New York has long held the dubious distinction of consistently problematic election administration. However, one of the rare bright spots in New York’s election administration has been the widespread implementation and use of voter-marked paper ballots. New York is among the “36 states and D.C. …. that use voter-marked, machine-scanned paper ballots that security experts consider the gold standard” for election security. That is why Common Cause/NY is alarmed to see the New York State Board of Elections move in a direction that would undermine the security of our elections.

Currently, the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) is in the final stage of potentially certifying Election Systems & Software’s (ES&S) ExpressVote XL voting machine for use in New York elections. The ExpressVote XL is a new touch screen voting machine that would allow voters to mark their ballot electronically instead of on the traditional voter-marked paper ballots. It also functions as a 2-in-1 machine by marking ballots and then tabulating votes. Election security experts almost universally pan these types of ballot-marking devices (BMDs) and have serious concerns regarding their security and reliability.

Read Common Cause New York’s report, The ExpressVote XL Machine: Bad for New York’s Elections, released January 2020 below.

Read our latest report Read the Executive Summary

Sign our petition: Tell the NYS Board of Elections the ExpressVote XL is bad for our elections!