http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2009/06/12/not-broken-so-dont-fix-it/ Political news in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York state. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:44:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2009/06/12/not-broken-so-dont-fix-it/comment-page-1/#comment-46387 Laura Stein Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:30:17 +0000 http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/?p=10045#comment-46387 The pilot program was supposed to provide the optical scan system for only some of the voters in each of the 62 counties. That's why it was called a "pilot". However 16 counties have opted to convert completely. Otherwise the article, as far as it went was correct. What it leaves out is the abyssmal performance and quality of the machines received by NYS so far, leading state election commissioner Doug Kellner ot call them "crap". Also cost overruns on the equipment make it clear that they will cost much more than the federal allocation from the HAVA program, and the maintenance expenses would be horrendous. I'm sure these calculations played a large part in why our legislators are trying to block the turnover. Both the state and counties have budgets stretched to the limit. It's not a time to create large expenses for already hurting taxpayers. The pilot program was supposed to provide the optical scan system for only some of the voters in each of the 62 counties. That’s why it was called a “pilot”. However 16 counties have opted to convert completely. Otherwise the article, as far as it went was correct. What it leaves out is the abyssmal performance and quality of the machines received by NYS so far, leading state election commissioner Doug Kellner ot call them “crap”. Also cost overruns on the equipment make it clear that they will cost much more than the federal allocation from the HAVA program, and the maintenance expenses would be horrendous. I’m sure these calculations played a large part in why our legislators are trying to block the turnover. Both the state and counties have budgets stretched to the limit. It’s not a time to create large expenses for already hurting taxpayers.

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