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Guest Commentary December 15, 2001
Election Reform Agreement
The Honorable Tom Daschle
I am pleased that Senators Dodd, McConnell, Schumer, Bond, and Torricelli were able to reach agreement on a strong, bipartisan election reform bill.
Studies of the 2000 elections have made it clear that outdated and unreliable technology, confusing ballots, language barriers, lack of voter education, lack of poll-worker training, and inaccurate voting lists all added up to the disenfranchisement of six million voters.
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These problems are unacceptable, and, as a Nation, we can't afford to repeat them. Our Federal system leaves it to individual States to conduct their own elections; but Congress has an obligation to see to it that election mechanisms and procedures in every county in every State guarantee every eligible citizen a voice in the democratic process.
Under this agreement, States will be required to meet minimum standards, and a bipartisan committee will be created to set those standards.
This bill requires that election officials notify voters of overvotes and give them the opportunity to correct a flawed ballot before it is cast. It will establish statewide computerized voter registration lists.
This bill further guarantees that voting machines be made accessible to people with limited English proficiency and people with disabilities, and that provisional ballots be made available to people whose names do not appear on voting lists. Those ballots would be set aside until it can be determined whether the individual's name was mistakenly left off the registration list. If it was, the vote is then counted.
Finally, this bill provides the real resources these real reforms demand.
As we protect our democracy from its external enemies, we must also fix its internal flaws. That is what this compromise bill will do, and I look forward to working to get it passed early in the next session.
Tom Daschle is the U.S. Senate Majority Leader (D-South Dakota). The above column has been adapted from a speech Sen. Daschle delivered on the floor of the Senate, December 14, 2001. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
