On Wednesday, Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli asked a three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overrule District Court Judge Gary Sharpe's order to replace lever voting machines with computers to run this year's federal elections in New York.
Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs reportedly agreed with the county's assesment, saying that the new computerized ballot scanners were "more prone to fraud on a mass scale than a lever machine."
Adam Klasfeld of Courthouse News Service attended the hearing in lower Manhattan on Sept. 1 and filed this report.
This is the highest court to hear a case on the use of lever voting machines in federal elections since the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), which made funds available to the states to replace lever machines and punch cards, was signed into law by President George W. Bush.
Nassau County continues to break new ground, making the arguments that should have been made by New York State attorneys in US v. NYS Board of Elections years ago. HAVA does not require the use of computers to count votes.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
New Yorkers:
Here at our blog, you'll find:
-- a letter to send to your legislators. Send copies of this letter or, your own version, to all members of government. Find helpful contact links below!
-- a copy of the first resolution to keep our lever voting system, unanimously passed in Dutchess County, NY (PDF version available here) and now being considered by other county legislatures -- and with your help, across the entire state!
2) Sign and circulate this petition: http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/save_ny_levers
3) Donate to support our efforts! Contact
Joanne AT re-mediaetc.org
to volunteer some time to Save Our Lever Voting System!
Subscribe to our ETC Email List
Click to subscribe to our occasional email updates
Make a Donation
The leaders of ETC have been working on the issue of election transparency in New York pro bono for years. This is one reason why we can speak so freely on the subject -- we don't owe anybody anything. Unfortunately, lawsuits do have expenses, so please consider making a donation to support election transparency in the Empire State and beyond.
We are now a project of the International Humanities Center. All donations are tax deductible.
Make a contribution online. Checks or money orders can be made to: IHCenter/Election Transparency Coalition and mailed to Election Transparency Coalition, P.O. Box 127 Staatsburg, NY 12580
New Yorkers:
Sign Our Petition,
Join the Coalition,
Become a Plaintiff!
“If citizens mistakenly believe that a court has already ruled against the legality of our lever voting system, they will give up and accept the unconstitutional system planned for 2009.”
-- Andi Novick, Esq.
We cannot give up! Click here to sign our petition and join the coalition, or become a plaintiff in the lawsuit to save New York's Lever Voting System!Save New York Levers
Follow developments in the "keep the levers" movement in New York, learn about levers and find out what you can do to encourage your local government to pass its own lever resolution at our sister sites Resolved: NY Communities Want Levers and Save NY's Lever Voting Machines.
What You Need to Know
- Fact Sheet: Lever Machines Succeed Where Op-Scans Can't
- Scientific Studies on Software Based Voting
- Why Levers? An Overview
- A Scholar Speaks on the Lever Machines
- Can Lever Machines Be Maintained?
- Association of Towns NY Lever Resolution
- Dutchess County Lever Resolution
- Columbia County Resolution
- Ulster County Resoution
- Greene County Resolution
- Schuyler County Resolution
- Essex County Resolution
New Yorkers: Contact Your Representatives and Boards of Elections
- Click here to contact the NY State Board of Elections
- Click here to contact your County Executives and Legislators
- Click here to find your county Board of Elections
- Click here to contact your State Senator
- Click here to contact your Assembly Member
- Click here to contact Governor Paterson
- Click here to contact your Member of Congress
- Click here to contact Senator Schumer
- Click here to contact Senator Gillibrand
FELLOW NEW YORKERS, TAKE ACTION!
New York has the last transparent, secure, accurate and reliable electoral system left in the nation. Join citizens, county legislators, county election commissioners and political parties in saving our lever voting system! Here's how:
Here at our blog, you'll find:
-- a letter to send to your legislators. Send copies of this letter or, your own version, to all members of government. Find helpful contact links below!
-- a copy of the first resolution to keep our lever voting system, unanimously passed in Dutchess County, NY (PDF version available here) and now being considered by other county legislatures -- and with your help, across the entire state!
2) Sign and circulate this petition: http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/save_ny_levers
3) Donate to support our efforts! Contact
Joanne AT re-mediaetc.org
to volunteer some time to Save Our Lever Voting System!
The Coalition
- American Association of University Women -- Kingston, NY Branch
- ARISE
- Black Box Voting
- Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action, Manhattanville College
- Danny Schechter, founder of Globalvision and MediaChannel.org
- Del4Change
- E-Voter Education Project
- Election Defense Alliance
- Joan Brunwasser, Citizens for Election Reform, Election Integrity Editor OpEdNews
- Joel Tyner and James Doxsey, Dutchess County Legislators
- Mark Crispin Miller, author Fooled Again: The Real Case for Election Reform
- New Paltz Women in Black
- New York Citizens for Clean Elections
- Northeast Citizens for Responsible Media
- Protect California Ballots
- Rhinebeck Democrats
- Susan Zimet, Ulster County Legislator
- The Coalition for Visible Ballots
- The more than 1,700 New Yorkers who've signed our Save-the-Levers Petition
- The Ohio Election Justice Campaign
Recommended Sites
Our Executive Committee
- Andi Novick, Esq.,
Founder and Legal Counsel - Joanne Lukacher,
Executive Director
About Election Transparency Coalition NY
- Election Transparency Coalition
- (New York)
- Election Transparency Coalition NY, an offspring of Northeast Citizens For Responsible Media, is dedicated to educating and organizing the citizens of New York State and beyond to restore citizen oversight and public control of our elections -- our fundamental democratic right -- that has been undermined by the use of electronic vote-counting systems that tally our ballots in secret, subject to easy and undetectable manipulation. Election Tranparency Coalition is a project of the International Humanities Center.