In New York, Older Voting Machines Still Valid

 

New York has been slow to implement the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), sitting on most of the $220 million in Federal monies that was supposed to be spent on computerized voting machines.

HAVA, also known as the Hack America's Vote Act, has given lawmakers bureaucratic grief nationwide with computer crashes and fiendish technological fraud.

They just don't make those pokey clunky mechanical voting machines like they used to.

Devlin Barrett of The Associated Press had the following story on New York's ironic choice to so far keep the old voting machines.

Douglas Kellner, co-chair of the state's election board explained why New York still likes that old technology.

"Right now, there is not a single voting system on the market or in use anywhere in the country that meets current federal voting standards, and very few people realize it," he said. For the 2008 election, most New York voters will still use lever machines, and Kellner said he increasingly doubts new machines will be in place in time for the 2009 elections.

Those old machines are just fine.