A bill passed earlier this week in Albany will allow several Westchester communities to use the old lever-style voting machines for upcoming elections on March 15.

Village clerks in Larchmont, Port Chester, Scarsdale,Hastings, Bronxville,Tarrytown, Tuckahoe and Pleasantville had asked a contingent of Westchester State Assemblymembers to support and pass the legislation citing the cost and availability of the new electronic voting machines which feature optical scanning technology.

The measure had the backing of a number of Assembly members from Westchester including Amy Paulin, George Latimer, Tom Abinanti and Steve Katz.

In 2002, a federal law was passed requiring all states to phase out the old lever-style voting machines, all states were required to switch over to electronic voting systems.

"While we remain fully committed to ensuring compliance with the Federal Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA), this was a commonsense measure to facilitate local elections until the transition to electronic voting machines can be made.

Governor Cuomo is expected to sign the bill into law.