Accessibility Isn’t Only Hurdle in Voting System Overhaul

[helderheid]

Gabriele Stabile for The New York Times

A technician at the New York Board of Elections with a touch-screen machine, in which a voter-verifiable paper trail feeds directly into a ballot box.

July 21, 2007
Accessibility Isn’t Only Hurdle in Voting System Overhaul
By CHRISTOPHER DREW

Democrats in Congress who are trying to redesign the nation’s voting system generally share the same goals: an affordable, easy-to-use system with durable paper ballots that can be used by the disabled without help from poll workers.

But yesterday, as House leaders failed for a second day to reach agreement on the outlines of a new system, the tension reflected in those competing needs was clear. The desire to make every voting machine accountable is running head-on into other needs, from the desires of the disabled to the budgets of states and localities.

Given the tensions, voting analysts say, the decision disclosed Thursday by Democratic leaders to put off the most sweeping changes until 2012 — four years later than planned — was easy. Congressional leaders are reluctant to tell states to junk hundreds of millions of dollars of relatively new voting equipment until it is clear when better technology will emerge.

But questions also arose yesterday about other aspects of a proposed compromise now being negotiated. Voting experts criticized a stopgap proposal to add spool-like printers to thousands of computerized touch-screen machines for 2008 and 2010, saying it would not be feasible in some states.

Some critics also said that efforts to guarantee equal access to disabled voters could slow a broad shift from touch-screen machines to optical-scan systems, which use sturdier paper ballots filled out by the voters themselves. Prompted by growing concerns about the reliability and security of the touch screens, about half of the nation’s counties now use the scanners, and most analysts had thought that any federal legislation would fuel this trend.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/washington/21vote.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1185023063-gTuEdCZgGrRkqtYBaGsXSA&oref=slogin

[MasonJar]

1. Are the dems nuts? Kiss 2008 and 2010 good-bye. Oh, well, I'm going to

be off to the south of France, if another Pug wins.

[helderheid]

2. save a spot on the floor for me, will ya?

[helderheid]

3. k