Reply #20: Idea of the Week: Election Reform

[dzika]

February 25, 2005

Idea of the Week: Election Reform

Last fall, the United States narrowly missed enduring a second straight presidential election decided by judges rather than voters. Many of the problems that plagued the 2000 elections returned in abundance, including wildly varying state and local rules for registration, early and absentee voting, and balloting machinery; questionable voter roll purges; incidents of voter intimidation and other dirty tricks; and last-minute changes in polling places. In addition, far more than in 2000, polling places were often unprepared for a high-turnout election, with long and discouraging lines common in many urban areas around the country.

The Help America Vote Act of 2003 was supposed to make the situation better, but largely failed, in part because of inadequate federal support for state and local voting infrastructure improvements, and in part because its major innovation, letting voters whose eligibility was in question cast "provisional ballots," was handled in completely different ways in different jurisdictions, often by elected officials with strong partisan loyalties.

It's time to insist on election reform to fix our system for federal elections once and for all. It's a fundamental matter of providing a level playing field for democracy's most basic civic ritual, and of restoring public confidence that the outcome is determined by the popular will, not the relative ability of candidates and political parties to exploit incompetence or partisan malice in the administration of the ballot box. Fortunately, before memories of the irregularities marring the last two presidential elections fade, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is offering legislation to make future federal elections simpler, fairer, more accountable, and more voter-friendly.

Her Count Every Vote bill (cosponsored by Sens. Kerry, Boxer, Lautenberg, and Mikulski; Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH) plans to introduce a House counterpart) would provide a series of reforms designed to provide a minimal level of interstate and intrastate uniformity in voting procedures, while encouraging greater voter participation in general. It would:

• Create uniform rules for the handling of "provisional" ballots;
  
  
• Require generous and adequately staffed early voting opportunities;
  
  
• Boost training for poll workers;
  
  
• Require paper receipts to ensure accountability in the use of electronic voting machines;
  
  
• Adopt the Texas standard for restoration of voting rights for ex-felons;
  
  
• Make Election Day a federal holiday to facilitate voting;
  
  
• Provide new federal funding to ensure full implementation of the reforms.

more here: http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=131&subid=207&contentid=253194