Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats recognize that it is in the public interest to maintain public confidence in elections, but electronic voting systems have a history of losing votes, switching votes on the touch screen, reporting more votes than voters, and other malfunctions and failures during elections.

Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats recognize that it is the public interest for public employees to program our voting equipment and maintain public control of elections, which is possible with optical scanners, but is not possible with electronic voting systems that use secret software.

Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats recognize that the cost of using paper ballots and optical scanners is much less than the cost of using electronic voting systems, and that the money saved can be used to hire vote counters if needed to verify the work of the optical scanners, video cameras to assist in guarding the ballots once cast, public education about democracy and the ways that citizens can participate, and other ways to strengthen our elections.

Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats urges the New York State Board of Elections to approve the use of optical scan voting systems for counties and the City of New York.

Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats urges the Board of Elections in the City of New York to select paper ballots, precinct-based optical scanners, and ballot marking devices as the new equipment for our city when our lever voting machines must be replaced.