Although new voting machines will be available in every polling place for the first time this fall, most people will still be using the 50-year-old, lever-operating equipment.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
Debbie Calarco, the deputy commissioner of Cayuga County Board of Elections, points to where the cursor is on the screen of the ballot marking device that will be available in every polling place in the upcoming elections. On Wednesday, Calarco was at the Throop Town Board meeting, the first of many meetings where she will demonstrate how the unit works.
Debbie Calarco, the deputy commissioner of Cayuga County Board of Elections, points to where the cursor is on the screen of the ballot marking device that will be available in every polling place in the upcoming elections. On Wednesday, Calarco was at the Throop Town Board meeting, the first of many meetings where she will demonstrate how the unit works.
The state Board of Elections said optical scanners used to count votes made on new machines will not be available until 2009, so ballots cast with that equipment this year will need to be hand-counted.
One reason for making the 2008 election the last year for using the lever machines was to avoid fully implementing new technology in the middle of an election that is expected to see a higher than usual turnout, said state BOE spokesman Bob Brehm. Voting activity is expected to increase this fall because of the presidential contest.
But the state still had to meet a court order to have at least one machine in place in every polling location by this fall, and much of the burden getting ready for that implementation is falling on individual counties.
In Cayuga County, the new Sequoia-Dominion Optical Scanner has been chosen. It's one of the machines that complies with the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which was meant to ensure that individuals with disabilities had access to a private voting booth. New York will be the last state to comply with the legislation.
“We have already begun to train our people on them,” county elections commissioner Dennis Sedor said. “We need to learn how to use (the machine) first before we can teach it to others.”
The Cayuga County Board of Elections has been training seven people at a time to ensure their poll workers get the necessary hands-on training they need to help voters use the device this fall. The poll workers will receive more training next year when the machines are fully implemented.
The Sequoia is a two-operation machine that allows one voter to privately fill out a ballot while at the same time a second voter submits their completed ticket into a scanner for counting.
Tracy Murphy, executive director of Options for Independence, an Auburn-based organization that helps disabled individuals maintain an active and independent lifestyle, said previous polling sites have not been handicap accessible, and that the old lever machines were not usable by some individuals who had physical ailments such as severe arthritis, blindness or deafness.
When voters believed their assigned polling place did not accommodate their disability, they either refrained from voting or felt forced to vote via absentee ballot, Murphy said.
“The old machines were not voter-friendly; they disenfranchised an entire group of voters,” Murphy said. “Some people couldn't use the machines without getting assistance.”
Cayuga County Board of Elections Deputy Commissioner Deborah Calarco said even though the optical scanner machines will not be in full effect for this year's presidential election, people will be able to use the machines if they wish.
“Every polling place in the county will have one of these machines, but people are not necessarily going to use them,” Calarco said. “We will only be using the ballot marking device this year. We can't use the scanning device until next year.”
To use the marking device, a voter inserts their ballot into the machine and then inputs their choices into a computer, Calarco said.
The voters can then use an “audio tactical device” similar to a video game controller, which incorporates a universally established system of large multicolored buttons of various shapes for the visually impaired, in addition to audio prompts that can be delivered through a headset to maintain privacy. The machine can also use a sip-and-puff system to enable people who have almost no mobility to fill out a ballot.
Even though the whole process can take more than five minutes, Calarco believes it is worth it.
“Is the process time consuming? Yes,” Calarco said. “But does it give a special needs voter a chance to vote without assistance? Yes.”
After a voter completes their ballot with the ATI system, it will be printed out in a manila envelope sleeve to provide privacy, and then inserted into a scanning device which would record the votes. Before the votes are counted, the individual will be asked to confirm their selections and will be notified of any errors on the ballot, such as under- or overvoting.
The system will allow people to undervote in an election if they selected four people when they were allowed to select five, but it will not allow an overvote, Calarco said.
At the end of the day, the scanner can print out a paper record of the voting results to allow for an audit to ensure accuracy.
Voters who do not need to use the ATI system will be able to mark their ballot by hand in a secluded booth before entering it into the scanner.
