Congress Passes Election Reform
By Crystal Bozek and Michelle Kohanloo
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2002–With the support of the Maine delegation, Congress has approved legislation designed to improve the nation’s voting procedures and provide the first substantial federal spending on election reform nearly two years after the mayhem of the 2000 presidential election.
The Senate passed the Help America Vote Act Wednesday, 92-2, with an amendment offered by Republican Sen. Susan M. Collins that guarantees that all states, regardless of size, will share in the federal grant money that the bill authorizes.
The bill, which would provide $3.9 billion in federal grants over three years, was sent to President Bush Wednesday for his expected signature. The House passed the legislation last week.
“This legislation is an important step in restoring voter confidence,” Collins said in a statement Wednesday. “It provides a blueprint for election reform and the means to pay for it.”
Her amendment could mean at least $20 million to upgrade Maine’s registration and voting system, Collins said.
The bill will help to revamp the voting system already in place, giving people the ability to double-check and correct errors before their final votes are cast.
Beginning in the 2004 presidential election, states must provide “provisional ballots” to voters whose names do not appear on registration lists. The ballots would later be counted if the voter’s registration was verified.
Voters also will have to show a driver’s license or the last four digits of their Social Security number in order to protect against voter fraud.
By 2006, registration information is to be available in a single computerized statewide database linked to the state’s driver’s license agency.
The centralized voter list will be the biggest change in Maine’s voting program, according to Rebecca Wyke, Maine’s chief deputy secretary of state.
The state’s current system requires each municipal jurisdiction to maintain its own voting list.
“Right now, if a person lives in Portland, he or she is registered to vote in Portland,” Wyke said. “If that same person moves to South Portland, he or she would have to register all over again.”
The new legislation would provide money to replace punch card and lever voting machines with more modern equipment, improve state election administration and increase polling place access for the disabled.
The bill will also help fund the National Student & Parent Mock Election program for Maine’s schools. The program encourages students across the nation to become active in political and civic life.
More than forty million students nationwide and in 14 foreign countries will cast their mock votes online or on paper ballots between October 25 and November 1.
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
