An Election Integrity Activist Looks Back and Ahead
Some voters will use New York’s new voting machines for first time this November. Will their votes be counted? Yes!
New York’s elections are among the best in the United States, if not the best. Some people like to bash our Board of Elections, but I didn’t say we were perfect. Yet.
I know about elections because I worked full time as an election integrity activist for six years while our city selected our new equipment and designed procedures for them. First, I was shocked that I had to remind people that democracy – government of the people – requires citizens to be able to observe and participate. Good government – and elections – are not a matter of how convenient or modern you are.
Computers may be modern, but in elections, they prevent people from observing whether votes are properly cast, stored and counted. As New York moved to computers for voting, it took imagination, commitment and courage at our State and City Boards of Elections to ensure that we acquired the best equipment and that our procedures were openly observable.
Currently, we vote on paper ballots marked by each voter. Then a computer “scanner” counts the votes. From our ballots 3% are counted to audit the computers’ tallies. This alone puts us ahead of 16 states that have no record of the votes other than what we trust is inside a touchscreen computer. It also puts us ahead of many states that have paper ballots and could perform audits, but don’t. Elections should not require trust.
In New York City, observers can enter the poll site during setup and stay through the closing, and stand close enough to watch everything. For example, they can see that the ballot box is empty before the start of voting at 6 AM. In many states, observers are not allowed or must stand some thirty feet away from the action. My friend in Boston says she needs binoculars to see what’s going on at the polling site where she observes because she has to stand so far away.
Many voters still ask why New York changed from mechanical voting machines to paper ballots and computerized vote counting. Federal law required us to provide technology that enables voters with disabilities to vote without direct human assistance. This is to protect the privacy of those voters’ secret ballot.
In most states, this accessibility requirement led to the use of computers. I argued that a front panel with robotic arms could have made New York’s mechanical voting machines accessible and would have been less expensive and easier to secure than computers. No company offered to construct such a panel, however, because computers were more profitable. This will become an issue again in a few years when our current computerized equipment has to be replaced at enormous cost.
Computers used for voting must be secure and audited. To protect the secret ballot, tracking numbers and ordinary auditing techniques cannot be used. Unlike our old machines, in which the mechanical counting mechanism could be checked by simply looking at it, the operation of computers cannot be observed or easily verified.
Responding to activists pressure, our State Board of Elections made New York the first (and only) state to require computerized voting machines to pass tests proving that they worked before we signed purchase contracts. The State Board hired an independent lab, which found many flaws in the equipment. The U.S. Department of Justice sued to force us to hurry up and bypass testing. I’m proud that we resisted.
New York also banned communication capability in our new voting equipment, so hackers could not tamper with the votes. I spent years lobbying for this.
Proper procedures were another hurdle. I bombarded the city Board with news reports of chaos and errors in other states. The Board did its own research. The result? Our city has been praised for the best procedures in the state. Our poll workers account for every ballot delivered to the poll site.
I believe the bi-partisan structure of our election administration made our Board of Elections responsive, and resulted in our fair, honest, openly observable procedures.
Currently I train poll workers and serve as a poll site coordinator. I know first-hand that most poll workers are diligent, gracious and want well-run elections as much as I do.
On Primary Day, September 13, I coordinated a poll site in the 66 Assembly District 17 people worked with me. A few grumpy voters came in, but by the time they left they were smiling. We completed our paperwork in record time, and the police officers at our site complimented us. We had fun and great team spirit!
Poll Worker Jobs
According to Keen Berger, Democratic District Leader in the 66 Assembly District, “More good poll workers may be needed for November 6. The work starts at 5 AM and continues till 11 PM or later. There will be training classes in October.”
Ms. Berger said, “To apply, go to the Board of Elections at 200 Varick Street and fill out the application. You must take a six hour class and pass a test. You can earn $200 for the election day, plus $100 for training after working one election.” You can also sign up at http://vote.nyc.ny.us/html/workers/workers.shtml
Info for Voters
Wednesday, October 12, is the last day to register to vote on November 6.
Are you registered? Due to redistricting, has your Assembly District or Election District changed? You need to know this to find the right table in your poll site. https://voterlookup.elections.state.ny.us/
Where is your poll site? Would you like to see a sample ballot? http://gis.nyc.gov/vote/ps/index.htm
If you have a smartphone, you can download the app to locate your poll site and view your sample ballot.
http://vote.nyc.ny.us/html/voters/apps.shtml
For clear information on how to register: http://vote.nyc.ny.us/html/voters/voters.shtml
If you have a valid New York State Driver’s License, you can register to vote online or change your voter information. http://www.dmv.ny.gov/mydmv.htm#motv
Ms. Hommel is a corporate trainer in computer technology: UNIX, Perl and Java. Her web site, www.WheresThePaper.org archives election integrity materials from 2003-09, during which the United States moved to evoting. Her voting machine simulation, Fraudo the Fraudulent Voting Machine, has been used internationally to help people understand the special security problems related to computers used in voting.