Sedor said the system works much like the grading system for an SAT or ACT test, where students fill in answers on a bubble sheet. Those sheets are then inserted into an optical scanning device that records right or wrong answers.
Under the HAVA legislation, the new systems were supposed to have been in place by January 2006, a deadline New York state failed to meet, Murphy said. The state did not start to comply with legislation until after the federal government sued the state and threatened to pull funding for the new technology.
In an agreement with the government and the court, the state's board said they would place one HAVA compliant machine into each voting place in exchanged for continued federal funding to meet the new voting legislation.
Without the $240 million the state received and the $850,000 the county received in federal funding to purchase new machines and train poll workers, the state and county would have been forced to pay for the expenses out of their own pocket, Sedor said.
For Cayuga County, that would have meant purchasing nearly 60 machines at $13,000 each for this fall's election with taxpayer money.
“We had to put our purchasing orders in earlier this year and we are just starting to get the machines now,” Sedor said.
In addition to replacing the old devices, the counties will assume ownership of every lever machine in their district, even if they were originally purchased by a municipality.
“State legislation now says the board of elections owns those machines,” Calarco said. “The old lever machines will be completely illegal in New York state by 2009. You can't use them for town elections, school board elections or fire elections. You can still use paper ballots but you can't use the lever machines.”
Tom Paczkowski, a Throop town board member, expressed dismay at that part of the new legislation at a meeting last week.
“We just put a lot of money into those [lever] machines,” Paczkowski said. “We put $12,000 into them. Everything is brand new. The school district said they wanted them, and now even they can't use them. The town bought those machines originally.”
Also, with the new state rules and regulations the individual county board of elections will be responsible for housing, maintaining and securing the machines, Calarco said. The heavy lever machines have traditionally been stored and maintained at their respective polling places.
The centralized location will enable the counties to ensure the machines are protected from any tampering that could fix the outcome of a vote, and that they are properly programmed for use in town, village and school elections. To increase security, the machines are not connected to any other computer, reducing the risk of being hacked, and have sealed memory cards. If a memory card seal is broken or tampered with, the machine cannot be used.
“The only way to tamper with the machines and rig an election is to get to each and every machine, tamper with it and leave without us ever knowing about it,” Calarco said. “If that happens, then shame on us. The only people that have the keys to these machines are the members of the board of elections. Not even the manufacturers have them.”
In addition to the of the voting machines' central storing, the county will consolidate some of the polling places, Sedor said. It is believed that people who do not need to use the ATI to vote will be able to vote at a faster pace than with the typical lever machines. If the lines to get to a voting machine don't back up, the county can save money by purchasing less machines and hiring and training less staff for election day.
Other concerns some people have, such as Throop board member Dick Signorelli, are that people will be afraid of the new machines when it's all they see at next year's elections.
“It seemed like it would be good for people with a handicap, and it seemed simple enough with the ballot that you just slide in, but people will still be intimidated by the technology,” Signorelli said.
That's why the board has made plans to take machines to every village, town and voters' right group meeting in Cayuga County, Calarco said. The demonstration will allow people to see how the machines work and address any questions or concerns they may have.
During a demonstration in Throop Wednesday, the town board raised concerns about the machines durability, especially if the county would be storing and transporting the devices to the polling places each year.
“These machines are pretty durable,” Calarco said. “This one that we are using for demonstrations has only received scratches and I just carry it in the back of my van, not in a truck. Also, the scanners are replaceable so if they break we can take one off and put in a new one.”
With this new technology, New York will no longer be the only state that does not comply with HAVA.
“We might be the last, but we will be the first to do it right,” Brehm said. “We have not certified the devices fully yet and we will continue to provide interim certificates as we continue the full system testing [to comply with federal and state laws]. We are under the assumption that all of the machines will pass, but if they don't then we will deal with that bridge when we come to it.”
Brehm believed New York was able to learn from previous problems in states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where trouble with accuracy, quality and security have come to light during the presidential primaries.
