If you vote in Suffolk, or know anyone voting there, be aware that you may not be able to see your choice for governor. If you don’t, let the poll workers know . They have been instructed to pull the ballot out so you can see who you voted for. Then call the voting protection hotline, 844-NY-VOTES to report the voting machine malfunction. Be sure to take 844-NY-VOTES with you to the polls so you don’t have to look it up.
During voting in Suffolk County in this election, voters using the ExpressVote XL voting machine, deployed in every polling place in Suffolk County, cannot see their votes for Governor, printed by the machine at the top of the "ballot summary card.” Voters are having to ask for assistance from poll workers to EJECT the paper record from the machines so they could see the text at the top of the ticket. Otherwise it's obscured and impossible to see.
Here's how the machine works: After the voter is done making on-screen selections the card is "parked" in a window on the right side of the machine. But the “ballot”. (“Voter verified paper trail”, like a grocery receipt) does not go far enough down the window for the voter to see that it correctly recorded their vote in the governor’s race, or the barcode that is actually what the machine counts.
Voters can only verify that the machine recorded their vote for Governor correctly by asking a poll worker to eject the ballot summary card. The voter can then review the votes recorded on the card, re-insert it, and, if the votes are recorded correctly, cast their ballot.
This issue might seem to involve Suffolk County more than a statewide issue, but it could be that wrong election results, or challengeable election results, in Suffolk County, could affect several state-wide elections including the Governor, Comptroller, and AG. Also, NY-3, likely a close election, includes an election district in Suffolk County.
An election reform bill, VIVA NY (A6287 (Cunningham) / S7116 (Cleare)), which would prohibit the use of these machines has been stalled in the NY Assembly even though it passed the Senate.
It cuts to the accuracy of the vote count, and to whether Suffolk County (and Monroe County, which also uses the XL), conducted proper Logic and Accuracy testing prior to this election. And to why, oh why, the VIVA NY bill has not been put on the agenda of the Election Law Committee in the NY Assembly, and brought to the floor of the Assembly for a vote.
About 2,750 of this controversial voting machine in Suffolk County may not be giving voters the opportunity or ability to verify their vote for Governor using the so-called voter-verified paper record as required by election law §§ 7-202(1)(e) and (j)
The barcode that is used to tabulate all the votes on the voter's ballot cannot be seen at all, without ejecting the cards, which means it's possible for NO votes cast by the voter on their ballot to be counted at all.
As a result, the secret ballot is being compromised by having to show poll workers the problem. Doing so may also cause long lines and wait times for voters.
We have warned about all this, even by asking Governor Hochul's team to ban the expensive machines in the Executive Budget for two consecutive years. You also know about the VIVA NY bill which remains bottled up in the Assembly. Another bill by Assembly Ways & Means Chair Pretlow has met the same fate.
Ironically, it's Hochul's own reelection that could be at risk here, since Suffolk County has about 8 percent of the NYS vote.
The voter verification of the vote that is cast on paper, which is essential for post-election audits and recounts, is being undermined in Suffolk. And if voters don’t alert poll workers, and potentially give up their right to the secret ballot, then their intended votes for Governor may never be cast and counted.
As former NYS Board of Elections CoChair Doug Kellner said when he voted AGAINST certifying these machines at the SBOE on Aug. 2, 2023: (They were certified with a 3-1 vote}
Kellner: "I have never approved the use of a ballot summary card . . . . What is significant is that with hand-marked paper ballots the voter has necessarily interacted with the ballot and knows what's on it. With a machine-marked ballot . . . the verification process is only as good as the time the voter spends actually verifying the ballot. The academic studies on this issue have shown that most voters do not do a very good job of actually verifying the vote which makes the process somewhat meaningless. . . . . There's no point to an audit if the voter hasn't actually verified the ballot in the first place. . . . . The audit process is worthless if the voter hasn't looked at the ballot. . . . . You can't tell from the summary card whether the screen that the voter saw included all of the candidates."