A New York State task force has just released its plan for improving New York's election system. To help carry out the plan, the state Board of Elections says it will spend $140 million, almost all of it federal money, to replace New York's clumsy lever voting machines.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the state may spend all those millions on the least efficient and most inaccessible of the new voting machines.

In fact, the system under consideration may not even meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress last year to ensure that more people are able to vote and have their ballot counted.

The most effective way to comply with the new federal law is to use what are called direct recording electronic machines, which operate much like bank ATMs. The best of these machines scroll through each office so the voter doesn't miss any of the races.

The problem is that such machines don't comply with New York law, which requires that the names of all candidates for all offices appear on the same page. It's known as the full-face requirement.

That means the only way the state can comply with both state and federal requirements is to use what is essentially an electronic version of the lever machines. The best of these is an enormous computer screen with all the races on it.

That makes no sense. The only way out of this mess is for the state to drop its full-face ballot requirement.

The full-face law has led to all kinds of confusion, like voters failing to see items lower down on the ballot (think of all those bond issues you've missed). This has been worsened by the proliferation of political parties - there were 10 on the ballot last year. There is also an ever-expanding number of languages that must be on the ballot under the Voting Rights Act. The print keeps getting smaller, and the strain on the eyes worse.

Moreover, full-face machines would be the worst choice in terms of access for the disabled. By contrast, the smaller, ATM-style machines would be almost fully accessible to the disabled, including the wheelchair-bound - the screens can even be put on a person's lap.

Finally, the full-face machines are far more expensive than the smaller ATM-style machines.

Gov. Pataki, his task force on election reform, the League of Women Voters, many elected officials and numerous civil liberties and good government groups have called for the end to the full-face ballot requirement.

Although both houses of the Legislature passed election reform bills this year, no actual legislation was enacted. But legislators can consider the issue when they meet again in September.

New Yorkers must make sure our leaders seize the moment and advance democracy - not relegate New Yorkers to the bottom of the heap when it comes to having fair and effective elections.

Tova Andrea Wang is a Senior Program Officer and Democracy Fellow at The Century Foundation

This article originally appeared in the New York Daily News on June 30, 2003.