This Fall's general election will be conducted with "Ol' Faithful," our 267 lever machines. We do have fancy new electronic voting machines supplied by Advanced Voting Solutions (AVS). But we can't use them. The Department of State has suspended the AVS voting system because the vendor simply refuses to complete federal certification in time for the election.We're lucky. County exec John Stoffa held on to those lever machines, knowing that the legality of the controversial AVS system is still being litigated. Voting rights activist Alan Brau, during meetings of the citizens' advisory panel studying our elections, made those problems very clear.
Two other counties with AVS contracts, Wayne and Lackawanna, have already scrapped their older lever machines. Wayne has been forced to lease optical scanning machines, and it appears Lackawanna is leaning in that direction, too.
Justifiably concerned about future elections, state rep. Joe Brennan has asked for hearings. "In order to ensure a fair and equal election to my constituents of my legislative district, I respectfully request the State Government Committee to arrange a public hearing to review testimony and evidence about electronic voting, the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), and our future voting options."
2 comments:
voting options should include an opting out provision from baby-out-with-bath water mandates from the fed to states and counties with computer voting.
mechanical machines are and were flawless in Northampton County.
nitwit "hanging chads" in Florida brought about nonsensical, very costly mandates in country costing billions with ridiculous mandates from fed, is my opinion. Use mechanical machines here in LV is all that needs to be approved by all. larry@kisslinger.com
Good for Rep. Joe Brennan. Let's hope Rep. Babette Josephs, who will decide whether or not a public hearing will be held, understands the vital importance of a public discussion about voting technology. How many more millions do taxpayers have to spend before the Department of State gets it right? How many more elections must be screwed up by bad technology, sold by unscrupulous vendors before meaningful legislation is passed? Let's have a public debate- what could be the harm?
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