ALBANY - A court order issued Thursday provided a resolution for two companies competing for the lucrative opportunity to sell their voting machines in New York, but other issues remain unresolved.
County election officials will now be able to choose among four machines to be available for disabled voters in the fall presidential election, according to the court order.
The decision was an important step toward the state's compliance with the Help America Vote Act, enacted after the contested 2000 election to improve voting accessibility and accuracy. The U.S. Department of Justice sued New York in 2006 for its failure to implement the new law, and a federal judge last month approved a strict timeline for catching up.
Still, nothing is final. Two machines were added to the list with the new order, but another lawsuit, awaiting a decision on Monday, could add a fifth machine. And half of the state Board of Elections is appealing one of the machines on the current list.
Counties will have to decide what machines they want, then rank them in order of preference. That way, if the courts eliminate options in future rulings, the Board of Elections will just move down the ordering list to the next machine.
According to the federal timeline, New York must have at least one disabled access machine available per polling place in time for the fall elections. Currently the requirement is at least one per county.
The state must also replace all pull lever machines by the fall of 2009.
The voting machine contracts are worth multimillions. New York has $190 million in federal funds set aside to buy machines and one machine can cost about $5,000.
Voting and disability advocates have supported three of the machines. The only machine not contested is the optical scan model made by Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. of California. It allows voters to fill in a circle, as on a standardized test.
Earlier this week the state Supreme Court ruled that Liberty Election Systems should be added to the list. Touch screen machines like the ones Liberty sells have been criticized for not being accessible to the disabled because people in wheelchairs or with visual impairment would have difficulty reaching or finding their paper ballot, said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters.
Democrats on the state Board of Election have filed an appeal opposing Liberty's use in New York state.
The two companies who had machines added Thursday to the order list - Premier Election Solutions of Texas and Election Systems & Software of Nebraska - both use AutoMark ballot markers in their machines. ES&S bought AutoMark last week. Terms were not disclosed.
AP-ES-02-07-08 1853EST
The decision was an important step toward the state's compliance with the Help America Vote Act, enacted after the contested 2000 election to improve voting accessibility and accuracy. The U.S. Department of Justice sued New York in 2006 for its failure to implement the new law, and a federal judge last month approved a strict timeline for catching up.
Still, nothing is final. Two machines were added to the list with the new order, but another lawsuit, awaiting a decision on Monday, could add a fifth machine. And half of the state Board of Elections is appealing one of the machines on the current list.
Counties will have to decide what machines they want, then rank them in order of preference. That way, if the courts eliminate options in future rulings, the Board of Elections will just move down the ordering list to the next machine.
According to the federal timeline, New York must have at least one disabled access machine available per polling place in time for the fall elections. Currently the requirement is at least one per county.
The state must also replace all pull lever machines by the fall of 2009.
The voting machine contracts are worth multimillions. New York has $190 million in federal funds set aside to buy machines and one machine can cost about $5,000.
Voting and disability advocates have supported three of the machines. The only machine not contested is the optical scan model made by Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. of California. It allows voters to fill in a circle, as on a standardized test.
Earlier this week the state Supreme Court ruled that Liberty Election Systems should be added to the list. Touch screen machines like the ones Liberty sells have been criticized for not being accessible to the disabled because people in wheelchairs or with visual impairment would have difficulty reaching or finding their paper ballot, said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters.
Democrats on the state Board of Election have filed an appeal opposing Liberty's use in New York state.
The two companies who had machines added Thursday to the order list - Premier Election Solutions of Texas and Election Systems & Software of Nebraska - both use AutoMark ballot markers in their machines. ES&S bought AutoMark last week. Terms were not disclosed.
AP-ES-02-07-08 1853EST
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