New ballots: LI boards order magnifying glasses for voters

The print on new paper ballots is so small elections officials in Nassaau and Suffolk are buying magnifying glasses so voters can read the fine print.

The board spent $8,450 for 6,000 magnifying glasses — enough for each privacy booth where Suffolk voters will be asked to mark their paper ballots before entering them into an electronic scanner.

“We got a lot of complaints from seniors that that they were hard to read,” said Wayne Rogers, the GOP nominee for elections commissioner, disclosed the magnifying glass plan at his legislative confirmation hearing last week.

The complaints came after the new system was used in the primary last month. A state comptroller’s audit last week also detailed similar complaints statewide. Suffolk officials say money to pay for the optical aids will come out of federal funding.

William Biamonte, Nasssau’s Democratic elecitons commissioner, said they have placed their own order for 4,000 magnifying glasses. Biamonte said he personally experienced problem readinthe ballot, but added, “I borught my reading glasses.”