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HAVA Home More Information on the NYS Citizen’s Coalition on HAVA Implementation A General Description of HAVA and its Major Provisions The Coalition’s Statement on New Voting Machines Coalition Testimony, Fact Sheets and Resources for Advocates Information about NYPIRG’s Government Reform Work Contact Us

New Voting Machines for New York State

Under HAVA, it is expected that New York will be required to phase out our nearly 20,000 lever machines and replace them with new technology accessible to people with disabilities. More than $140 million dollars in federal grants has been ‘promised’ for this purpose.

New voting systems have the potential to enrich and facilitate our voting experience. For example, computerized machines could alert voters to races where they failed to vote, present ballots in multiple languages and be capable of allowing visually impaired voters to hear their ballots and cast their votes. Some states have been choosing optical scan systems, where voters ‘fill in the ovals’ of their selected candidates and have them read by scanners. But while optical scan systems have advantages of low cost and ease of use, critics point out the inherent inaccessibility for the visually impaired.

One of the chief debates swirling around new voting technologies is whether computerized machines are safe from tampering, viruses and faulty programming. Many advocates have argued that computerized machines should be required to produce a voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPT.) That means a voter would be able to visually inspect a paper printout of a ballot cast on a computerized machine. Think of it like going to the bank and getting to see a printed receipt of your transaction behind a screen on the ATM. Many advocates for the disability community raise concerns however, about whether it is possible to require paper trails without infringing on the rights of the visually impaired. The Coalition is in favor of requiring new machines to have both VVPTs and ‘data to voice technology’ to allow the printed ‘receipts’ to be scanned and read through an audio system.

Click here for the Coalition’s Statement of Principles for New Voting Machines and to sign on as an endorser organization.

Click here for more information on NY’s Antiquated Full Face Ballot Requirement.

Click here for detailed Coalition testimony on voting machine standards.

There are a wide variety of resources on the web for finding out more about the issues surrounding new voting technologies. Click here for some useful links.