Fall 2006

Washington sues New York State over accessible voting machines.

court The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against New York State for failing to provide accessible voting machines for people with disabilities, thereby violating the Help American Vote Act (HAVA). The Justice Department has increased its oversight of the states and other governmental bodies in time for the 2006 elections to make certain that they meet HAVA requirements. The cases were reported by the National Disability Law Reporter on March 30.

New York State was furnished about $221 million for compliance with HAVA mandates, and $49.6 million was allocated to replace the old lever voting machines with new, accessible machines.

voting machine The case, known as United States v. New York State Board of Elections, et al., was filed March 1, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. The complaint said that New York State’s voting system was unable to generate a permanent paper record that could be audited. Moreover, it said, no statewide computerized voter registration database was created.

The lawsuit asked the court to determine that the state didn’t comply with HAVA’s voting system and database requirements. It also asked the court to issue an order requiring the state to submit a plan demonstrating how it will come into full compliance.

Since then, here is what has happened. For the Sept. 12 primary in New York City, 22 voting machines for people with disabilities were located at five locations, one in each borough. The disabled-accessible machines allowed voters to bypass traditional lever machines. These machines use touch-screens or have a special technology to enable quadriplegic voters to sip and puff into a machine that can read such signals to mark ballots. After using the special machine, a paper ballot was produced by a printer.

The new devices were used by 580 voters citywide during the primary. But according to exit interviews, many of the voters who used these devices were not disabled. Critics have also said that the few locations forces voters with disabilities to travel long distances in order to vote.

But one voter, who has epilepsy, praised the new machines. “I was able to cast each vote separately and the machine told me when I was finished,” he said. “I think that’s a great feature.”