NYT 20030916
New York City uses the Shoup 3.2, a bulky gunmetal-gray beast that came 
into use shortly after John F. Kennedy was elected president. The voter 
enters the booth and presses down levers next to favored candidates' 
names. Then the voter pulls a large red handle that records the 
selections with a loud ka-chung.

In the 2000 presidential election alone, more than 60,000 votes in the 
city — most from low-income and immigrant communities — were not 
recorded. People sometimes flick back levers they have depressed, 
erasing their votes, or are confused by the red handle and pull it 
before registering their choices. They leave the booth not knowing they 
have been disenfranchised.

A small sensor latch that would keep this from happening was 
inexplicably disabled on the city's 7,000 machines at the order of the 
Board of Elections nearly 40 years ago.

The Board of Elections wants to leave the Shoups as they are because the 
machines are to be replaced as part of the Help America Vote Act, which