nation for HAVA compliance.

But the comments this week about New York's situation from the elections commissioners were particularly disturbing.

The Democratic co-chair on the state board defended the agency's slow progress in adopting voting system regulations.

“Our guiding principle is, we're going to implement HAVA properly the first time,” said Douglas Kellner, a Democrat from New York City.

To claim New York's failure to comply by now is a result of being careful is an absolute joke. Remember, HAVA was adopted after the 2000 election. This situation should have been addressed years ago. Albany's dysfunctional politics and the incompetence of its elections board are the reasons this state's voters will be pulling levers in November.

An equally troubling observation came from Kellner's Republican counterpart as co-chair on the elections board. Neil Kelleher seemed to embrace the lever-style machines.

“They always did their jobs,” Kelleher said. “Sure, they had some breakdowns, but nobody is going to tell me that these new, fancy machines aren't going to have some breakdowns. There's going to be more recalls on this than you could shake a million sticks at.”

Perhaps Kelleher could spend an election in Cayuga County, where the lever machines contribute to horribly inefficient results reporting. Or perhaps he could speak with Walter Kolczynski, who last fall lost a Throop Town Council race by 31 votes during voting in which machines didn't allow people to choose a certain candidate in combination with another.

The time for excuses has ended. So has the time for resisting technology.

New York voters deserve better.