Times Union "The strife boils down to whether a touch-screen machine with a barcode system can be trusted to document votes as accurately as a person with a paper ballot and pen in their hand. If something went wrong, would voters know? Would votes be lost? “
Comment: Trump directed the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to decertify voting systems that record a vote within a barcode in the counting process. But like so many of Trump’s “executive orders”, it is more of a distraction that will never come to pass while obscuring what he is really doing to undermine the vote count.
In February, he shuttered the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and cut more than one hundred positions at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is tasked with protecting our critical infrastructure, including elections.. He cut off all funds to CISA’s Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center—a Department of Homeland Security–funded organization that helps state and local officials monitor, analyze, and respond to cyberattacks targeting the nation’s election hardware and software.
New York is now on its own to protect our vote count. New York must pass the Voting Integrity and Verification Act of NY (VIVANY) A6287 / S7116 to protect our current system of paper ballots in the face of the current vulnerability to cyberattack.
Allegra Dengler.
NEW YORK//NEW YORK GOVERNMENT
Controversial voting machine gaining use in NY elections
By Emilie Munson, Data Reporter
May 25, 2025
ALBANY — Last week, roughly 32,000 people cast their ballots in school board elections in Monroe County using a voting machine that’s been a source of controversy in New York for years.
It was the largest number of votes cast on an ExpressVote XL machine in New York to date. And in Monroe and other counties, the device is gaining a foothold in the state, even as a movement to stop its use is brewing.
The ExpressVote XL is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit seeking to block its use in New York. A group of Democrats in the Legislature are also trying to pass a bill to prevent the devices from being used in elections. An executive order by President Donald J. Trump opposing voting systems like the ExpressVote XL also looms.
Those developments could imperil millions of dollars in deals between the makers of ExpressVote XL and counties around the state.
The strife boils down to whether a touch-screen machine with a barcode system can be trusted to document votes as accurately as a person with a paper ballot and pen in their hand. If something went wrong, would voters know? Would votes be lost?
Proponents say ExpressVote XL machines are reliable and can be used by all voters, including those with disabilities. They included high-profile names like former New York Gov. David Paterson and the late Hazel Dukes, former president of the NAACP.
In opposition is a coalition of lawmakers, activists, political groups and unions, including actor Mark Ruffalo, who allege the machines make votes unverifiable and violate state Election Law. They claim the machines are too expensive and they’ve had serious problems elsewhere.
At the center of the turmoil is the vendor, a Nebraska company called Elections Systems and Software LLC, which supplies voting machines used by more Americans than any other company. The company has contracted a stable of lobbyists and spent nearly $1.5 million in six years to influence lawmakers and officials in Albany and New York City on this and related issues, lobbying disclosures reveal.
Launched in 2019, the ExpressVote XL is primarily used on the East Coast, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, according to the company.
Now, it’s breaking into a giant new market: New York.
Counties buying ExpressVote XLs
The ExpressVote XL was approved for use in New York in August 2023 when the state Board of Elections voted to certify the machines after testing them. The decision came after hours of debate. It was also certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Monroe County is the first county in New York to buy ExpressVote XL machines and use them in an election. It spent about $12 million on 1,000 machines and will purchase about 170 more before the November general election.
Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Jackie Ortiz said Monroe County did not make the choice to switch to ExpressVote XL machines “lightly.”
“We had demonstrations from each of the vendors,” Ortiz said. “We also did public demonstrations ourselves to see what the reaction would be from the public, and last but not least, we went out to both New Jersey and Pennsylvania, that also have these machines, to see them in action ourselves. All of the feedback we received was very positive.”
Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Peter Elder said county officials like ExpressVote XL equipment because one type of machine can be used for all voters, including those with disabilities; they eliminate the possibility of someone accidentally making a second selection when voting in one race, and they come with a big privacy curtain.
The county first used the machines in March during village elections when about 2,000 voters went to the polls, Elder said. During that election, the contest for mayor of Pittsford was decided by one vote, prompting a recount to check the machine’s results.
“We conducted that recount, and it was flawless,” Elder said.
Last week’s school board elections were an even bigger test and a positive experience, Elder said. The county will use the machines again in about two weeks during the June primary when even more voters are expected.
Suffolk County rented 120 ExpressVote XL machines to use in a March special election for Town Council.
“We received nothing but positive feedback from voters about the machines' performance,” county Board of Elections commissioners John Alberts and Betty Manzella said in a joint statement. The county is now weighing whether to buy the machines.
Erie County bought 40 ExpressVote XL machines for nearly $500,000 but currently has no plans to use them, said Robin Sion, Republican deputy commissioner at the county Board of Elections. Most of the county’s voting machines are another model made by the Nebraska company. The county learned after buying the ExpressVote XLs that all the voting machines at a given polling place must be the same type. It hopes to use the ExpressVote XLs in small elections where one machine can serve a polling place, but so far it has not arranged to do so, Scion said.
