Letters

New Yorkers Should Have a Right to Vote Via Paper Ballot

Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.

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We have a right to a paper ballot – secure and verifiable. VIVA NY (Senate Bill S6169B) is a bill that guarantees all New York voters the right to a paper ballot. It has passed the Senate but not the Assembly, and in the meantime the New York State Board of Elections has approved a voting machine that does not use a paper ballot.

With these machines, we will have to navigate a touchscreen and we will have to trust that the touchscreen correctly recorded our vote. Voters cannot verify that a vote recorded electronically, or as a barcode, corresponds to a particular name on the ballot. There will be no paper record available for audits and recounts. Costs and wait times will increase as each voter will need to use a computer to record all their votes.

When will this common-sense bill, that will protect our votes, become law? I hope our representatives in Albany, Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg and state Sen. Peter Harckham, will work to get the bill passed.

Rowan Lindley
Cortlandt Manor

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