Troy City School District Election
Sample Letter Number One

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Robert M. Bennett, Chancellor, Board of Regents
New York State Board of Regents
New York State Education Department
89 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12234
 

Dear Chancellor:

I am outraged by the Troy School board decision to use uncertified LibertyVote electronic voting machines in the upcoming School Board election on May 15 in which an $88.3 million budget is being considered.

Among other things, this decision shows a profound lack of respect for School district voters who are being used without their consent as guinea pigs in a test of an uncertified and questionable voting system.

The LibertyVote electronic machines are not manufactured in Albany as has been implied. The machines are manufactured by Dutch Company, Nedap, and only distributed through Liberty Inc. which is based in Albany. The machines are not certified for use in New York State elections and there have been serious documented problems with the machines in elections in Europe. In fact, because of the many problems associated with electronic voting, the New York State Board of Elections is prudently refusing to certify any new machines for our state until these problems are solved.

The reason being used to justify the use of uncertified machines in Troy is the failure of a single lever machine in the last School Board election. But proper testing of the machine prior to the election would have avoided this problem. There are time-tested procedures in place to deal with malfunctioning lever machines without resorting to the use of uncertified, unreliable and, quite possibly illegal voting machines. How will using an untested, uncertified voting machine restore confidence in the voting process?

The New York State the Board of Regents and the Commissioner of Education should put a stop to this ill-advised experiment as soon as possible and allow the election to proceed according to the existing procedures we all understand.

Sincerely,