New York State - 3 New Voting Machine Reports

July 26, 2007 - New Yorkers for Verified Voting has released two important new reports analyzing costs of voting systems, and VotersUnite has published a history of voting machine vendors and questions whether they meet New York State performance requirements for contractors.

Facts about Ballot Printing Costs

One of the frequently expressed concerns cited by New York State election commissioners about paper ballot and scanner systems is the cost of printing paper ballots. NYVV has now updated our research into New York State ballot costs and demonstrates that high prices are not necessary. Our report discusses the legal and technical requirements for ballots and presents price quotes for New York State ballots as low as 14 cents per ballot.

The NYVV report also explores an alternative to purchasing printed ballots: in-house, county or regional printers that print scannable ballots. In-house printing could lower ballot costs to pennies per ballot and put control of printing ballots in the hands of local election boards.

Onondaga County Voting System Cost Comparison

A study comparing the purchase and maintenance costs of paper ballot optical scan and DREs was released by Onondaga County's Comptroller in April 2007. The Onondaga study failed to fully account for ongoing costs, such as storage, maintenance, and software licensing fees; neither did it look at any of the large body of research and analysis about voting systems that is now available.

NYVV's analysis calls attention to omissions and misconceptions in the Onondaga County study, arguing that it reached the wrong conclusion.

Read NYVV's analysis of the Onondaga County cost study:
http://www.nyvv.org/onondagaRpt.shtml

Can Vendors Do The Job for New York State?

New York State procurement laws require that state agencies award contracts only to responsible contractors. The State Office of the Comptroller has published four guidelines for determining whether a contractor is responsible.

VotersUnite put together a performance history of some of the vendors selling voting systems to New York and compares it to two of these state guidelines:

1) Does the contractor possess the integrity to perform the contract?
2) Has the contractor performed at acceptable levels on other governmental contracts?

Read the VotersUnite report here:
http://www.votersunite.org/info/IrresponsibleVendors.pdf