The New York State Citizen's Coalition on HAVA Implementation and the
Citywide Coalition for Voter Participation
NEW VOTING MACHINES FOR NY STATE
Statement of Principles
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Recently passed federal legislation will provide
New York with more than $100 million to replace and update our antiquated
voting technology. While the federal law mandates certain minimum standards
for new machines, much discretion is left to the states. We call for
adherence to the following basic principles to guide New York's purchase
of new voting machines and take our democracy well into the 21st Century:
New Yorkers deserve a new statewide voting machine.
Voters in one part of the state should not get a better machine than
other parts of the state. That would be unfair and a potential violation
of federal law. A statewide standard also means machines to facilitate
voting for both the disabled community and for non-English speaking
voters should be the same as those for the rest of voters. Absentee
and other paper ballots should also be standardized statewide.
New voting machines should provide a "voter-verifiable paper
audit trail" and incorporate "data-to-voice" technology
to ensure full access by all.
A voter-verifiable physical paper record of each vote would diminish
security concerns about electronic election counts, foster public confidence
in the process, help ensure the integrity of elections against fraud
and help detect faulty vote recording and counting by the voting equipment.
A separate scanner, laser pen or similar technology with data-to-voice
capabilities should be introduced simultaneously with paper audit trails
so that people who are blind or have limited vision will be able to
verify their votes concurrently with sighted voters. (* The Coalition's
support of voter verified paper trails and full machine access by voters
with disabilities are dependent upon one another. This statement supports
their timely and joint introduction and no diversion of HAVA's disability
access funding stream.)
New machines must be secure.
State and independent experts must fully review the hardware, source-code
and software of any system to test its security and to assure the public
of the system's integrity. The source-code and software for any voting
system should preferably be "open source" and available for
public inspection as well. Machines must possess adequate energy back-up
systems.
The state should consider the full range of new voting
technologies available.
The Legislature should eliminate the state's antiquated "Full Face
Ballot" requirement which is inaccessible for many voters with
cognitive impairments and excludes consideration of the vast majority
of new voting systems on the market.
New machines should be versatile enough to meet New
York's diverse needs.
New machines should be fully accessible and useable for persons with
disabilities, capable of clearly presenting multiple languages required
by law (as well as any future additions) and be 'system ready' to handle
a wide-range of elections formats such as Instant Run-Off Voting.
The counting of election results should remain in
public hands.
Any system that would privatize the counting of ballots in the hands
of machine vendors or in the private sector raises concerns about the
neutrality and integrity of elections and should not be adopted. Elections
should remain a function of government.
The state must ensure uniform training for poll workers
operating new machines statewide.
Additionally, a comprehensive effort must be implemented to inform voters
of technological changes when new machines are introduced so as to reduce
the instances of human error.
The contracting process should be transparent and
open to public input.
The contracting process must be open and should strive to include the
general public through public forums and hearings. A broad-based advisory
panel with diverse citizen representation should be established and
consulted throughout the process of replacing the state's current machines.
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