Officials Reject Plan to Fix Voting Machines

Newsday ^ | 4/16/03

[areafiftyone]

The city won't fix its broken voting machines after all, and one elections commissioner alleged it's because Republicans want to keep voters confused.

The Board of Elections yesterday reversed a plan that would have repaired devices on the 7,000 machines, which people accidentally left without voting.

One Democrat joined with the five Republicans on the board to block the machine repairs.

"The Republicans understand it's in their interest to keep voters confused," said Manhattan Democratic Commissioner Douglas Kellner, who spearheaded efforts to have the machines fixed.

The broken devices are believed to be the cause of an estimated 60,000 lost votes in the 2000 presidential race, according to a Newsday analysis.

The lost votes sometimes occur when voters push down the lever entering their selections, but push them back up before throwing the handle to record their votes. In other cases, voters throw the handle without pushing down the levers. The lost votes, also known as the undervote, amounted to 3.9 percent of the citywide vote in that election. The percentage was higher in some districts.

Kellner estimated that 80 percent of those votes would have gone for Democratic candidates.

But Commissioner Stephen Weiner, a Queens Republican, denied that the board was politically motivated in yesterday's decision. "To characterize this as some kind of Republican anti-voting maneuver is incorrect," said Weiner, giving other reasons for his decision to vote against the repairs.

"There are some people who don't want to register a vote, but who report to the polls for civic reasons," Weiner said, arguing that those people should not be forced to vote.

Weiner also noted that the city is only several years away from acquiring new machines. He was not present for the March vote, but voted yesterday not to fix the machines, one reason for the reversal.

Kellner said the city could fix 98 percent of the voting machines in-house with parts that cost less than $20,000.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Yep. Sounds to me as though a large part of this "problem" is people who can't figure out how to work the machines -- and I've always been of the opinion that such people's votes shouldn't count (just like the ones who couldn't figure out the Palm Beach punch ballot). If people are too clueless to figure out how to vote, then how could they possibly have a meaningful opinion of which candidates will best represent their interests and values?

[E=MC²]

The shocking part about this article is that there are 5 Republicans in New York City!

[Psycho_Bunny]

Kellner estimated that 80 percent of those votes would have gone for Democratic candidates.

 

So, if I'm reading this right, he's saying 80% of all morons are liberals?

[JasonC]

It is more likely a few precinct workers went in and had a mad minute or three with the lever, and didn't get all the votes they expected.

Really people, there is a reason everything has to be done right and cross check on election day by the procedures. Guessing afterward what mythical people may have meant to do is an open invitation to fraud.

[Mitchell]

That sounds pretty reasonable. I'm much warier of completely computerized systems, where there are no paper ballots or the like that could be audited. You need some kind of protection against software bugs, whether accidental or on purpose.

[Mitchell]

Nobody was ever concerned about punch cards that automatically show up in large boxes one hour before a precinct closes.

True enough. If the local officials are all corrupt, it's difficult to do anything about it.

But computerized systems still need some method for ensuring against accidental miscounting (software bugs) or intentional miscounting (back doors).

[Lancey Howard]

The Republicans understand it's in their interest to keep voters confused," said Manhattan Democratic Commissioner Douglas Kellner, who spearheaded efforts to have the machines fixed.....Kellner estimated that 80 percent of those votes would have gone for Democratic candidates.

LOFL, this is some incredible candor coming from a scumbag Democrat!
He freely admits that Democrats are stupid and easily confused. He even sounds proud of it!