Breaking News - NY rejects DREs [View All]

Source: New Yorkers for Verified Voting

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

-Mohandas Gandhi



I'm pleased to announce that after five years of hard work on the part of

voting integrity advocates, New York State has rejected DREs and

approved only the Automark and the Sequoia ImageCast scanner/marker for

use in 2008 polling places. This momentous decision by the State Board

of Elections virtually guarantees that New York State will vote on

paper ballots and ballot scanners when it finally replaces lever

machines in 2009.



Those of you who were with us at the beginning

five years ago know what an enormous victory this is. When I first

started traveling, presenting and advocating in New York, election

officials, political parties, and machnne vendors assumed that New York

State was going to be a DRE state. Precinct scanners were not under

discussion, and only DREs were offered by vendors. Our experience over

these five years reflects the truth of Gandhi's statement - indeed we

were ignored, then laughed at, then fought bitterly by the voting

machine vendors and their supporters in the election establishment. But

finally, truth has prevailed, and what seemed like an impossible dream

in 2003 has been made real by our hard work - New York State will be a

paper ballot state.



Just yesterday, it seemed like high powered

lobbyists had scuttled our hopes once again as they maneuvered to keep

DREs in the mix even though they were in clear violation of New York's

laws(see my post at http://nyvv.org/blog/2008/01/breakdown-at-board.html

describing yesterday's events).



But this morning, when the Board reconvened it was immediately obvious

from the commissioners opening statements that those who were pushing

for the DREs had conceded defeat. No small amount of thanks is due to

Commissioner Doug Kellner (D), who firmly held the line yesterday and

during a long night of backroom political maneuvering, vowing he would

never approve the DRE submissions which did not fulfill the

requirements of New York State election law regarding accessible voting

machines...


contact@nyvv.org



-Bo Lipari

Executive Director

New Yorkers for Verified Voting

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Ah...smell the hope!