Quick News
Quick notes and breaking news about election integrity issues in New York State.
Friday, February 22, 2008
2:36 PM US District Court Judge Gary Sharpe has ordered the State Board of Elections and the Erie County Board of Elections on behalf of the SBOE to purchase the ES&S Automark BMD for Erie County. The Court based its decision on the majority vote of the commissioners at the 2/15/08 meeting, the arguments presented by the Erie County Board of Commissioners at that meeting, as well as the other factors noted by the Court.
Here is a transcript of the conference call between the Court, the DOJ, and the State of New York:
http://www.nyvv.org/newdoc/nysbmd/TranscriptConfCall022208.pdf
The latest list of county choices, including the Court order for Erie County is here:
http://www.nyvv.org/newdoc/nysbmd/NYSBMDChoice022208.pdf
Friday, February 15, 2008
3:47 PM I have received word that no counties changed their system selections, even though they have been given the opportunity to do so. As of now, choices remain the same as on 2/8/08. An updated list can be downloaded here:
http://www.nyvv.org/newdoc/nysbmd/NYSBMDChoice021508.pdf
Currently three counties choose Premier’s Automark (Albany, Schenectady, and Rockland), one chose ES&S’s Automark (New York City), and the remaining counties chose the Sequoia ImageCast. Only upstate Hamilton County chose the LibertyVote DRE, ordering 11. No county ordered the Avante DRE.
Due to the Court order related to Avante noted below, counties may now change their selections until Tuesday, 2/19/08.
3:09 PM The State Board of Elections Commissioners met and passed a resolution allowing Avante DREs on the list of machines which counties can order as directed by the Court. The resolution appears identical to the ones passed for LibertyVote, Premier and ES&S. It can be downloaded here:
http://www.nyvv.org/newdoc/nysbmd/legal/AvanteResolutionSBOE021508.pdf
At the same time, the Board extended the deadline for counties to change their system choices until Tuesday,2/19/08.
12:47 PM The election commissioners from Erie County, the only county where the two commissioners could not agree on machine choices made their case for their Ballot Marking Device decision to the State Board of Elections. Erie County Commissioner Mohr prefers the ES&S Automark system and Commissioner Ward prefers the Sequoia Image Cast. Both made eloquent arguments for their position.
The State Board is required to decide in the event of a tie, but at the meeting today Commissioner Kellner (D), Moses-Donahue(R), and newly appointed Jim Walsh (R) also split on party lines. Since this continued disagreement represents a schedule slip, the State Board is obligated to inform US District Court Justice Gary Sharpe that they cannot reach agreement. If and how the Federal Court will determine which Ballot Marking Device Erie County will use is unknown at this time.
Monday, February 11, 2008
3:51 PM Cayuga County has now placed an order for the ImageCast Ballot Marker/Scanner. Still only a single upstate county, Hamilton, which has ordered only 11 LibertyVote DREs. The updated list of county Ballot Marking Device selections can be downloaded here:
http://www.nyvv.org/newdoc/nysbmd/NYSBMDChoice021108.4PM.pdf
10:04 AM I have received an update this morning to the list of Ballot Marking Devices selected by New York State County Boards. Ulster County has now decided to order the Sequoia ImageCast, joining the large majority of other counties. New York City (five counties represented by one Board of Elections) has selected the ES&S Automark. Upstate Hamilton County remains the only county selecting the LibertyVote DRE, ordering a total of 11 machines.
Keep in mind that the system choices in this list could still change as counties have until Tuesday, 2/12/07 to change their preferences.
http://www.nyvv.org/newdoc/nysbmd/NYSBMDChoice021108.845am.pdf
Sunday, February 10, 2008
1:40 AM I’ve just received an update that Erie County did not place an order. The two Commissioners are split, with Commissioner Ward (D) wanting the ImageCast and Commissioner Mohr (R) wanting the Automark (I’m unsure which version). No purchases were made, which will leave the decision up to the SBOE next Friday, 2/15/08. I’ve updated the county ballot marker choice list at: http://www.nyvv.org/newdoc/nysbmd/NYSBMDChoice020908.pdf
It’s good to note that the split decision is between two paper ballot options.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
3:57 PM I have compiled a preliminary list of Ballot Marking Devices selected by New York State County Boards of Elections. This is based on an official list I received at 4PM yesterday, as well as information that has come out since then. Keep in mind that the system choices in this list could still change as counties have until Tuesday, 2/12/07 to change their preferences!
