Archive: Opinions

EditorialI'm sure it's politically incorrect for me to say so, but I don't think it's logical, fair, or effective for Tompkins County to spend $1,022,589.34 of my state and federal tax money for new voting machines and reducing the number of places I can go to vote, just because someone in Florida was dumber than someone here in Tompkins County and almost 40% of that so a relatively few disabled citizens can vote more conveniently.  While it is true that our old mechanical voting machines are aging and would have to be replaced eventually, they work just fine now.  Everyone likes them.  And there are ways for disabled people to vote now that aren't prohibitively difficult.

The Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 has been a disaster from day one.  It was a knee-jerk reaction by the federal government to the debacle in Florida during the presidential election that brought the unfortunate term 'hanging chad' into the popular vernacular.  Certainly some localities have problems with their voting equipment and procedures.  I don't think Tompkins County is one of them.  Yet the baby -- you and me -- is about to be flushed down the drain with the bathwater because other communities couldn't get it right.

The current lever machines seem to work pretty well in Tompkins County.  We're used to them, and election inspectors know how they work.  Hurf Sheldon, an employee of the Board of Elections and the current chairman of the Lansing Democratic Party told the Lansing Town Board Wednesday that election officials are afraid they won't be able to find enough election inspectors (the men and women who sit there all day and help you get signed in and vote), because some of the ones they have now aren't interested in retraining on the new machines.  Because of that and the purchase cost the county wants to consolidate polling places, making it harder for some voters to get to the polls.

So this disenfranchises some Tompkins County voters just so some Florida voters won't be disenfranchised.  Seriously, why is this happening?

Currently if you are disabled you have choices when it comes to election day.  The easiest is to submit an absentee ballot.  But the county Board of Elections Web site also says, 'If you need some help because you are disabled or cannot read the ballot, federal law allows you to have a friend or relative assist you in the voting booth.  Elections employees at the polling place are also ready to help you. Be sure to let them know you'll need assistance before entering the booth.'

I have never met an election inspector in Lansing, at least, who was mean or unhelpful.  Asking for help just isn't intimidating here.  There is no way in socially liberal Tompkins County that every single qualified voter who wants to vote isn't going to get to.

The machines the county will most likely purchase cost about $11,500 with voting devices for the disabled, and only about $7,200 without.  Now I'm saying that those hanging chad people are a bit disabled in the thinking department, but even if we were only required to deal with their failure -- after all that's what precipitated all this --  the county would be spending $193,500 less to buy 45 voting machines.

But seriously, why do we have to spend even one dollar?  Are federal officials so far removed from everyday life that they never heard the expression 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it?'  There is no doubt that it's 'broke' in some communities.  I agree, fix it there.  It is important not to disenfranchise voters with faulty voting systems that may not count votes for unnecessary reasons.  But Tompkins County voters and taxpayers are being severely punished for a problem that just isn't ours.

Where it ain't broke -- c'mon, guys! -- don't fix it!

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