Democrats' Election Reform Proposal
The Senate Democratic leadership today announced its legislative priorities. Among them is S. 17, the "Democracy Begins at Home" Act. (So much for any post-inaugural second honeymoon, eh? ) Here's a summary of the bill as described by the Dems' leadership:

Democrats are united in our effort to making voting reform a reality for all Americans. It is time for the opportunity of a fair and transparent voting system to be available to every voter. The Help America Vote Act made important steps forward and now it is time to continue to make reforms that will ensure each voter gets the opportunity to vote and all votes are counted.

Voter Verified Ballots. All voters must be able to ensure that their vote is accurately recorded. The bill requires that all voting systems used in Federal elections provide a voter verified ballot that is fully accessible to the disabled and ensures privacy and independence.

Election Day Registration. The bill requires each state to adopt Election Day registration procedures for Federal elections.

Uniform and Nondiscriminatory Standards for Counting Provisional Ballots. The bill requires that states count any otherwise eligible provisional ballot if cast anywhere in the state.

Shorter Lines at the Polls. Numerous and often widespread reports of long lines at the polls hinder the voting process. The bill requires states to meet Election Assistance Commission (EAC) mandatory standards that establish a minimum number of voting systems and poll workers which must provide geographic distribution.

Create a National Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot. The bill creates a National Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (NFWAB) for Federal office that every and any eligible voter is entitled to cast from anywhere inside or outside the United States and requires the NFWAB be counted without regard to which polling place, precinct, local unit of government, state, or country the NFWAB is cast in.

Accurate and Transparent Voting Rolls. The bill requires states to provide public notice of all proposed purged names from voting rolls 60 days in advance of a Federal election. It also prohibits states from purging names of voters from the list without specific notice provided in accordance with National Voting Rights Act (NVRA).

Establish Early Voting. The bill requires states to establish early voting periods for a minimum of fifteen calendar days prior to a Federal election, with uniform mandatory Saturday hours, and a minimum of four hours per day, including Saturdays.

Investigate a Federal Election Day Holiday. The bill requires the Election Assistance Commission to study and make recommendations for a national voting holiday within six months of enactment of this Act.

Upgrade Voting Machines and Improve Ballot Designs. The bill requires punch card voting systems to provide in-person notice of over-votes and prohibits central count optical scan systems from meeting the voter verification requirements through an education system to ensure all votes are counted.

Create Uniform and Inclusive Voter Registration Standards. This bill establishes the right of a citizen to use the Federal voter registration form under NVRA to register to vote in Federal elections and directs the EAC to issue a revised form that requires a mandatory affidavit/signature attesting to both citizenship and age.

Establish Fair and Uniform Voter ID Rules. This bill expands the means for establishing voter identification to allow a voter to execute a written affidavit attesting to their identification.

Impartial Election Administrators. The bill requires notice provisions, public statements, and other transparency/accountability measures with regard to election administrators, changes in state election laws prior to Federal election,; modifications to polling places, and denial of requests by international and other non-partisan observers for access polling places.

Increase Funding to States. The bill provides additional appropriations to states for the requirement grant payments to meet the new requirements included in this bill.

Rep. Conyers may be introducing similar legislation in the House.

My take: While I've not yet seen a final version of the bill, it sounds like a great package. Of particular note is that the proposed bill apparently mandates a voter verifiable audit trail without requiring that the audit trail be paper. If so, this is a wise choice given the practical difficulties of implementing electronic voting systems with a contemporaneous paper record, particularly for people with visual disabilities. Witness the difficulties that Ohio is having as a result of the hastily passed legislation to require a contemporaneous paper record -- a direct result of which was the decision of several counties to stand pat with punch cards in 2004. It's quite possible that the state won't have accessible technology in place by 2006, as HAVA requires.

Other good ideas in Dodd's proposed legislation include election day registration, uniform standards for provisional ballots, early voting, and additional funding to the states. The last is particularly important, since it's becoming increasingly clear that -- between new voting equipment, the statewide registration databases mandated by 2006, and other infrastructural changes -- local election officials don't have all the funding needed to do election reform right.

So how much chance does all this have of getting enacted? Well, it's probably about the same as my waking up tomorrow and finding that all the snow here in Columbus has melted and spring has arrived. Hence my tentative belief that most of the election reforms between now and 2008 are likely to come from the states. Still, Dodd's bill sounds like a worthy starting point which, at the very least, will kick off the vital discussion about what can be done to make our election system function better in 2008 than it did in 2000 or 2004.
- posted by Dan Tokaji @ 11:54 PM