Currently, only one County Board of Elections chose the LibertyVote DRE (Hamilton), three chose Premier’s Automark (Albany, Schenectady, and Rockland), one chose ES&S’s Automark (New York City), and two whose choice is still unknown (Cayuga, Ulster). All other counties have selected the Sequoia ImageCast Ballot Marking Device/Scanner combination. At the moment, no county has picked the Avante DRE.
For the moment, all but one New York State County has decided to go with paper ballot/scanner compatible systems, while DREs have been picked by only one county (Hamilton, the smallest, which has ordered only 11 machines).
The full list can be downloaded here: http://www.nyvv.org/newdoc/nysbmd/NYSBMDChoice020908.pdf
It is still possible that these choices could change. Last week’s State Court ruling readmitting the LibertyVote and Avante DREs, and the full court press being put on by LibertyVote, could result in some changes to these choices. We’ll have to stay on our toes. I’ll post updates as I get them.
Friday, February 08, 2008
8:57 PM The State Board of Elections met briefly today to formally approve a resolution placing the LibertyVote DREs and both Automark systems on the list approved for purchase. This was done by order of the New York State Supreme Court in response to a lawsuit by voting machine vendors.
The resolution can be downloaded here. It notes:
We are here today solely to comply with the Court’s order on voting machines. The Court has ordered that the State Board’s prior determinations regarding LIBERTY, ES&S and PREMIER are vacated and annulled. The Court has directed the State Board of Elections to approve the Liberty voting system on or before February 8, 2008… The Court has directed the State Board of Elections to approve the ES&S and Premier voting systems without any additional conditions on or before February 8,2008…
The resolution also stipulates that while the systems are being allowed back on the list by order of the Court, they still must pass testing and be formally authorized by the Board. That vote is scheduled to happen on February 28.
The Board met for only ten minutes to make this formal vote and announcement of the resolution, but they kept spectators and the media waiting for an hour and a half while they hammered out the exact legal wording of the resolution.
In the resolution, the Board gave the counties 4 additional days until Tuesday, 2/12/08, to change or reaffirm their Ballot Marking Device choices. The next step will be to see which systems the counties order by Tuesday.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
10:38 PM The State Board has announced an emergency meeting of the commissioners tomorrow in Albany to approve the machines as ordered by Judge O’Connor: Emergency Commissioners meeting Friday, February 8, 2008, 12:00 PM 40 Steuben Street, Albany, NY
6:07 PM The Democratic Commissioners Kellner and Aquila’s motion for a stay on the Court’s order to reinstate LibertyVote to the list of BMDs has been denied. The State Board of Elections will notify the counties that all 5 systems are back on the table, including the LibertyVote and Avante DREs.
5:31 PM Matthew Clyne, the Democrat election commissioner of Albany County has filed an affidavit with the Court in support of LibertyVote’s DRE. It strongly indicates that they intend to order the DREs for Albany County if given the opportunity.
The commissioners must indicate their choices by tomorrow, 2/8/08. Time is of the essence for responses by local Albany County activists to call their commissioners and protest this choice!
4:34 PM Justice O’Connor granted the Automark petitions from ESS and Premier and ordered the commissioners to meet tomorrow to approve those systems. Now both Automark systems are back on the list for counties to choose.
The Avante DRE has also been allowed back in by the Court. Now two DREs are allowed in as Ballot Marking Devices.
3:18 PM The Democratic commissioners are submitting their appeal this afternoon, asking the Appellate Division to rescind the lower Court’s decision to allow the Liberty DRE back on the list of approved machines. We’re waiting for any word on the decision. If granted, an immediate stay of the lower Court’s order would be issued again removing Liberty from the list.
2:25 PM I still haven’t heard if ES&S and Premier have been formally let back in, but based on the Judges interim decision last night allowing them back I expect that she will let them back in.
Avante has now also filed suit, joining Premier and ES&S, and seeking to allow their DRE back on the list of machines.