NYS Senate Passes Breakthrough Ban on Hybrid Voting Machines, Common Cause/NY Pushes Assembly

NEW YORK, NY (06/09/2021) (readMedia)-- Today, the New York State Senate passed legislation that will ban hybrid voting machines: machines that incorporate both a printer and scanner in one voting machine. Cyber security election experts almost universally pan the touch screen technology, so much so that most states have switched back to hand-marked paper ballots. The Assembly has yet to vote on the bill.

"Common Cause/NY is thrilled the NYS Senate voted to permanently ban hackable, hybrid voting machines. Paper ballots marked by the voter -- which New York currently uses -- is the election security gold standard. We should not be spending taxpayer dollars on anything else. The Assembly must make this a priority in the last few days of session and put voters first," said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY.

Earlier this year, The NYSBOE voted against certifying the ExpressVote XL, a hybrid machine. Common Cause New York released a report last year called "The ExpressVote XL: Bad for New York's Elections." Common Cause argued New York should not purchase the ExpressVote XL because it is:

• Vulnerable to cyber attacks and hardware malfunctions
  • ExpressVote XL machines do not use a secure paper trail, making results easier to hack. According to a recent study, only 40% of voters reviewed their ballot for accuracy after submission and only about 7% informed a poll worker if something was wrong. The study concludes that a hacker could easily change the results of 1% or 2% of votes without anyone noticing.
  • The 14 states that use ballot-marking devices have begun to phase them out.
  • Touchscreens malfunction and can cause long lines for voters. For example, in Pennsylvania, roughly 30% of the machines allowed voters to select only some candidates' names, and not others.
• Prone to undercounting votes
  • In a race in Pennsylvania, a candidate was recorded as having 164 votes on election night, but after a manual recount the same candidate had over 26,000 votes, winning the race.
• Expensive
  • The ExpressVote XL costs roughly $8,250 per unit. This is far more expensive than other voting machines. Additionally, it will cost more money to store and transport the machines.