CHENANGO COUNTY – Board of Elections Commissioners here agreed to follow the lead taken by other Central New York counties and purchase Sequoia Dominion ImageCast voting machines.
About $443,000 from the Help America Vote Act grant plus a 5 percent local match will be applied to the purchase 37 new machines.
“We both agreed on this particular machine,” Republican Commissioner Harriet Jenkins said, referring to Democratic Commissioner Carol Franklin. The two were on hand last month at a meeting of the Safety and Rules Committee to report the much publicized and long-delayed purchase.
New York State was the last in America to abide by the 2002 voting act designed to aid handicapped voters. State officials were court-ordered to select a machine in February. Prices per unit went up while the state struggled, Jenkins said, from $7,000 per machine to $11,000.
Voters will be able to choose between using the new machine or existing lever machines in the November presidential elections, with a complete switch-over mandated in 2009.
Town of Columbus Supervisor George G. Coates stressed the importance of educating the public on using the new machines. “We are, like me, dinosaurs. We are going to need to make people more comfortable.” Committee Chairman Alton B. Doyle, R-Guilford, said brochures, video programs and other training materials would be available at the Chenango County Fair in August as well as at other venues throughout the county.
