Check Out NY’s New Voting Machines At Fairport Tonight
Hey all, here’s another opportunity to check out the voting machines, tonight at the Fairport Public Library, courtesy of the Perinton Dems:
Please join the Perinton Democratic Committee in welcoming Monroe County Board of Elections Commissioner Thomas Ferrarese as he gives a presentation about the new voting ballot marking devices and optical scanners. The presentation is a wonderful opportunity to become familiar with and learn more about the new machines and how they were selected.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Fairport Public Library in the Elma Gaffney Meeting Room
This presentation is free and open to the public.
I went to this meeting tonight. The new machines were not on physical display (Monroe County doesn’t actually have them yet), but Tom Ferrarese gave a really nice presentation with lots of pictures and an excellent explanation of how the machines work and why these machines were chosen.
Some quick / interesting facts (hopefully all presented correctly!):
The ballot marking devices are actually being assembled in Monroe CountyOnly the ballot marking functionality will be used in 2008 elections, and only for disabled votersThe optical scanner on the device will not be used until 2009 elections (ballots created by disabled individuals using the marking device will be hand-counted for 2008).The ballot-marking capabilities for disabled individuals is quite extensive and impressive, and will allow many disabled individuals to vote privately and unassisted for the first time in their lives.They will need about 800 new election inspectors (in addition to the usual 3200) for the 2008 elections to support the new machines (roughly 2 per polling place). These inspectors will get special training on the new machinesThe optical scanners to be used in 2009 are already successfully used in parts of CanadaThe optical scanners will collect and securely store all the original hand-marked votes, and will maintain an electronic image of all ballots as well as duplicate verificationAt least 3% of all votes will be hand-verified when the new machines are first used in 2009.
Tom was very thorough and I have to believe if he’s impressed with the new machines, then they are likely very good.
But if you’re looking to get your hands on one of the old pull-lever machines, don’t check ebay yet. Monroe County will be storing them for a while, just in case.
Oops, I apologize for the odd formatting. In the preview window, it correctly showed bullets for each item. I guess I used a forbidden HTML tag… here’s the fact list again, in a more readable form!
- The ballot marking devices are actually being assembled in Monroe County
- Only the ballot marking functionality will be used in 2008 elections, and only for disabled voters
- The optical scanner on the device will not be used until 2009 elections (ballots created by disabled individuals using the marking device will be hand-counted for 2008).
- The ballot-marking capabilities for disabled individuals is quite extensive and impressive, and will allow many disabled individuals to vote privately and unassisted for the first time in their lives.
- They will need about 800 new election inspectors (in addition to the usual 3200) for the 2008 elections to support the new machines (roughly 2 per polling place). These inspectors will get special training on the new machines
- The optical scanners to be used in 2009 are already successfully used in parts of Canada
- The optical scanners will collect and securely store all the original hand-marked votes, and will maintain an electronic image of all ballots as well as duplicate verification
- At least 3% of all votes will be hand-verified when the new machines are first used in 2009.