In Orange County, officials purchased one ExpressVote XL machine two years ago, but they also haven’t used it in an election yet, said Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Louise Vandemark. When voters come to their office seeking an absentee ballot during the June primary, they plan to direct people to cast a vote on the machine. It’s a test to see how voters like the machine and whether the county may want to buy more, she said.
In Nassau County, the Board of Elections is considering spending $38 million to buy ExpressVote XL machines next year, said James Scheuerman, the Democratic Board of Elections commissioner. As they explore their options, they’re watching the rollout of ExpressVote XLs in other counties. So far, they like what they’re seeing, he said.
Other counties have considered the ExpressVote XL and passed on it.
Valerie Weedon casts her ballot at the Albany County Board of Elections on the first day of early voting in October.Jim Franco/Times Union
Albany County explored the machine when it was buying equipment last year, said Rachel Bledi, the county’s Republican Board of Elections commissioner. The biggest factor in their decision was cost. ExpressVote XLs were twice the cost of the voting machines the county decided to buy, she said.
Also, if the county bought ExpressVote XLs, it would need more of them than other voting machines, Bledi said. That’s because with the ExpressVote XL, voters use the machine to mark their ballot one at a time. With other machines, many voters can complete paper ballots simultaneously in private booths and then feed them into one machine when they are finished.
“In order for it to work on a practical level, you would need triple the machines,” Bledi said. She also worries that voters unfamiliar with touchscreen technology would slow voting and create long lines.
What happened in Pennsylvania
When voters use the ExpressVote XL, they select candidates on a touchscreen. Then, the machine prints a paper form with their choices displayed in readable text and captured in a barcode. Voters can review the form before casting the ballot. The machine reads the barcode to tally votes.
In 2024, almost 70% of all registered U.S. voters lived in counties where they marked a paper ballot with a pen to cast their vote, according to Verified Voting, a national foundation that studies election technology and tracks voting systems. Only a small portion of U.S. voters use the ExpressVote XL or a similar voting system.
The ExpressVote XL has been used in Philadelphia, Cumberland and Northampton counties in Pennsylvania since before the 2020 presidential election.
The people most worried about the ExpressVote XL in New York point to what happened in Northampton County.
In 2019, voters there said the machine’s touchscreens were either too sensitive or not sensitive enough, so some candidates were hard to select, while in other cases, the wrong candidate was selected. Also, in the local judge’s race, an instructional box on the machine’s screen was read as a candidate in the system, so some votes went to the box instead of an actual person, according to Spotlight PA. Then, in 2023, the machine printed the wrong information on the paper ballot when people voted for a judicial candidate, though officials said the votes were correctly stored in the barcode.
In Philadelphia in 2020, poll staffers reported issues with the machines at more than 40% of polling locations, including hypersensitive touchscreens and printer jams, Reuters found.
In 2019, a coalition of election security groups filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania to decertify the use of the machines there. Four years later, the lawsuit settled with an agreement that counties using the machines would upgrade the software, the state would publish reports about malfunctions, and the public would get more opportunities to witness the state’s examination of voting systems.
David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said lawsuits have failed to demonstrate that ExpressVote XLs and similar machines are not secure. Meanwhile, there is “a ton of evidence” that the machines tally votes correctly thanks to audits and recounts that compare the paper ballot printed with the voter’s choices to the results generated from barcodes, he said. They also allow faster vote counting and less work examining bubbles colored with a pen to interpret a voter’s intent.
An appeal
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, and many others strongly dispute that ExpressVote XLs are secure. Her organization is the lead plaintiff in a case opposing the use of the machines in New York. The case is pending in state Supreme Court in Albany and the Nebraska maker of the machines, along with the state attorney general’s office, have opposed Lerner’s efforts to have them decertified.
“We know for a fact that the most secure way to vote is through a paper ballot which the voter directly marks with a pen or with the assistance of a marking machine, but it should be under the voter’s control not the machine’s control to decide how to fill in the ballot,” she said.
Susan Lerner, center, executive director of Common Cause New York, has an appeal pending in a court case that seeks to compel the state Board of Elections to decertify the ExpressVote XL machine. (Paul Buckowski/Times Union)Paul Buckowski/Albany Times Union
State law requires a voter to have the ability to check their ballot before submission to know it is accurate. Lerner and others argue there’s no way for voters to verify that the barcode information matches their selections. They also have argued the state Board of Elections can only approve voting machines that comply with Election Law and should have never approved the devices.
The company filed a motion calling those claims “baseless.”
“To the contrary, the ExpressVote XL provides voters the opportunity to review their selections twice before tabulation, first on the summary screen and next on the printed card,” the firm’s attorneys wrote.
Last year, the judge in the case dismissed Lerner’s arguments because the plaintiffs initiated the lawsuit before the machines were in use in New York.
