New Yorkers could start voting on controversial touchscreen machines, as vote goes to board

A controversial new voting machine that could replace filling out a paper ballot by hand with an electronic touchscreen is on the verge of being approved by the New York State Board of Elections this week.

At their meeting Wednesday, the states’ four bipartisan elections commissioners will vote on whether to certify the ExpressVote XL, an all-in-one voting machine that marks ballots and tallies votes.

The touchscreen machines face long-standing opposition from voting rights advocates, election security experts and even celebrity activists, who argue voters should be able to mark their own ballots, and object to the use of machine-readable barcodes to record a voter's selections.

“In New York, the use of voter verifiable, voter marked paper ballots — the ones that we've all used to for the last 10 years in terms of elections — are currently the gold standard in terms of election security,” said Sarah Goff, the deputy executive director of Common Cause New York. “A move towards these touch screen machines is a step backwards in terms of election security.”

The group sent a letter Monday urging state elections officials to vote against the machine’s certification. The Let NY Vote Coalition, a group of community-based organizations that have lobbied for election reforms including early voting, also sent a letter Monday opposing the machine’s certification.

“We understand New York must begin to replace its aging election infrastructure, but there is a better path forward that improves voting for all New Yorkers without compromising the safety and security of our elections,” the letter states.

A spokesperson for Election Systems & Software, the company that makes the touchscreen machines, said their technology “meets and exceeds the requirements of New York State law.”

“In fact, over the past several months, the results of two independent companies retained by the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) confirmed the accuracy, security, and performance of our latest suite of hardware and software products,” said Jill Regester, a spokesperson for ES&S.

The new machines allow voters to make their selections on a touchscreen. Then the machine prints a ballot on a piece of thermal paper, which a voter can view behind a plexiglass shield. Those selections are also converted into a barcode, so the machine can tabulate the results.

State BOE spokesperson Jennifer Wilson confirmed all machines are put through a battery of tests before they are considered for certification. She also noted that state officials only authorize that a machine meets certain legal requirements.

“Each County Board of Elections seeking to replace their aging equipment will ultimately choose which updated system best serves the needs of their constituents,” said Wilson.

Three of the four state commissioners must vote in favor of certification before a county can consider purchasing the new machines.

Testing of the ES&S ExpressVote XL goes back years, when it was initially considered by state officials as an option for counties seeking to upgrade their voting technology. It is not the only machine that commissioners may certify on Wednesday: the ClearBallot Clear Vote 2.4 and the Dominion DS 5.16 have also gone through testing.

But the ES&S Express Vote XL has garnered the most attention and generated the most controversy.

In the last two years, lawmakers in Albany introduced legislation that would have made it a requirement under state election law that votes be cast on hand-marked paper ballots — thereby preventing state officials from certifying voting machines like the Express VoteXL.

In 2022 and in the most recent session, versions of the legislation passed in the state Senate and then failed to get a vote in the state Assembly.

Douglas Kellner, the Democratic Co-Chair of the state BOE, said he was still reviewing “several thousand pages” of testing documentation for each of the systems the state is considering.

“And frankly, I’m not finished with my study yet, so I’m not making any commitments yet on how I’m going to vote on Wednesday,” he said.

Kellner shared some of the letters the state BOE received in support of, and in opposition to, the ES&S Express Vote XL.

Among the machines’ boosters are Hazel Dukes, the head of the New York chapter of the NAACP, who sent a letter of support in May to the Board; former Gov. David Paterson, who said this type of technology would help disabled voters who currently use a ballot marking device different from the machines used by other voters; and election administrators from a handful of counties in New Jersey and one from Philadelphia, PA.

The Board has also received thousands of letters opposing the machines, Kellner said.

Among the advocates leading opposition to the machines is Lulu Friesdat, the co-founder and executive director of SMART Elections, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on election security.

Friesdat pointed to other states that have used all-electronic voting systems in the past and found they didn’t work, which Reuters documented in a story about the evolving election machine landscape ahead of the 2022 midterms, using data from the nonpartisan nonprofit Verified Voting.

The report found that the number of registered voters who had to rely on all-electronic voting machines went from 30% in 2006 down to 5% ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

“Why is New York moving backwards?” Friesdat said.

Her organization is planning to kick off another email campaign opposing the machines on Monday.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Lulu Friesdat's name.