MARCH 2011

Assembly Passes Bill for
Village Voting Machines

Westchester’s State Assembly members played a leading role in passing legislation to provide villages the option of using lever voting machines for March’s village elections. While current state law requires the use of electronic voting machines, the cost and availability of those machines posed a problem for a number of Westchester’s villages that face the deadline of village elections on Tuesday, March 15.

“Village clerks in many of our communities – Larchmont, Port Chester, Scarsdale, Pleasantville – asked us to provide them with the option of mechanical lever machines to deal with the upcoming village elections,” stated Assemblyman George Latimer (D-Rye), a key supporter of the bill (A.3093-B) sponsored by Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel of Long Island. Villages sought the same authorization granted last year to school districts allowing for lever machine usage for the 2011 and 2012 village elections.

Assemblyman Tom Abinanti (D-Greenburgh) noted that “this legislation helped save local village budgets. Village governments faced significant costs to utilize County-owned optical-scan machines; this option allows these villages an affordable alternative for the immediate future”.|

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin added “We remain fully committed to ensuring compliance with the federal Help Americans Vote Act, but this was a common sense measure to facilitate local elections until the transition to electronic voting machines can be made”.

“This legislation will allow villages the time they need to make appropriate arrangements to ensure the democratic process of voting can continue unabated while villages work to come into compliance with the federal regulations”, stated Assemblywoman Sandra Galef (D-Ossining).

All four legislators were co-sponsors of the bill, which passed the Assembly (134-0) and the State Senate (55-5).

 

© Shoreline Publishing 2011
629 Fifth Avenue, Suite 213, Pelham, NY 10803
Phone: 914-738-7869 Fax 914-738-7876
http://www.shorelinepub.com
prod@shorelinepub.com