What’s Happening with NY Voting?
New York elections are at a dangerous crossroads. Touchscreen ATM-style voting machines are attempting to flood the state. These systems do not allow you to vote with a pen and paper. They will radically change the way New York votes. Experts say they will increase costs, and wait times, especially in communities of color. Experts say elections conducted on these systems cannot be confirmed by audits, so they will decrease confidence. Furthermore, these new voting machine encode the vote in a barcode and count that barcode, not the text that the machine shows the voters. This makes it impossible for voters to verify who their vote is actually being counted for. Some counties have already begun purchasing these new touchscreen voting machines.
Those who do not live in New York still need to be concerned. From New York Focus, “New York has more competitive House seats than any other state except California, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.” The Republicans currently have 220 seats to the Democrats 213. There are 3 swing Congressional seats in counties strongly considering switching to all-touchscreen voting. Any of those races could impact who controls Congress. Don’t you want to make sure the vote count is accurate in those counties? Experts say that elections held on all-touchscreens systems cannot be confirmed by audits.
Please help us pass a bill called VIVA NY – The Voting Integrity and Verification Act of New York – A6287 (Brian Cunningham) / S7116 (Cordell Cleare). This is a simple bill that guarantees all New York voters a choice of either a hand-marked paper ballot, or an assistive device, whichever they prefer.
What is VIVA NY?
- Simple bill that requires hand-marked paper ballots and ballot-marking devices in all polling places
- Bans votes from being encoded in barcodes
- It passed the NY Senate in 2023
What’s Happening Now?
On Monday April 28th, and Wednesday April 30th we will all work together to let the New York legislature know that we want them to protect the New York ballot by continuing to vote with a pen and paper. Please sign up to call leadership and your representatives.
If you have a little time, please also call the NYS DCAAA (New York State Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee) (518) 434-0055. Tell them to make sure New York passes VIVA NY so that we can trust our elections!
Sign up for a time to call, the phone numbers and suggested script by clicking the button below. Thank you!
Priority Legislation (from City & State article)
“Election integrity advocates are making a push again for legislation that would require paper ballots in New York, as several counties are considering purchasing touch-screen voting machines. The advocates are trying to get the Voter Integrity and Verification Act, also known as “VIVA NY,” passed before local boards of elections can begin actually making the purchases. Experts say that touch-screen voting machines have caused a number of issues in other states, pose a security risk and may even violate state law. The state Senate approved the bill last year, but it stalled in the Assembly. After failing to pass both chambers last year, the state Board of Elections voted to allow the new machines. Several groups sued to stop their usage, but a judge tossed the suit.”
Please call NY Speaker Carl Heastie &
Say you support the passage of VIVA NY
Call 518-455-3791
Please record your calls on this spreadsheet
Read the article in Spectrum News
One of the newly approved systems, the ExpressVote XL also wraps your vote in a barcode. The barcode is what’s counted, not the text you see. There is no way for you to verify who you are voting for. In 2023 in Northampton County, PA the ExpressVote XL printed different candidates on the summary card than the ones that voters selected. But the machine did not count the vote it showed on paper. It scanned a barcode and actually counted the vote for the opposite candidate of what was on the paper.
“Following the election [in 2019], vendor ES&S determined that roughly 40% of the machines delivered had missed going through a touch screen calibration step before shipping from their manufacturer …
In 2023, a different mistake … caused the text heading of two statewide Yes/No questions to be switched on the printed card … During the computation … of returns, the return board was apparently instructed to switch the vote totals from poll tapes for the two affected questions, in order to reconcile with the printed result totals. Then the obvious mismatch surfaced again during the statutorily required 2% statistical sample audit, with nothing to document this “adjustment.”
What does this demonstrate?
- The ExpressVote XL can flip votes.
- The ExpressVote XL can count the vote for a different candidate than what is on the paper summary card.
New Yorkers have been voting with either a pen and paper or a ballot-marking device for over 10 years. That system works. Voters can vote in the way that they prefer.
Yet despite all the warnings about these voting machines five New York counties: Erie, Monroe, Nassau, Orange & Suffolk Counties have purchased or say they are planning to purchase them.
Smart Legislation 