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NY Votes To Bring Back The Old Steampunk Lever Voting Machines
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 21, 2013
Modified Jun 21, 2013
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 21, 2013
Modified Jun 21, 2013
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It's been a whirlwind will-they-won't-they drama for those lever voting machines, which were cruelly kicked to the curb in 2010 in favor of "hi-tech" scanners. But, like Self Checkout, those scanners seemed designed to drive humankind to self-destruction, leaving the democracy in the dystopian hands of The Machines. So the State Legislature voted last night to allow the city to dump the new machines in favor of the old-school levers for September's elections.
Don't rejoice quite yet, since the levers probably won't be back for good. Election officials say the old machines allow votes to be counted faster, and they need them to alleviate the time constraint between the primary, runoff and general elections. But even if the machines make a glorious return for September's primary and an October runoff, we'll still have to suffer through scanner jams and error codes in November.
And this bill was fraught with DRAMA, too; not only did twelve state senators vote against it, but Democrats tried to attach an amendment creating a public financing system for state elections to the bill, which was shot down by the Senate President. Now, of course, the Dems are blaming the GOP/Independent Democratic Conference team that rules the senatorial roost right now, and the GOP/IDC coalition is blaming the Dems for being too disorganized to support their own amendment.
Oh, Albany. On the bright side, though, lever voting machines! The bill's on its way to Governor Cuomo, and though he hasn't taken a public opinion on it yet, insiders say he'll probably send it through. So, it's likely we'll see the oldies-but-goodies come September 10th—assuming they haven't auctioned them all off on eBay, that is.
Tagged
Albany
Election 2013
elections
governor cuomo
lever machines
mayoral election 2013
state senate
Rebecca Fishbein
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