THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2008. By John F. Bailey. July 28, 2008: The new voting machines the county has had delivered (only 10% have arrived to date), which feature optical scanning will only be available for the disabled in the primary and general elections coming up this fall. The rest of voters will vote the old-fashioned way – pulling a lever.

Weschester County Commissioner of the Board of Elections Reginald Lafayette confirmed this to WPCNR today, and said the new machines when phased in across the county in 2009, would have voters using paper ballots. The new machines have headphone aids, magnifying glass for reading the paper ballot, and the paper ballot is fed into the machine and scanned. 

Lafayette confirmed to WPCNR the county new machines require all voters to mark a paper ballot. understand to the machines that will be used in Florida for the national election. Sequoia, the company that manufactured the Westchester County machines did not return WPCNR calls for explanations of how voters would use the new county machines and which machine the county actually ordered.  Mr. Lafayettee told WPCNR, the Westchester machines were being tested two weeks ago when WPCNR asked for a demonstration.

However, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal, the machines are paper ballot-driven with scanners counting the votes. They will be in use in the 2009 White Plains mayoral election, according to Mr. Lafayette. The Poughkeepsie Journal also reported today that Sequoia is having problems delivering all the machines it owes to New York State, citing lags in deliveries in Nassau County, For the Poughkeepsie Journal report  detailing the machine shortage around New York, go to www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080720/NEWS01/807

Reality in Palm Beach County

 The Sequoia voting machines use a paper ballot that is fed into the machine and recorded were tried out in Palm Beach County, Florida, last month to less than stellar reviews. Though the Palm Beach County Election Commissioner pronounced them a success, reporters in Palm Beach County noted long lines and confusing ballots as two of the drawbacks.

For a reporter’s analysis of the Palm Beach County optical scanner voting machines, go to http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/opinion/epaper/2008/06/27/a14a_cramercol_0627.html

Next year, White Plains will use the machines in a citywide election for the first time. Some questions come to mind.

Will each person have a numbered ballot – enabling election officials to see how they voted? (Eliminating the secrecy of the ballot)

Will paper ballots be checked against scanners – to verify the count? This raises the possibility of the ballots being examined to see if John Bailey’s vote was really counted correctly by the scanner? How will counts be verified?

How will the paper ballot be designed? (The Florida ballots use a series of arrows on their paper ballots which voters found very confusing.)

The voting in Palm Beach County took longer than expected because citizens had to take more time marking their ballots. Will this make voting in Westchester slower, and slow results?

Will the paper ballots be marked in secret, as the traditional voting machine allows?

Will the ballots be available for political analysis – or voter identification be kept anonymous?

Asked if the Board of Elections would hold a news conference to demonstrate how you vote with the new machines and procedures, Commissioner Lafayette told WPCNR this might be a good idea.

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. July 27, 2008 UPDATED WITH MORE PIX, 11:05 EDT: Last week, the Board of Education ordered a new scoreboard for Loucks Field from Daktronics of South Dakota, whose scoreboards are seen throughout major league baseball (including Chase Field in Phoenix, home of the Diamondbacks). White Plains football fans will be able, (should the high school choose to use all the scoreboard bells and whistles) to see instant replays, slides of their favorite players, live close-ups of field events, and pre-programmed CD programs on the scoreboards jumbotron. (Perhaps even closeups of the band marching live.)

A Scoreboad similar to this Daktronics installation at East St. Louis High School in Illinois will be coming to Loucks (with larger matrix message board), according to the Daktronics salesperson on the account. No prototype design to replace the scoreboard at Loucks (shown below) was apparently shown to the school board, according to Fred Seiler, the Assistant Superintendent for Business. The scoreboard consists of one giant matrix, that can be programmed for different sports, shift to messages, slides, or video.

The software package presents unique custom scoreboard formats  football, soccer, field hockey,track and lacrosse as well as other sports. The cost of this state-of-the-art scoreboard is an additional $104,000. The purchase order was cut this past week according to the Business Office.

The versatility of the scoreboard is amazing. According to Daktronics salesperson it will provide instant reply, ability to put up slides of individual players with their records, and play CD programs  on its matrix screen. It is controlled from a wireless control panel from the press box.  The salesperson said it will take 6 to 8 weeks to deliver to Loucks Field. (It might be in place by mid-September, but no date was given.)

New Scoreboard, will at flick of a programming button switch from football to a track format like this. (This is not the design — just a typical track format from Daktronics.)

Connors did not have an idea of how many rental events the stadium would attract. None have been signed yet and there is no fee schedule, according  to Assistant Superintendent for Business, Fred Seiler, told WPCNR that a rental fee schedule for the stadium had not been established. For starters, he said, the idea was to charge $50 an hour for the use of the lights.

 Connors said a timetable for working out the charges with the city of White Plains had not been set yet.  He told WPCNR that advertising space and commercials would not be sold to be stadiumcast on the scoreboard. Seiler said the school district would be meeting with the city in August on the matter of setting rates.

Connors said there have been a lot of requests to come in and use the new Loucks Field, including non-sports events for which the district would charge a fee. There are no events scheduled at this point.

Asked if the district had plans to renovate or replace the field house (above) to accommodate two full athletic squads in a modern facility, Connors said, not at this time.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Fred Seiler said that the Matrix Daktronics scoreboard was similar to this board installed in Liverpool, New York (near Syracuse), though higher, wider and larger, according to the Daktronics order, according to the salesperson on the account.

The Daktronics scoreboard  product is the Galaxy  Pro is similar to the scoreboard installed at Dutchess Stadium where the Hudson Valley Renegades play baseball. It consists of a 128 x 172 inch matrix, (10 x 17 feet), the entire surface measures 8 feet by 10 inches high by 18 feet, 3 inches wide, considerably larger than the old Loucks scoreboard, which WPCNR figures as 12 feet wide. A location for it has not been determined, but the assumption is it would be at the end of the end zone where the defunct Loucks score tower is now.

Loucks Scoreboard Today

The Galaxy Pro model is pretty much top of the line.  The $104,000 price tag includes all software and hardware to run the board, as well as the board itself. 

The $104,000 is roughly akin the the salary and benefits paid one full-time teacher. Year to year maintenance was not brought up at last week’s meeting.

One Giant Scoreboard

An internet search by WPCNR, reveals that  electronic football scoreboards convertible to track, lacrosse, soccer, though  may be purchased from a variety of scoreboard manufacturers for under $10,000.  4 Different Scoreboards for 4 different sports could have been purchased for a total of a very generous $35,000, based on the website of http://www.varsityscoreboards.com, (shown below) just one such vendor. The 20 foot wide by 8 foot scoreboard, second from the top in the picture below would have cost the district just $5,195. It could convert to handle track, soccer or field hockey.

Of course, it would not have the video capabilities.