by Brad Friedman
Optical-scan computer woes, runoff date leave Mayor Bloomberg, others, pining for city's old reliable mechanical voting systems...
We
have yet another potential mess concerning elections in New York City
on the new optical-scan computer tabulation systems which recently
replaced the mechanical lever machines used by the city for decades.
This
time, the problem relates to the upcoming citywide elections in
September which, if no candidate wins more than 40% in any of the
primary races, a runoff will be required by state law, just two weeks
later.
This
is now a huge problem for the city, since there is concern that it
could be all but impossible to re-prepare and fully re-test the computer
optical-scan systems in the short time after the primary and before the
runoff elections. It has led some, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
as well as the NYC Board of Elections, seemingly regretting the move
away from lever machines, and considering bringing them out of mothballs
for this year's runoffs.
"The
computers just can't be programmed and readied in time for a runoff,"
ABC7's Dave Evans notes in his video report on Monday (posted below). "The old machines can be."
Further
adding to the problems, says State Board of Elections Commissioner Doug
Kellner "If there is a very close primary election, it may not be
possible to determine the candidates in the runoff election in the time
frame available."
Since
New York state was the last in the nation to "upgrade" their voting
systems from the old lever systems to new proprietary computer
optical-scan systems over the last several years, the move has caused
nothing but headaches in New York City and across the state...
FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=
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