Federal judge OKs voting-machine plan for N.Y. state to comply with Help America Vote Act

By: VALERIE BAUMAN - Associated Press | Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:35 AM PST ∞

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A judge who had threatened to jail elections officials Wednesday approved the state's plan for bringing New York into compliance with federal voting law by making it easier for disabled voters to cast ballots.

New York is years behind federal deadlines under the Help America Vote Act, which was enacted after the contested 2000 presidential elections to ensure better accuracy and access for the disabled.

If the state acts on the timeline approved by U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe, voting machines accessible to the disabled will be available in every polling place around the state by this fall's federal elections. The state would then follow up by replacing all pull-lever machines by the fall 2009 state elections.

The state Board of Election must send a progress report to Sharpe every Friday to verify it has met each deadline.

The board has worked hard to put together a realistic plan, spokesman Lee Daghlian said.

"It's been very urgent for many months here," Daghlian said. "I guess there is some sense of relief that the judge issued the order, so we know we're all on the same page."

Sharpe, who is overseeing a 2006 U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against the state, has expressed frustration with the state's "paralysis" on the issue. He had considered appointing a special master to step in, and at one point threatened to jail members of the elections board on contempt charges.

The law requires New York to replace mechanical pull-lever machines that were introduced more than a century ago. The machines don't create an adequate paper record and don't allow voters to "audit" their vote to ensure accuracy.

It also requires the state to provide at least one machine accessible to the disabled at each polling place.

Voting rights advocates, and advocates for the disabled who have long been frustrated with New York's failure to comply with the voting act, were relieved by the judge's decision.

"Progress at last," said Susan Dooha, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York. "The next step is accessible sites and materials for the public. We invite the BOE (elections board) to roll up its sleeves and work with us to make this a success."

Among the major deadlines set out in the federally approved plan, the process of testing voting machines to replace the pull-lever machines must be completed by Oct. 22.

The state will help the counties order machines by Jan. 16, 2009.

"We will be very surprised if counties will be able to carry out this time frame," said Mark Lavigne, spokesman for the New York State Association of Counties. "The counties are going to have act immediately ... to get those ballot devices in place at every polling place by September."

One reason New York has fallen so far behind in meeting the voting act standards is that the state created more stringent requirements for voting machines than the federal government did. No machine has successfully met the standard and been run through the appropriate tests to reach certification.

But some voting advocates have said New York's high standards and long delays have given the state the benefit of learning from other states' mistakes with the newer, high-tech machines.

For example, states including California, Ohio and Florida have found that touch-screen voting machines are inadequate.

Calls to the Department of Justice and the governor's office were not immediately returned.

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