White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Electronic Voting Machines Introduced to Council.

WPCNR All News Final. By John F. Bailey. April 25, 2002. 11:00 PM EDT: Sequoia Voting Systems of Jamestown, NY and Election Systems & Software of Syracuse presented the ABC Advantage and V2000 electric voting machines to the Common Council Thursday evening. The council learned that to purchase new machines would cost the city approximately $600,000 for 80 machines to bring jamproof voting to White Plains voters.

RITA MALMUD TRIES OUT THE ABC ADVANTAGE VOTING MACHINE AT THE COMMON COUNCIL: The machine can be previewed at the company website, www.sequoiavote.com.
Photo by WPCNR

Both machines are similar. The “ballot with metal levers” is replaced by a flat, soft voting panel, with electronic touch squares in boxes below the preprinted ballot sheet, that can be reconfigured for each election. Voters depress the squares softly with the finger to vote for a candidate.

There are no mechanical parts. The machines when activated show lights to indicate offices to vote for. It is impossible to vote twice for a candidate. Write-ins are handled electronically with keypads.

Photo by WPCNR
A printed tape is provided by the V2000 with results, and a printed sheet with tallies is provided by the rival machine, the ABC Advantage. Each machine has 4 back-up memory banks and a cassette device to recreate the vote. Each has battery backup. Primary counting ability is made possible by the voting machine attendant who programs the party the voter announces before they step into the machine, making it impossible to vote for two parties.

The ABC Advantage machine that Councilperson Rita Malmud is trying out, is in use in 14 counties in New Jersey, including Bergen County, Union County, Hudson and Morris County and has a proven track record over 13 years. Douglas L. Van Sant, of Sequoia, said the County Clerk of Ocean County, New Jersey just this week was telling him how very pleased that county is with the technology.

IN USE FOR EIGHT YEARS, in St. Lawrence County, the V2000 may be viewed in detail on the Election Software and Systems website at www.essvote.com.
Photo by WPCNR
The V2000 Machine is in use in St. Lawrence County in New York, and one county in New Jersey and most closely approximates the standard New York State ballot voters are used to in its configuration, according to Larry Tonelli, the ESS spokesperson. Tonelli said Governor Pataki’s Committee on Modernization was very sensitive that the plastic ballot board be familiar to the voter.

“It looks just like your ballot,” Tonelli said. “That’s very important, because the least amount of change and description you can do is a great benefit.” The V2000 provides 16 rows down and 32 across, very similar to the typical ballot in a mechanical voting machine.

The ABC Advantage device, according to Van Sant, is being used in more counties in New Jersey than the V2000, with no adverse affect from its 12 columns across format with 54 lines down format. Van Sant said that Party Affiliations are run across the top of the ballot, and the offices to be voted for are run down the side, and voters have had no problem with that ballot configuration.

Van Sant reported that the ABC Advantage is not a computerized machine. Results cannot be erased by magnets. he says, “It is a good solid workhorse. It’s not a sophisticated system. Not a complex machine. It eliminates human error. It’s all boards and chips, no components can be demagnetized.”

Van Sant added that the Advantage is Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant, that a wheelchair could fit under the voting board and the button registering the vote reachable by a person in a wheelchair. Both Van Sant’s machine and Tonelli’s machine had accessories enabling the machine to be used by the blind and the hearing disabled.

Van Sant reported that the Westchester County Board of Elections is considering the Advantage for its absentee ballot system.

The Gretsas Report

After the presentations had been completed, George Gretsas, the Mayor’s Executive Officer, said the Governor’s Committee on Modernization was due to report its findings and recommendations on election machines by the end of April. He said that through “the grapevine” he has learned the Committee is expected to recommend county purchase of machines for the towns. He said it may authorize other kinds of voting machine formats such as a paginated ballot display in use in other states, or the voting kiosk recently tested in Grand Central Terminal. He said the Council had to consider whether now was the right time to buy these machines since, they were old technology. The Advantage, in fact was first used in Bergen County the very year when Mr. Gretsas was on the ballot for the Board of Education there.

On the other hand, Gretsas wryly observed, a new system has no track record of success as the V2000 and ABC Advantage have, which would be one of the first questions asked about any new system.

Gretsas reported that the two houses of congress are currently reconciling their separate bills authorizing federal funding for new election systems. Gretsas said it was thought that the thrust of these bills was to replace punchcard systems, not voting machines. But, it is unclear at this time what federal aid and conditions will be in the reconciled version. “There are a lot of issues,” he said.

City could bond the project for 5 years. A 6/10 of a percent tax increase.

Gretsas said that the city financial departments recommended they bond the purchase over five years, which would amount to approximately $170,000 in the first year, resulting in a 6.6% tax increase in the budget, instead of a 6.3% increase now planned in the 2002-03 Budget.

Eliot Spitzer Has Not Contacted Larry Delgado

A rueful observer in the audience was private citizen, former Councilman Larry Delgado, whose loss to Glen Hockley, was sealed by a jammed voting machine in District 18 last November. Mr. Delgado told WPCNR he had written the Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, asking him to look into the matter of a quo warranto proceeding. Delgado said he was told “we were looking into it, and we’ll get back to you.” It has been a month, and Mr. Spitzer has not responded to Mr. Delgado’s plea.

Roach praised by Mayor Delfino for taking the lead on the issue.

Mayor Joseph Delfino complimented Councilman Tom Roach for putting the city out in front on this issue.

Mr. Roach thanked the Mayor and his staff “You’ve worked very hard on this. I think this is the right time to be looking at this. There’s no remedy that would have recreated what actually happened on Election Day (in November, last year). I appreciate the hard work that went into this (presentation).”


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