District to Continue Using
Lever Voting Machines
Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation to allow school districts to use level voting machines during for their annual elections and budget votes/propositions through December 2014. The new law takes effects immediately.
After New York began using optical scanners, many of the old lever machines were destroyed. A temporary exemption in the electronic voting law allowed the Huntington School District to rent lever machines for last spring's budget vote and trustee election from a private company that bought many of the old discarded units.
Huntington made arrangements to rent the lever machines after determining that use of the new optical scanners would lead to increased costs for the district. There have been many complaints about the electronic devices during both primary and general elections and school district votes.
"We will continue to use the lever machines for next May's vote to avoid the many problems experienced by districts using the scan forms," Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky said.
Long Island state Senator Jack Martins and Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel sponsored the recent voting machine bill in their respective house. The new bill, and an earlier one that allowed for the use of the old lever machines through 2012, was necessary after a law was enacted to comply with the Help America Vote Act. States were required to use the new electronic machines in federal elections, but New York decided to use them in all elections, across the board, creating some degree of havoc locally.
The bill signed by Governor Cuomo also allows villages, fire districts and special improvement districts to continue using lever machines during their votes. The New York State School Boards Assn. estimated the new law will save school districts millions of dollars in unanticipated costs this year.
"In many areas, counties are unwilling to loan these delicate, expensive machines a school election re-vote dates often conflict with political primaries," according to an NYSSBA advocacy alert. If school districts had been forced to buy the machines the cost was expected to reach as much as $80 million.
"There has been an overwhelming preference expressed on behalf of school districts, villages and special districts to continue to use lever-style voting machines in local elections," states the sponsor justification that accompanied the bill. "The available alternatives to the use of these machines are prohibitive in both cost and practicality. Paper ballots are difficult and time consuming to hand count and optical scan machines are not readily accessible and include the added expenses of programming and printing of ballots."