Election debacle was mostly operator error

Earlier this year, the New York City Board of Elections (BOE) invested $50 million in what is supposed to be new, state of the art, optical scanner voting machines. We’ve now had an opportunity to see these machines in action, and the results are mixed, to say the least.
On both the September and November election days, dozens of poll sites opened late. Machines frequently broke down, to the point where some sites had no machines operating for long periods of time. Ballots were held back until technicians could make repairs and then fed into the machines long after the voter had gone. At the end of the night, memory sticks disappeared, raising questions about the security measures to safeguard the machines and ensure an accurate count.
Now it has been reported that the vote tally was short by 200,000 votes on election night, 80,000 votes in Queens alone. This seriously calls into question the integrity of our entire electoral system. As well as the effectiveness of our new, $50 million voting machines.
Preliminary conversations with key BOE personnel have revealed that most of the problems we saw this election were the result of Board procedures, not the machines.
The missing votes, in particular, were not misreported due to any issues with the scanners. It was entirely due to the Board not updating its tally procedures. Instead of utilizing the capabilities of the new machines, they have taken the old hand-count process and adapted it to the new machines. However, the new machines report out the numbers in an entirely different way.
The technology is there for the memory sticks to be brought back to the BOE offices, uploaded to a program that would immediately calculate the vote totals and report 100 percent accurate numbers – that could even be shared via the Board’s web site in real time.
What seems to really be in doubt is the ability of our BOE officials to understand the machines they purchased and to set policies for their use that get the most from the machines and ensure accurate results in the most timely manner possible.
While the machines themselves may not be perfect, and may have serious drawbacks compared to the fully computerized machines being used in many other states, we will never know how effective they can be unless they are used properly. An unwillingness to adapt to the capabilities offered by these new machines should call into question the judgment of the people running our city elections.
Robert Hornak is a Queens-based political consultant and executive director of the Queens Republican Party.