But Murphy believed New York's slow response showed a lack of initiative and continued to disenfranchise a select group of voters.
“Other states recognized the importance for people with disabilities to vote and they selected a machine accordingly,” Murphy said. “New York should have complied sooner. We are really disheartened that it took New York this long and we hope this machine was not a rush to judgment and that there are no unforeseen consequences. The only thing we can do now is go forward and hope for the best.”
Staff writer Nate Robson can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or nathan.robson@lee.net
See for yourself
Below are upcoming Cayuga County Board of
Election voting machine demonstrations. For more information, contact the board at 253-1285.
Town of Brutus Board Meeting
6:30 p.m. Monday, July 14
9021 N. Seneca St., Weedsport
834-9398
Town of Montezuma Board Meeting
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 16
The Memorial Building, Dock Street, Montezuma
776-8844
Auburn City Council Meeting
4 p.m. Thursday, July 17
24 South St., Auburn
255-4104
Town of Sterling Board Meeting
6:30 p.m. Monday, July 21
1290 State Route 104A, Sterling
947-5666
Options for Independence
9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday July 23
Holiday Inn, 75 North St., Auburn
253-4531
Village of Moravia
7 p.m. Monday July 28
22 Central St., Moravia
497-1820
One reason for making the 2008 election the last year for using the lever machines was to avoid fully implementing new technology in the middle of an election that is expected to see a higher than usual turnout, said state BOE spokesman Bob Brehm. Voting activity is expected to increase this fall because of the presidential contest.
But the state still had to meet a court order to have at least one machine in place in every polling location by this fall, and much of the burden getting ready for that implementation is falling on individual counties.
In Cayuga County, the new Sequoia-Dominion Optical Scanner has been chosen. It's one of the machines that complies with the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which was meant to ensure that individuals with disabilities had access to a private voting booth. New York will be the last state to comply with the legislation.
“We have already begun to train our people on them,” county elections commissioner Dennis Sedor said. “We need to learn how to use (the machine) first before we can teach it to others.”
The Cayuga County Board of Elections has been training seven people at a time to ensure their poll workers get the necessary hands-on training they need to help voters use the device this fall. The poll workers will receive more training next year when the machines are fully implemented.
The Sequoia is a two-operation machine that allows one voter to privately fill out a ballot while at the same time a second voter submits their completed ticket into a scanner for counting.
Tracy Murphy, executive director of Options for Independence, an Auburn-based organization that helps disabled individuals maintain an active and independent lifestyle, said previous polling sites have not been handicap accessible, and that the old lever machines were not usable by some individuals who had physical ailments such as severe arthritis, blindness or deafness.
When voters believed their assigned polling place did not accommodate their disability, they either refrained from voting or felt forced to vote via absentee ballot, Murphy said.
“The old machines were not voter-friendly; they disenfranchised an entire group of voters,” Murphy said. “Some people couldn't use the machines without getting assistance.”
Cayuga County Board of Elections Deputy Commissioner Deborah Calarco said even though the optical scanner machines will not be in full effect for this year's presidential election, people will be able to use the machines if they wish.
“Every polling place in the county will have one of these machines, but people are not necessarily going to use them,” Calarco said. “We will only be using the ballot marking device this year. We can't use the scanning device until next year.”
To use the marking device, a voter inserts their ballot into the machine and then inputs their choices into a computer, Calarco said.
The voters can then use an “audio tactical device” similar to a video game controller, which incorporates a universally established system of large multicolored buttons of various shapes for the visually impaired, in addition to audio prompts that can be delivered through a headset to maintain privacy. The machine can also use a sip-and-puff system to enable people who have almost no mobility to fill out a ballot.
Even though the whole process can take more than five minutes, Calarco believes it is worth it.
“Is the process time consuming? Yes,” Calarco said. “But does it give a special needs voter a chance to vote without assistance? Yes.”
After a voter completes their ballot with the ATI system, it will be printed out in a manila envelope sleeve to provide privacy, and then inserted into a scanning device which would record the votes. Before the votes are counted, the individual will be asked to confirm their selections and will be notified of any errors on the ballot, such as under- or overvoting.
