NEW YORK—Old-fashioned lever voting machines will soon become a thing of the past for New York City voters. Chairman of the New York State Senate Elections Committee, Sen. Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. hosted a town hall meeting in Woodhaven Queens on Tuesday to demonstrate how to use the new machines, which will scan and enter votes electronically after the voter fills out a paper ballot, much like high school standardized exams.
The new voting machines will be set up in time for the Sept. 14 primaries as well as the general elections in November.
The changes were implemented as a result of the Help America Vote Act, which was passed by Congress in 2002 in response to the ballots dispute in Florida during the 2000 elections.
The bill required New York state to provide new voting machines for voters this year, according to a press statement released by Sen. Addabbo’s office.
After nearly three years of deliberation and review, the state Board of Elections finally completed testing on the machines, verifying the programming and operation before clearing the way to replace the mechanical levers with electronic scanners.
After voters fill out a ballot at voting stations, they will need to feed their ballots into a machine, which reads the voter’s choices. The ballots drop into a locked box underneath the machine to serve as backup hard copies. Questions on the screen will ask the voter to verify their decision before the machine counts the vote, according to a report by the New York Times.
Sen. Addabbo plans to hold a series of public demonstrations to teach voters in his constituency in Queens how the new voting procedure will work.
The next voting demonstration will take place in Middle Village at 61-21 71st St., Our Lady of Hope parish auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 9.
The new voting machines will be set up in time for the Sept. 14 primaries as well as the general elections in November.
The changes were implemented as a result of the Help America Vote Act, which was passed by Congress in 2002 in response to the ballots dispute in Florida during the 2000 elections.
The bill required New York state to provide new voting machines for voters this year, according to a press statement released by Sen. Addabbo’s office.
After nearly three years of deliberation and review, the state Board of Elections finally completed testing on the machines, verifying the programming and operation before clearing the way to replace the mechanical levers with electronic scanners.
After voters fill out a ballot at voting stations, they will need to feed their ballots into a machine, which reads the voter’s choices. The ballots drop into a locked box underneath the machine to serve as backup hard copies. Questions on the screen will ask the voter to verify their decision before the machine counts the vote, according to a report by the New York Times.
Sen. Addabbo plans to hold a series of public demonstrations to teach voters in his constituency in Queens how the new voting procedure will work.
The next voting demonstration will take place in Middle Village at 61-21 71st St., Our Lady of Hope parish auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 9.
