EDITORIAL: Count ballots in close LI races

Something seems to have gone badly wrong in three election races in Nassau and Suffolk. Luckily, in the federal legislation that caused New York to change the machines it uses to vote, one of the core principles was: We need a paper trail, so we can check if something goes awry. Now there's only one responsible course: Count every paper vote.

The key principle is reinforcing faith in the election system and convincing voters that an accurate outcome has been reached. But the events of last week shake that confidence. In Suffolk, there was a swing of 3,800 votes between Election Day and Friday in the 1st Congressional District, and a change of 800 votes in the 1st Assembly District. In Nassau's 7th Senate District, problems with the machines themselves led to unscanned emergency ballots. Now the only path to voter confidence is a full count of paper ballots.

The most stunning turnabout, in terms of sheer size, was in the 1st District race between Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) and Republican Randy Altschuler of St. James. On election night, Bishop appeared to be leading by 3,461 votes. That was based on poll workers calling in numbers from printouts coming from the new optical-scanner voting machines. But by Friday, when the memory cards from the scanners had been read by a computer program, Altschuler was on top by 383. The computer numbers were different from numbers phoned in to the county Board of Elections in 38 percent of the election districts in that race.

Why it's crucial to find certainty

The most pivotal race is in Nassau's 7th Senate District, between Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington), and Republican Jack Martins of Mineola. It's one of three undecided Senate races statewide, and the outcome could determine whether Democrats or Republicans control that house in Albany.

Nassau chose not to have poll workers call in results from the election districts, but to send the machines' memory cards back to the Board of Elections to be read. So the question here is not about human-error discrepancies between election night and later in the week, but in the way the machines performed. (Nassau was unable to block the new machines this year as unreliable, but its lawsuit is still active.)

The roots of these problems go back to the chaotic 2000 presidential election. In response, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002, appropriating billions of federal dollars to help states update their election processes, including buying new voting machines. New York took forever to pass implementing legislation and settle on a technology. The one the state did choose, optical scanners, has a benefit that the ATM-style machines do not: actual paper ballots.

The state implementing law requires an automatic audit of 3 percent of a county's machines, and provides a path for further audits and counts. Whether a full paper count will need a judge's ruling, or whether it can be accomplished by agreement between the election commissioners - as upstate Columbia County is doing for the whole county - remains to be seen.

But it's perfectly clear that we won't get past the initial fears over this technology, and make voters feel comfortable with it, if we don't take advantage of its one great strength: paper ballots. So, in these three races, let's count them all. hN