http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=454634&category=OPINION&newsdate=2/26/2006

Times Union, Albany NY

Editorial

February 26, 2006

It's past time for state government to get serious about voting reform

Let's take a look at the early returns. New York is on the verge of forfeiting more than $200 million in federal funds, thanks to its inexplicable delay in bringing its voting technology into the modern era. This state literally ranks No. 50 in that regard. Oh, and there's now the very real possibility of the federal Justice Department suing New York.

Is anyone in power in state government, at the Board of Elections or elsewhere, even concerned about that?

Not that we can tell.

The more likely scenario seems to be that Monday represents one more warning to ignore. The Board of Elections meets then, and those who have been keeping tabs on this ongoing debacle fear that the state won't require new voting machines to be tested before new guidelines are put in place. They're warning that electoral chaos, like what occurred Florida in 2000, is entirely possible.

Failure to require such testing would represent a perverse sense of consistency for New York. Other states have tested voting machines before proceeding with the implementation of the federal Help America Vote Act. In California, a mock election resulted in a 20 percent failure rate, according to Bo Lipari of the group New Yorkers for Verified Voting. Maryland had problems as well.

Wouldn't the one virtue of lagging behind all the other states be that New York could copy what worked elsewhere and avoid the problems? This is a state, after all, where a rush to comply with HAVA in time for the November elections might do more harm than good.

It's not enough, as the state Board of Elections lamely suggests, that federal inspections are required before new voting machines are installed. Or that local boards of elections will be required to periodically test their voting machines.

Monday's meeting of the Board of Elections is an occasion for it to show that it takes voting reform seriously -- or for the public to conclude that its worst fears are likely to be realized. Testing of new voting machines is imperative.