East Side Voters Test New Machines

By [Dan Rivoli] East Siders went to the polls Sept. 14 to vote in primaries. But this year, the decades-old lever machine, in which voters flick a switch next to their desired candidate"s name and crank back a red lever, have been retired for a new model. Voters now receive a sheet of paper with bubbles next to the candidates" name. The voter then fills in the bubble completely, and feeds the paper into an optical scanner that records the vote. Sounds simple, right? â??So much better than those stupid lever machines, said Dr. Yaakov Shechter after voting at P.S. 167 on East 76th Street, between First and Second avenues. â??You have a feeling your vote is getting counted. Antoinette Gallo said she felt â??terrified of the new optical scanner machines. The 82-year-old is computer literate, she said, but not tech-savvy. â??But I went in there and it was very easy, Gallo said. â??It was just perfect. Despite these beaming reviews from Upper East Side voters, there were reports throughout the city that optical scanning machines were broken or malfunctioning and of polling places opening late. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, during a press conference, called the situation a â??royal screw-up that was â??unacceptable. Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side and chairs the Government Operations Committee, released a joint statement criticizing the Board of Elections. â??The Board of Elections demonstrated a troubling inability to fully execute a new system that they have had months to prepare for, the statement read. â??The City Council will hold a hearing in the coming weeks to examine any problems that did arise today and what changes might be made to improve the process in the coming months Jimmy, an Upper East Side voter outside of P.S. 290 on East 82nd Street between Second and First avenues, said the poll workers were a bit confused about the new machines but polite nonetheless. â??It worked fine, he said. â??I made sure there was no hanging chad.