Under the “Help America Vote Act” (HAVA) passed by Congress, all states received substantial federal funding to buy new vote-counting technology. In exchange, all states were to have such new machines in use by 2006. New York state had failed to meet that deadline, but had promised the federal government that it would have them by the September 2007 primary.
On December 19, the state acknowledged it can’t meet that deadline either, but it says it can probably have them in time for the March 2008 presidential primary.
One reason New York is having such a difficult time is that it insists on retaining a practice under which the full face of the ballot is always visible while the voter is voting.
Barry Goldwater made some comment many years ago about how nice it would be if the Eastern Seaboard could just be sawed off and allowed to float out to sea.
I suppose that included New York.
Perhaps we could, instead of sawing it off, just throw New York into jail.
After all, other lawbreakers are treated that way.
Would New York fit into Rykers?