Opinion
EDITORIAL: Another delay in N.Y. voting
What is going on with the voting machines in New York?
First we’re last, then we’re told they would be in place shortly and now state officials are saying they won’t be fully implemented until 2009.
“Clearly, 2007 is going to be very difficult for us and they understand that,” said Peter Kosinski, the board’s co-executive director. “We are in discussions about what is doable.”
Clearly we’re confused.
While we are in full support of doing this right the first time, instead of screwing it up and having to do it over, we’re not surprised New York is again confusing people with what the next move is for voting machines.
The Help America Vote Act planned to have every state in place by the 2006 elections and that sure didn’t happen in New York. Now we’re looking at ’09.
Nonetheless, Kosinski said, “We don’t want to have to set out some artificial deadline.”
What would you call ’06 and ’07?
Some believe that the delay will benefit New York as we will be able to see what breakdowns occur in the states already using the new technology, but let’s get a move on here. There is federal aid at stake.
New York might have to return at least $50 million in federal aid meant to help pay for new voting machines. The state has also received more than $200 million in additional HAVA-related aid.
If we don’t get moving, that aid may go out the window.
- Opinion
-
-
HAMILTON: The store, the shotgun and the shower
The other day, at Mark’s Food Market on Hyde Park, I chatted with a 7-year-old and his aunt. I guessed the kid’s age at about 6, but he corrected me.
-
GLYNN: Ex-Porter investor given $1 billion buyout
The Buffalo-Niagara area has a rich repository of pipe dreams.
Navy Island was proposed as a home for the United Nations until John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated the 16-acre site in New York City. -
BRADBERRY: Returning with prayer to the scene of the crime
If you notice things getting a little better here in Niagara Falls over the next few years, you might want to offer a prayer of thanks to a small, but powerful group of young ladies and gentlemen who are seriously praying for the salvation of our often beleaguered city.
-
CONFER: Having a say in school closings
I recently wrote a column in which I discussed the need to return to a more localized approach to schooling, in which the teachers, school boards and parents were empowered to determine the curriculum for their schoolchildren and teach accordingly. Nowadays, such local control is grossly subdued as the federal and state governments dictate what and how the teachers can teach, making for a standardized and markedly dumber student body.
-
EDITORIAL: Public owed answers on DWI case
After reports published Saturday, the public is owed an accounting of how the daughter of a North Tonawanda councilwoman got off on a DWI charge, even though she drunkenly hit two parked cars on her way home from a bar.
-
CITY BEAT: Saluting two deserving people
My parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on Friday.
True to form, they’ll do so without a lot of hoopla or fanfare. -
HIGGS: Block clubs flourishing in the Falls
Block clubs are alive and well in Niagara Falls. This is a good thing because our neighborhoods need to come together and work with those in our government in a cohesive manner to make improvements as time and funding allows.
-
HAMILTON: Word of Life members have to walk on water
-
GLYNN: Many voters think Spitzer should run again
-
CITY BEAT: More marketing of the Falls
The City of Niagara Falls is putting the finishing touches on a new marketing video.
City Administrator Donna Owens told council members last week that she and communications director Kevin Ormsby recently provided assistance to staffers from a Rochester-based communications company as they toured the city looking for points of interest to include in a new promotional video they are creating for Niagara Falls, USA. - More Opinion Headlines
-