The alleged harm was “too speculative,” acting state Supreme Court Justice Kimberly A. O’Connor wrote. But, O’Connor noted, “Petitioners’ allegation that the ExpressVote XL machine will not permit voters to privately and independently change their votes or correct any error before a ballot is cast and counted remains a possibility if those machines were purchased for use in New York state.”
Lerner has appealed the ruling and oral arguments are scheduled to take place later this week before an appellate court in Albany. The fact that voters are now casting ballots on ExpressVote XLs in New York “should be” a part of their argument going forward, she said.
Legislation
A group of New York Democrats have been working with advocates for years to try to pass bills that would effectively ban ExpressVote XL machines and similar equipment in New York.
One bill would mandate that voters can vote on paper ballots and would forbid machines that encode votes in a barcode on the ballot. The bill passed the Senate in 2021 and 2022, but the Assembly did not approve it.
Another bill, nicknamed VIVA NY, would also require polling places to give voters a readable paper ballot that they can mark by hand, if they wish. It passed the Senate in 2023, but did not clear the Assembly.
“A paper ballot, that leaves a paper trail and that can be touched and examined by the voter is not only the safest and most incorruptible option, but the one that voters trust the most,” said state Sen. Cordell Cleare, a Democrat from New York City, who sponsors the legislation.
State Sen. Cordell Cleare sponsors legislation that would require boards of elections to give paper ballots to voters if they request it. "A paper ballot, that leaves a paper trail and that can be touched and examined by the voter, is not only the safest and most incorruptible option, but the one that voters trust the most," she said.Lori Van Buren/Times Union
Assemblyman Brian Cunningham, a Brooklyn Democrat and another bill sponsor, said the legislation has competed for time and attention among many political priorities in the past and with three weeks left in the session this year, it’s facing long odds.
The legislation has also come up against robust lobbying efforts by the Nebraska-based manufacturer of the machines.
Advocates against the ExpressVote XL also tried to convince Democratic leaders to tuck the legislation into the state budget this year, but did not succeed.
Executive order
Trump, nearly six months into his second term, has also taken a stance in favor of voter-verifiable paper ballots and against barcoding votes.
President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order in March that directed the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to decertify voting systems that record a vote within a barcode in the counting process. (Pool via AP)Associated Press
Trump, who his critics allege has made numerous false statements about election fraud, signed an executive order in March that, among many other actions, directed the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to decertify voting systems that record a vote within a barcode in the counting process, except where necessary to accommodate people with disabilities. Systems certified by the commission or recommended in its guidance should include a “voter-verifiable paper record to prevent fraud or mistake,” Trump ordered. The order does not allocate any money for jurisdictions to pay for new equipment.
States, not the federal government, administer elections, and the guidance of the federal election commission is voluntary. New York’s certification of voting machines is not dependent on approval by that commission, according to state Board of Elections spokeswoman Kathleen McGrath.
Many provisions in the wide-ranging executive order on voting are being challenged in court and are likely to be enjoined, said Gideon Cohn-Postar, senior advisor for Election Infrastructure at the Institute for Responsive Government, a national think-tank.
The Election Assistance Commission, an independent agency, has not taken steps to advance Trump’s directive.
Counties in limbo
The Nebraska company provides various models of voting machines to a number of New York counties. Since 2006, the company has had contracts worth over $167 million to provide elections equipment, software and services to the state, records from the state comptroller’s office show.
In court filings last year, the company noted the lawsuit has already hurt their business by creating “sufficient uncertainty that county boards of elections have deferred or declined to purchase the ExpressVote XL voting machine.”
Monroe County delayed its purchase due to the lawsuit, the company said. When it did buy 1,000 machines, it signed a warranty agreement with the company stating that if a court decision results in the decertification of ExpressVote XL machines before July 2026, Monroe County could replace the machines with another voting device from the company that’s approved in New York. Or they could return the machines for a refund, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by the Times Union.
The agreement does not stipulate what would happen if new legislation results in the decertification of the machines. Ortiz, the Monroe County elections commissioner, said she doesn’t think a “wholesale refund or return” is possible, but she’s confident the county could negotiate an agreement with the company if needed.
Sion, the deputy elections commissioner in Erie, said they’re concerned about the idea that their 40 machines could be decertified depending on the actions of the courts or the Legislature, but that they’d explore options to get money back or sell the machines.
Scheuerman, the Nassau County commissioner, said the state’s lawsuit, Trump’s executive order and proposed legislation all loom in the minds of elections officials looking to buy voting equipment.
“It definitely makes the decision a little perilous,” he said.
May 25, 2025
Emilie Munson
DATA REPORTER
Emilie Munson is a data reporter for the Times Union. She previously covered federal politics in Washington, D.C., for the Times Union and Hearst Connecticut Media. Emilie also has worked as a state capitol reporter for Hearst Connecticut Media and as an education reporter for the Greenwich Time. Her investigation reporting has won state and national awards.