This is not about HAVA Funds, which have already been allocated by the State Board of Elections, but not yet distributed. It is about additional funding from the State's coffers.
Nor is it about lever machines. If you read the filings in the USDOJ lawsuit, you'll see that its ONLY about disabled-accessible machines.
The issue is not dollars, its about the time and staffing needed to implement the disabled-accessible machines, and to train pollworkers before the September Primaries. The following is excerpted from an article in todays' NY Times:
"But with the September primaries approaching fast, city and state officials said that there was not enough time to replace all the voting machines in the state without causing chaos in the elections. So late last month the state offered — and the Justice Department reluctantly agreed to support — a vastly scaled-back stopgap measure.
. . . .
But the counties say that it is not just the money, but the lack of time that they have to buy new machines, test them and train workers in their use. And they note that delays at the state level were mainly responsible for their predicament."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/nyregion/17vote.html?_r=1&oref=sloginRegarding HAVA compliance of lever machines, the EAC has said that lever machines MAY BE HAVA compliant, not that they definitely are compliant. In any event, NY legislation (ERMA) requires replacement of lever machines.
Flanagan is a moron. He just doesn't get it. Even the disabled advocacy groups believe that full compliance with HAVA should wait until next year. Insofar as I know, there is no machine currently manufactured which is acceptable to all of the many disabled voter advocacy groups.
If Flanagan wants to be helpful, he should introduce a bill calling for the State to rimburse the Couty BOEs for the money they will expent this year in achieving the limited partial compliance that will be required to appease the USDOJ, so that the counties still have all of their HAVA funds next year, to use in achieving complete compliance!