OPINION
Editorial: No vote of confidence on touchpad voting system
In a split decision, the state Board of Elections approves controversial voting machines. The last thing we need right now is more doubt over election processes.
Times Union Editorial Board
Aug. 4, 2023
Michael P. Farrell / Times Union archives
At a time when the very integrity of our elections is in doubt in the minds of so many Americans, the state Board of Elections made the mind-boggling decision to allow controversial voting machines to be used in New York.As if the doubts about these machines weren’t enough of a cloud, even the board charged with ensuring the integrity of elections in this state is divided on whether they should be used. Oh, and the approval is conditioned on the company fixing potential security issues.
The machines, from ExpressVote XL, would fundamentally change the way New Yorkers vote. Where people now fill out paper ballots, which are fed into scanners that read and record their votes, they could soon fill them out on a touchscreen. They would still get a paper copy of their ballot to verify that the machine registered the choices they made.
Advocates of the machines say that they’re safe and that their ease of use will actually make voting more accessible, especially for voters with disabilities. They say that the machines meet state requirements, including that voters must be presented with a “full-face” ballot, similar to what the paper ballots now show, and that there must be a verifiable paper trail.
Critics, however, have raised warnings about the security of the software used in the machines. And they question whether the paper record, printed on thermal paper, will last as long as needed in case records must be rechecked down the road.
Such doubts, voiced by several voting-rights groups and government watchdogs, were enough to make the commission’s Democratic co-chair, Douglas Kellner, vote against allowing the machines.
Digital machines are increasingly present in our daily lives, of course. We use them for things as ordinary as ordering food at a restaurant, checking in and printing tickets at an airport, or conducting bank transactions at an ATM. Most of the time they work. Sometimes they don’t. That’s a concern, too: Voters, who must cast their ballot in their designated polling place, can’t just head off to another poll if their machine develops a glitch.
It's worth noting that the state Legislature nearly stopped this, but didn’t. The state Senate last year voted on legislation to disallow the touchpad machines, but the Assembly let the bill die amid heavy lobbying.
The state board’s approval doesn’t mean the machines are coming soon to a poll near you, though. The move only allows county election boards to use the machines if they want to.
Quite possibly, voters will come to accept such a change, just as they came to accept the switch, over the past two decades, from the old mechanical lever devices to paper ballots and scanners. But considering that so many people believe — wrongly, to be sure — that the last presidential election was rife with ballot fraud, this is not the time to throw more doubt into democracy’s most fundamental process.
It’s one thing to push a button when the only thing at stake is whether you get a burger or a fish sandwich. It’s quite another when the leadership of your community, your state or your nation is on the line. If even elections commissioners don’t have unanimous faith in this change, how can voters?