The system will allow people to undervote in an election if they selected four people when they were allowed to select five, but it will not allow an overvote, Calarco said.
At the end of the day, the scanner can print out a paper record of the voting results to allow for an audit to ensure accuracy.
Voters who do not need to use the ATI system will be able to mark their ballot by hand in a secluded booth before entering it into the scanner.
Sedor said the system works much like the grading system for an SAT or ACT test, where students fill in answers on a bubble sheet. Those sheets are then inserted into an optical scanning device that records right or wrong answers.
Under the HAVA legislation, the new systems were supposed to have been in place by January 2006, a deadline New York state failed to meet, Murphy said. The state did not start to comply with legislation until after the federal government sued the state and threatened to pull funding for the new technology.
In an agreement with the government and the court, the state's board said they would place one HAVA compliant machine into each voting place in exchanged for continued federal funding to meet the new voting legislation.
Without the $240 million the state received and the $850,000 the county received in federal funding to purchase new machines and train poll workers, the state and county would have been forced to pay for the expenses out of their own pocket, Sedor said.
For Cayuga County, that would have meant purchasing nearly 60 machines at $13,000 each for this fall's election with taxpayer money.
“We had to put our purchasing orders in earlier this year and we are just starting to get the machines now,” Sedor said.
In addition to replacing the old devices, the counties will assume ownership of every lever machine in their district, even if they were originally purchased by a municipality.
“State legislation now says the board of elections owns those machines,” Calarco said. “The old lever machines will be completely illegal in New York state by 2009. You can't use them for town elections, school board elections or fire elections. You can still use paper ballots but you can't use the lever machines.”
Tom Paczkowski, a Throop town board member, expressed dismay at that part of the new legislation at a meeting last week.
“We just put a lot of money into those [lever] machines,” Paczkowski said. “We put $12,000 into them. Everything is brand new. The school district said they wanted them, and now even they can't use them. The town bought those machines originally.”
Also, with the new state rules and regulations the individual county board of elections will be responsible for housing, maintaining and securing the machines, Calarco said. The heavy lever machines have traditionally been stored and maintained at their respective polling places.
The centralized location will enable the counties to ensure the machines are protected from any tampering that could fix the outcome of a vote, and that they are properly programmed for use in town, village and school elections. To increase security, the machines are not connected to any other computer, reducing the risk of being hacked, and have sealed memory cards. If a memory card seal is broken or tampered with, the machine cannot be used.
“The only way to tamper with the machines and rig an election is to get to each and every machine, tamper with it and leave without us ever knowing about it,” Calarco said. “If that happens, then shame on us. The only people that have the keys to these machines are the members of the board of elections. Not even the manufacturers have them.”
In addition to the of the voting machines' central storing, the county will consolidate some of the polling places, Sedor said. It is believed that people who do not need to use the ATI to vote will be able to vote at a faster pace than with the typical lever machines. If the lines to get to a voting machine don't back up, the county can save money by purchasing less machines and hiring and training less staff for election day.
Other concerns some people have, such as Throop board member Dick Signorelli, are that people will be afraid of the new machines when it's all they see at next year's elections.
“It seemed like it would be good for people with a handicap, and it seemed simple enough with the ballot that you just slide in, but people will still be intimidated by the technology,” Signorelli said.
That's why the board has made plans to take machines to every village, town and voters' right group meeting in Cayuga County, Calarco said. The demonstration will allow people to see how the machines work and address any questions or concerns they may have.
During a demonstration in Throop Wednesday, the town board raised concerns about the machines durability, especially if the county would be storing and transporting the devices to the polling places each year.
“These machines are pretty durable,” Calarco said. “This one that we are using for demonstrations has only received scratches and I just carry it in the back of my van, not in a truck. Also, the scanners are replaceable so if they break we can take one off and put in a new one.”
With this new technology, New York will no longer be the only state that does not comply with HAVA.
