By Phyllis Cox and Daneille Foster

They’re big, they’re bulky and they’re based on technology from another century, but don’t dismiss New York City’s 800-pound mechanical voting machine just yet.

With the move to modern electronic voting machines stalled by lawsuits and pending legislative approvals, the old crank-and-lever style machines, a fixture in city elections for nearly half a century, are expected be back tabulating votes in 2008, a busy presidential election year that will feature separate state and federal primaries as well a general election next November, according to the city Board of Elections.

Even if the lawsuits are settled and the Legislature approves the use of several computerized voting machines within the coming months, the board faces major obstacles as they seek to purchase thousands of new machines, train staff and educate the electorate on how to use them, said George Gonzales, deputy director of the board.

New York, which has the most registered voters of any state except for California, has the distinction of being the last state to implement the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in 2003 requiring that updated voting machines be installed for the 2007 elections.

Albany has pre-selected designs from several manufacturers. Gonzales said localities may able to select among these, but purchasing is on hold until the new models get state Board of Elections approvals. Meanwhile, the federal government has filed a lawsuit to force the state Legislature to act, and penalties have been assessed.

State legislators, charged with the responsibility of drawing up new guidelines for assessing submissions of digital machines from manufacturers, are expected to have completed the certifications by mid to late January, 2008, said Gonzales.

“We don’t know what we are playing with because of these unanswered questions today,” said Gonzalez, explaining that the new machines will not be ready in time for the February, 2008 federal primary election.

But Gonzales and his office still face other problems once the machines are selected. The goal is to have the new machines in place for the state primaries in September, 2008 leaving the board with eight months to have the systems up and running efficiently so that New Yorkers have a chance to cast their votes.

“People who have not voted in four years are going to come out in droves to the general elections and say ‘What is this?’ when they see these new machines,” said Gonzales. “Remember, most people in this city are used to voting one way; they are comfortable with that [mechanical] machine.”

According to New York State law, Gonzales and the board is responsible for ensuring that city voters are well informed and aware of how to use the new machines. As such, the board is in the process of creating a voter education plan in response to this problem. Gonzales said they plan to place the machines in community centers, churches and synagogues prior to the elections to allow voters a chance to get comfortable with using the machines.

But the Board of Elections does not plan on getting rid of the 800 pound, 6 feet tall mechanical machines just yet. They plan on keeping them as a back up just in case there are problems with the digital ones. Currently, the city owns 7,000 mechanical machines and with the renewal of the system Gonzales said he expects the city to purchase up to 21,000 electronic machines at $8,000 apiece.

New York City doesn’t have the manpower to set up these new machines and deploy them to polling sites. Technicians trained in the new technology, perhaps as many as a hundred or more, are needed to respond to the election day equipment breakdowns that inevitably occur. Right now there are about 60 voting technicians whose job is to service and conduct preventive means testing of the mechanical lever machines.

According to election records for 2004 presidential race, New York City had 4,493,514 registered voters followed by Los Angeles with 3,901,106 registered voters.