In 2002, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, which outlawed old-fashioned lever mechanical voting machines. New York is the only state that still uses them. On November 6, attorneys for the U.S. government filed a motion in the pending lawsuit (which had been filed by the U.S. Government in 2006), saying that the court should take jurisdiction away from the New York State Board of Elections over voting machines, if the Board doesn’t promise to obtain a new voting system in time for the November 2008 election.
No U.S. manufacturer still makes mechanical voting machines. Connecticut had been the last state (other than New York) to use them.
The new machines were in the BOE lobby last year before the election. A source tells me there are numerous difficulties with specs and contractors on the new options. The bumbling bureaucracy might have done NY voters a favor. Should be interesting to see how they might force the BOE to act before NY coronates their favorite carpetbagger.
Of course the real problem will always be who gets official recognition on whatever form the ballot takes, mechanical, electronic or otherwise. Perhaps the sole exception for ultimate fairness might be the ‘blank ballot’. Make the bureaucrats count for a whole day (maybe two)and send them home for the rest of the year.