“We might be the last, but we will be the first to do it right,” Brehm said. “We have not certified the devices fully yet and we will continue to provide interim certificates as we continue the full system testing [to comply with federal and state laws]. We are under the assumption that all of the machines will pass, but if they don't then we will deal with that bridge when we come to it.”
Brehm believed New York was able to learn from previous problems in states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where trouble with accuracy, quality and security have come to light during the presidential primaries.
But Murphy believed New York's slow response showed a lack of initiative and continued to disenfranchise a select group of voters.
“Other states recognized the importance for people with disabilities to vote and they selected a machine accordingly,” Murphy said. “New York should have complied sooner. We are really disheartened that it took New York this long and we hope this machine was not a rush to judgment and that there are no unforeseen consequences. The only thing we can do now is go forward and hope for the best.”
Staff writer Nate Robson can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or nathan.robson@lee.net
See for yourself
Below are upcoming Cayuga County Board of
Election voting machine demonstrations. For more information, contact the board at 253-1285.
Town of Brutus Board Meeting
6:30 p.m. Monday, July 14
9021 N. Seneca St., Weedsport
834-9398
Town of Montezuma Board Meeting
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 16
The Memorial Building, Dock Street, Montezuma
776-8844
Auburn City Council Meeting
4 p.m. Thursday, July 17
24 South St., Auburn
255-4104
Town of Sterling Board Meeting
6:30 p.m. Monday, July 21
1290 State Route 104A, Sterling
947-5666
Options for Independence
9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday July 23
Holiday Inn, 75 North St., Auburn
253-4531
Village of Moravia
7 p.m. Monday July 28
22 Central St., Moravia
497-1820
The Citizens' Say
There are 2 comment(s)
recordrat wrote on Jul 14, 2008 7:54 AM:
Centrally storing easily hacked software driven devices (SDDs) will not secure them, as you stated. Mr. Calarco is sadly ignorant of the nature of software if he believes “The only way to tamper … is to get to each and every machine…” If that were true, then why centrally store them? The reality is that only one machine needs to be hacked to affect the entire county, as computer scientist Harri Hursti showed in 2005. “[F]unctionality – the critical element to be certified during the certification process – can be modified every time an election is prepared. Functionality is downloaded separately into each and every machine, via memory card, for every election.” See http://blackboxvoting.org/BBVreport.pdf. The Congressional Research Service also explained this in 2003: Malicious coding, or “malware,” can be inserted into software, spread from voting machine to voting machine, and be programmed to disappear once the fraud is accomplished. See http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/voting/reports/Fischer- ElectionReformAndElectronicVotingSystemsDREs.pdf. For more evidence against computerized voting, see http://www.wheresthepaper.org/DecRadyAnandaTechReports.pdf.
And why aren’t these devices certified before use? Doesn’t that violate NY election law, and common sense, especially given how easy it is to tamper with SDDs? Don’t disabled voters deserve as much security on the devices they use as the rest of the voting public?
Another misstatement above is that the federal government will continue to fund the use of the new technology. That is simply not true. Counties will foot the bill for all upgrades, service, licensing, special storage that addresses temperature and humidity controls, along with the necessary increased security, as well as the need to replace broken scanners.
Even tho the NY legislature decided to replace levers with non-securable technology, computerized counting of the ballots is as concealed and unobservable as if one turned off the lights during a manual canvass, making it impossible for those responsible for counting the ballots to know whether ballots were being counted as cast. Lever voting machines not only deter fraud by eliminating easily tampered materials, but also retain observability of its mechanical functioning, providing the public with a rational basis for confidence in reported results. NY citizens should resist SDDs and fight to protect the security of our vote by retaining the levers. See http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com for more information. "
AJ wrote on Jul 13, 2008 4:55 AM:
So, rather than go into a detailed rant about the numerous problems with these systems, I will simply suggest you all visit blackboxvoting.org.
I wrote Dennis Sedor a letter a couple of years ago outlining the problems with these systems - apparently he never read it because he still seems not to have a clue about the issues with them. "