Politics & Government

Voters Divided Over New Polling Machines

Malverne and West Hempstead voters had mixed emotions as they used a new system to cast their ballots.

As they walked out of polling places around Malverne and West Hempstead on Nov. 2, voters gave mixed reviews of the new polling machines.

"It was relatively easy," said James, a 25-year resident of Malverne, who gave his vote to the Republican Party, hoping they will "turn the economy around and get us back on track."

James admitted that he did have some help. "I saw someone on the news explaining how [the new machines] worked," he added.

Find out what's happening in Malverne-Lynbrookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

This year, local polling places introduced the DS200 Ballot Scanner system, a portable electronic voting system that uses an optical scanner to read marked paper ballots and tally the results. According to the New York State Board of Elections site, this system allows for paper ballots to be immediately tabulated at the polling site. After voters scan their ballots in, the machine can also search for potential errors and give them the opportunity to correct them before their vote is tabulated. The ballot itself is a sheet of paper, similar to the Scantron forms used for standardized testing, that lists each race, the candidates and their parties.

"Now we're just filling in bubbles," said Johanna Varvaro, of Malverne. "It's simple but it seems like we went backwards." As retirees, Varvaro and her husband, said preserving their pensions is what motivated them to vote.

Find out what's happening in Malverne-Lynbrookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It was fine, easy to use," said Esther Haimson, a 45-year resident of West Hempstead. Haimson, who cited taxes, unemployment and the war, as the issues that matter to her most, said knowing who she was voting for before she arrived made the process go even smoother.

"The print could of been larger, but overall, I like this system better," said Malverne resident Myrtle David.  "It was easy." The struggling economy and high unemployment rate motivated David to hit the polls. "I hope Cuomo wins," she said," and I'd like to see the elected officials work on creating jobs."

Alicia Heyward, of Lakeview,missed the nostalgia of the "old-fashioned" lever machines.  "This was fine, but it was disappointing to just fill in dots," she said.

"Yea, the lever was neat, but this is easy," said Sue Binder, a West Hempstead resident, who was a fan of the new machines. Binder gave her vote to the Democrats, who she hopes keep control of the house.

Most people found the system user-friendly, but felt it was less private and more vulnerable to fraud.

"They didn't have a curtain," said Lakeview resident, Mary Ellis,  who turned out to support her party, the Democrats.  Even though voters were given a "privacy sleeve" to conceal their ballot, Ellis noted that she had to remove this in order to insert the ballot into the machine, possibly exposing her selections to others nearby. 

"I definitely hate it," said both Kevin and Anne Connolly, of Malverne. "It's too easy to cheat."

The Connolly's were alarmed by the fact that even though their daughter, who is away at college, submitted an absentee ballot, she was listed at their local polling place as still being eligible to vote. "Someone could have come in, signed her name and voted," Kevin said.

"There was nothing wrong with the old system," said Bill, a 41-year resident of West Hempstead, who also indicated that he hated the new machines.  "This was a waste of taxpayers' money. "

Melissa Connolly, of Malverne, like the simplicity of the old machines. "It was a solid, low-tech way of handling elections, and in New York, we never seemed to have the same problems other states did."

Connolly compared the old voting machines to an abacus. "It worked just fine, and then we got technology involved, which seemed a little unnecessary. Now, there's a paper ballot so we can use an electronic device?"

Nevertheless, she said the technology worked great, the volunteers were well trained and she had a pleasant voting experience this year.


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