Let the people see the ballots

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ver since New York adopted paper ballots and scanning machines for our elections in 2010, the Daily News has contended that the images of the ballots captured by the machines are public records that should be freely available to all.

That simple and logical standard must now become the statewide rule by the state’s highest court reaffirming an appellate panel decision granting access to the computer files.

Following the 2015 local elections in Essex County in the Adirondacks, Democratic leader Bethany Kosmider sought the ballot images. She was denied by Essex Republicans and sued. Last year, she won the case. The GOP appealed, and now they’ve lost again in appellate court.

The Court of Appeals must now make it the law of the state. In superclose contests, the ballot images can show who really won while the paper ballots stay locked up, safe from tampering.

Last fall, a Saratoga city charter referendum failed by 10 votes out of 8,906; the local board of elections refused to release the images.

Who’s afraid of seeing the actual outcome?