Fwd: NY Senate also passes paper trail requirement

["Joe Pezzillo" <jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx>]

FYI, I sent this to members of the Local Government committee, too. -Joe


Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Mulder, Michelle" <@house.gov>
> Date: February 25, 2004 6:48:30 AM MST
> Subject: NY Senate also passes paper trail requirement 
>
>
> ---------------
>   
> CauseNET for Common Cause New York - February 24, 2003
>  
> Congratulations Causenet Members: Your action brought results! The New York
> Senate joined the Assembly yesterday in passing a bill requiring a Voter
> Verifiable Paper Audit Trail for new voting machines!
>  
> More Action is Needed: Leaders of both Houses must conference to come to a
> consensus on other Voting and Election Reform Bills.
>  
> Yesterday, amongst a flurry of activity in Albany, both the New York State
> Senate and the Assembly passed disparate packages of election reform bills,
> in an attempt to meet the requirements for the federal Help America Vote
> Act. Once New York meets the HAVA requirements, federal funds will be
> available to purchase new voting machines and improve elections in the
> state. 
>  
> Their action on this critical issue should be applauded, but as usual, the
> dysfunction in Albany (different bills, sudden passage) will lead to further
> stagnation unless the Senate and Assembly can agree to sit down and
> compromise on a uniform package of bills.
>  
> Please contact Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno at 518-455-3191, and urge
> him to conference with the Assembly on their respective voting packages. You
> can also contact him by email at bruno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>  
> Then, please contact us at cocauseny@xxxxxxx or 800-300-8707 to let us know
> that you took this action.  Thank You!
>  
> Both the Senate and the Assembly have passed bills that would require the
> use of voting machines that produce a voter verifiable paper audit trail! In
> response to our call for action, hundreds of you wrote emails, letters and
> phoned Senator Morahan, who introduced this package of bills that passed
> yesterday. Thank you! Unfortunately, neither the Senate nor the Assembly
> have addressed our call to eliminate the full face ballot requirement in New
> York State.
>  
> The Senate passed six bills, five of which were introduced yesterday. The
> weaknesses of the Senate bills are: 1) A very restrictive ID list, which
> will lead to many voters having to show IDs at the polls; 2) Does not
> address disability access needs to voting machines; 3) Does not give
> counties the jurisdiction over ownership of voting machines 4) No guarantee
> a uniform statewide voting machine; and, 5) Does not allow for affidavit
> ballots or paper ballots to be used as voter registration forms at the
> polling site. There are pleasant surprises in the Senate¹s package of bills:
> 1) a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail; 2) A strong administrative
> complaint review procedure, and 3) Effective provisions for the computerized
> statewide database of registered voters.
>  
> The Assembly passed a set of election reform bills that are identical to
> those they passed last year. These bills include giving power to county
> boards of elections to control voting machines and poll workers, requiring
> that all counties use the same kind of voting machine, establishing a
> computerized voter registration database, and allowing for four types of
> identification to be used at the polling place.
>  
> Please contact Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno at 518-455-3191, and urge
> him to conference with the Assembly on their respective voting packages. You
> can also contact him by email at bruno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Then, please
> contact us at cocauseny@xxxxxxx or 800-300-8707 to let us know that you took
> this action.
>  
> Thank you for your action on this issue!