Electronic Polling in Onondaga County

New York State ditches the lever polling machines for the general election

by Kit Rodophele (NCC News)

November 3, 2010, 2:03 p.m.

SYRACUSE, N.Y.- A full rollout of electronic polling machines were used in a New York State general election for the first time, making the lever polling system a thing of the past.

According to the Onondaga Board of Elections Commissioner Ed Ryan, the old lever polling machines had many problems, a few of them being:

• For the disadvantaged, the machines were cumbersome and difficult to operate.
• The lever system was time consuming.
• The lever machines were also inefficient in that they did not produce paper records of previous votes cast.

However, the new machines, Ryan said, have been a bit of a challenge. “The new machines obviously are far more complex, take a lot more time on our part to test, to get ready, and are far more expensive to operate," said Ryan.

What voters can expect

In terms of voters having trouble understanding the new machines, Ryan said, "anytime you take someone who has not had anything to do with technology in their years, such as myself, you know, they get a little frightened of it, because they’ve been voting on a lever machine for 60, 70, 80 years. So, there is a little trepidation on their part".

But Ryan assured that the majority of people who go through the electronic voting system should be able to understand it easily.

What voters think

Many voters are indifferent to the switch said Ryan, but at least one Onondagan voter, who wished to remain anonymous, said he missed the old lever machines after casting his vote with the electronic systems in place at the Mulroy Civic Center.

“I kind of preferred the old system. There was some kind of satisfaction of pushing down the lever for each candidate as appose to kind of blackening in the circle.”

Commissioner Ryan said that, as far as he knows, until a newer and better polling machine is invented, these electronic machines are here to stay.

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