On August 6, New York’s Governor signed A 9363 into law. It repeals a state law, saying old-fashioned lever voting machines must be replaced by September 1, 2007. That bill had been introduced on July 26 and passed the entire legislative process in less than a week. The bill does not set a future date for replacing the machines. The new state law conflicts with federal law. New York officials are hoping Congress passes a bill this year letting them keep the old machines in 2008. Thanks to Election Administration Reports for this news.

Shane Cory, national director of the Libertarian Party, just completed an Oklahoma tour to gain support for a proposed initiative to reform the Oklahoma ballot access laws. The state’s largest newspaper, The Daily Oklahoman, has given the cause a great deal of publicity. Fortunately, other daily newspapers are starting to pay attention as well. See this story.

HR 811, the bill in Congress to require vote-counting machines to produce a paper trail, will not be taken up in the House until September 17 at the earliest. Congressman Rush Holt (D-N.J.) had hoped it would pass the House this week, but it has fierce opposition, both from elections officials who don’t want a paper trail, and from activists who want to eventually eliminate all electronic vote-counting machines. Thus the bill has enemies from both directions.