By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press

ALBANY - Despite the millions of dollars spent to replace New York's century-old voting machines, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer says one critical thing is missing: a curtain.

Reacting to complaints by voters from several counties, Schumer has asked the state Board of Elections to make sure voters have the same privacy with new optical-scan machines as they had with the old devices, which used mechanical levers. That means making sure there is a curtain to keep anyone else from seeing a voter cast their ballot.

"For voters using the new systems, a lack of privacy was the number one complaint voters expressed to my office," the Democrat said in a letter to the board Friday. "Voting is one of the most sacred and private acts that an American can carry out and we must do everything we can to maximize voter privacy to ensure that every vote is confidential."

John Conklin of the state board said there are precautions to fully protect a voter's privacy, but not all the measures appear to have been applied uniformly by all counties in last year's pilot program. He said the elections board will seek to improve that and consider Schumer's request.

He said complaints about privacy came from voters in Onondaga, Monroe, Erie and other counties. Most of the complaints were related to other voters or poll workers standing too close as voters filled out ballots. Schumer also said that not every county offered "privacy sleeves" and not all voters were comfortable using them.

The elections board is considering several measures to continue improving voting in preparation for the busy 2010 elections.

Some of the new machines have curtains, others have a partial barrier and some counties offered the privacy sleeves that offer more protection, but not like the old machines, which afforded privacy on all sides of a voter.