Senate Passes Dodd-Sponsored Election Overhaul Bill
By Justin Hill
WASHINGTON, April 11–The Senate approved national voting guidelines to regulate how elections are run yesterday, voting 99-1 in favor of a bill introduced by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
The legislation is aimed at fixing problems with voting procedures that were highlighted when the 2000 presidential race was not decided until 36 days after Election Day. “[The bill] gives people the opportunity to vote more easily and protect the ballot from those who would want to abuse it,” Dodd said. “For 200 years, we basically have said, ‘However you want to run elections in the states, you just go ahead and do it’. I think we’re saying here that’s true, but we feel as though we’ve got a legitimate national interest having some national standards, and we’re willing to pay for it.”
The legislation would require statewide registration lists and call upon the states to check identification for those voting for the first time. It would also send $3.5 billion in federal funds for specified purposes to upgrade election equipment, improve voting procedures and make polling places more accessible for people with disabilities. Each state would be guaranteed a minimum amount and would not have to match the funds. The bill also would require translation services in areas with specific demographics and includes anti-fraud provisions.
The bill is now headed for a conference with members of the House, which passed its own version in December that features fewer restrictions on the states than the Senate bill includes. The House bill would divide $2.6 billion among the states based on voting-age population. The states would have to match 25 percent of the federal dollars. It The House bill also would impose few requirements on how the money is spent Reps. Christopher Shays, R-4th, and Jim Maloney, D-5th, voted in favor of the House measure, which passed, 362 to 63.
“We hope things will be fairly quick in conference,” said Sen. Mitch O’Connell, R-Ky. “We believe that it will be and look forward to putting this important piece of legislation on the president’s desk
Dodd said the Senate’s victory could mean federal dollars could be available for the November elections, citing indications from Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the ranking minority member of the House Administration Committee.
“Congressman Hoyer has indicated to me that now that we’ve passed this bill in the Senate and even if we’re not out of conference· there’s a strong case to be made on a supplemental appropriations bill to include some discretionary funds so that even in the 2002 election, we would like to see funds available to jurisdictions,” Dodd said.
Dodd also dismissed objections by civil liberties groups to the identifications provision in the bill, saying, “There’s some misinformation.” He added that there is a long list of forms of identification that would qualify.
“Most people today feel as though having some form of identification to establish you are who in fact you say you are is a very limited request,” he said. “I’m satisfied with the provision.”
Only Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., voted against the bill, which drew comparisons to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which enfranchised hundreds of thousands of blacks in the South who were denied voting rights through such things as literacy tests.
“This is every bit as significant as the Voting Rights Act,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “I think we’re making voting better and better.”
Published in The Hour, in Norwalk, Conn.
