Printer scanner voting machines should be banned in New York
Allegra Dengler, Tarrytown, Citizens for Voting Integrity New York
The tragic attack on democratic Ukraine by Russia is a brutal extension of the war on democracy being waged elsewhere, including here in the United States.
The Mueller investigation of the 2016 election found abundant evidence of Russian election interference to help the Trump campaign and sow discord in the U.S.
The increasing use of computerized election technology leaves our elections vulnerable to the types of cyber interference the Russians are most definitely very good at. Current Russian cyberattacks in Ukraine include DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks to shut down government and army websites, “wiper” tools that wipe all data from targeted computers, and misinformation campaigns. Similar activities have occurred here.
The Mueller report underscored the urgency of fixing our nation’s election security gaps before 2020. Here we are in 2022. The Freedom to Vote Act was killed by two Democrats and 50 Republicans this year. Key gaps in election integrity and security are still imbedded in our election infrastructure.
Despite these warnings, New York is certifying new voting machines that can print on your ballot after you cast it. The printer can mark additional candidates to invalidate it. Or it could fill in races you did not vote in. And you would never know. Westchester County has already purchased voting machines that do this (the Dominion ICE).
The state Legislature must pass legislation now to ban hybrid printer scanner voting machines and phase out the existing ones (S309).
Since retiring the levers, we in New York have had a verifiable system of vote counting: hand-marked paper ballots counted on scanners. Now is not the time to weaken that system by creating ballots that may not accurately reflect the intent of the voter.
Defend democracy here and pray for the survival of democracy for the people of Ukraine.
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Good news, A New York Assembly bill to ban printer scanner voting machines has been sent to the Assembly Election Law Committee. Now is the time to contact your Assemblymember and members of the Election Law Committee to urge passage of this bill, A1115
Find your Assembly member here-
https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/addr/
Election Law Committee
Chair Latrice Walker
Members
• Karl Brabenec
• Kenny Burgos
• Robert C. Carroll
• Jeffrey Dinowitz
• Sandy Galef
• Emily Gallagher
• Jonathan G. Jacobson
• Zohran K. Mamdani
• John K. Mikulin
• Michael J. Norris
• Jonathan Rivera
• Gina L. Sillitti
• Chris Tague
• Al Taylor