New Yorkers would continue to pull the lever — literally — for their preferred candidates in village elections under a bill passed Monday by the state Assembly.

The bill must pass the Senate and the governor must approve it before it becomes law.

In 2010 primary and general elections, the state made the switch from the lever machines — which are difficult for people with disabilities to use — to optical scanning machines to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.

But legislators have said that villages that administer their own elections will have trouble affording the new machines. The Assembly measure would allow the villages to use the old lever machines until December 2012, according to a news release from the office of Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, a co-sponsor of the bill.

Villages then would decide whether to buy their machines or to turn over elections to the local election board, the news release said.

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer