This is off-topic, since it is not about education. But, hey, it’s my blog and I am allowed now and then to think about other topics.
I just read in the New York Times that New York City is planning to ditch its new electronic voting machines and go back to using the old lever-operated machines, first invented in 1890. The city has already spent $95 million on the electronic machines, and some critics said that it was wrong to revert to the old technology. The old machines are apparently in a warehouse, covered in plastic.
The reason I mention this was that I served on a federal commission to review the electoral process after the fiasco of the disputed Presidential election in 2000. The commission was co-chaired by ex-Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. Our report was released in August 2001.
One of the subjects of our investigation was the voting machines: which were in use and which were most effective. We saw demonstrations of all the electronic machines, as well as some existing machines. The technical people said the best, most foolproof machine was the New York City lever machine, which many considered a dinosaur. It counted every vote and had a low error rate. The electronic machines were subject to hacking.
Ironic that the city is now planning –at least temporarily–to bring back the tried and true lever machines.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Those are great machines. The company who made them stopped doing it in the 1950s. Personally when all this hullabaloo about voting in 2000 happened I was shocked that most of the nation was still using paper ballots and silly stalls like 3rd world countries. Then we switched to those new voting machines where most of the time spent was in silly cardboard and plastic cubicles with a marker. How sophisticated is that?
Bring back the old voting machines …
and put all the political machines in warehouse, covered in plastic …
You mean like the Chicago machine that gave us Obama and Emanuel? Yes, warehousing would be a start, but perhaps too kind.
With all due respect, I think it doesn’t really matter if voting results are reported
at 8:00 AM the next morning or 8:00 AM 2 days later. Computers in voting
mean hacking in voting. Not a good idea.
I am a conservative – and believe manual voting wins — On this issue
I am a luddite.
To quote Dick Vitale: “Old school baby!”
Our district secured these lever machines for all school elections. There’s nothing like pulling that lever, curtain closes, and then hear your vote “click.”
Or vote on paper, which leaves a paper trail. Much more reliable for recounts. Computer voting and testing is not secure.
Our school’s fancy, web-based computer testing system has been down for two days. Today I took the trusty old Scantron machine out of the storage cupboard. I love simple, reliable technology!
Ugh. A 95 million dollar mistake.
Symbolically, it would’ve been nice to have axed the computerized ones before our last mayoral election.
Why not ask Republican IT specialist Michael Connell how those electronic voting machines work? How he made it possible for Georgie the Lesser to win Ohio in 2004 by having all the electronic voting machines send the information to a computer in KY before being sent to the Ohio secretary of state’s computer for the official tally.
Oh, what’d you say, he died in a personal plane crash in 2008 just as he was coming forward with this information. Say it ain’t so!
I love it! As someone who watched and read a lot about the voting issues/problems in 2000 and beyond, as well as the long lines and really, the loss of the vote due to rules/laws frankly designed to make it harder for folks to vote in this country, I, like you, am very interested in this topic. I would love to see more people talking about this issue across our country. Thank you for sharing New York’s decision.
Who got the $95 million?
Very good question. What other cities were sold the same thing?
that was the cost of buying new electronic machines.
Forget the $95 million as that is chicken feed to what is at stake and that is honest elections. We have the worst as it is so easy to manipulate computers by hacking and back doors. A period of time ago I used to know someone who hacked in during the election. They did nothing but it can be done by someone proficient and there are plenty of them out there. Bring back the dinosaurs who do not make mistakes and are almost impossible to manipulate away from the “Original Intent of the voter.” What is the big deal to wait a day or two to have an honest election. Anyone who argues against this is obviously involved in corruption of our voting system and does not believe in honest elections.
Well said! Agree!
Lever machines are almost as unreliable as unverifiable eletronic voting machines because they have no ballot of record that can be verified by the voter.