Rage at the machines: Board of Election’s old lever devices cause multiple problems during primary

[brooklynite]

Source: NY Daily News

The Board of Election’s ancient lever machines Tuesday caused a host of retro headaches for voters across the city, including at least two of the mayoral candidates.

At Congregation Mt. Sinai in Brooklyn Heights, Republican Joe Lhota was forced to vote by paper ballot because the machines there wouldn’t function.

And at Baruch College in Manhattan, the voter rolls had no record of Democrat Anthony Weiner’s signature — a screwup that postponed his voting for an hour.

The board chose to use the old-timey machines with the big metal levers instead of high-tech scanners used last year because they say they won’t be able to switch over the scanners in time for what’s expected to be an Oct. 1 runoff election.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election/old-machines-major-primary-pains-article-1.1451145

[Snake Plissken]

1. High Tech Scanners?

'because they say they won’t be able to switch over the scanners in time for what’s expected to be an Oct. 1 runoff election.'

When were these scanners built, in the 1970s?

[brooklynite]

4. That's not the real problem...

It's that, if the margin between prospective candidates for the runoff (in three weeks), is too small, they would have to recount the scanned paper ballots by hand...something it's apparently difficult for their crack staff to do.

[KamaAina]

2. Carlos Danger votes in Manhattan?

His congressional district was in Brooklyn.

[hrmjustin]

6. I think they moved.

[Wilms]

3. Check out the first sentence. Anything not make sense?

Seems the voter roll had no record of Weiner. So the author blames the lever machine.

And yes, Lhota had to use a paper ballot. What a "headache" that would NEVER occur with an electronic voting machine.

I'll be on my fainting couch.

[brooklynite]

5. What an IRONY...

...that the paper ballots the BOE was trying to avoid led them to use the lever machines, which are breaking down citywide, requiring people to use paper ballots.

[Wilms]

7. No problem with paper.

The problem is with counting it.

Let the corporate scanner decide.