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Guest Commentary April 17, 2002
Real Election Reform
The Honorable Jon Kyl
In light of the 2000 presidential election and the protracted counting of ballots that delayed a definitive outcome, Senators appeared ready to work together to enact bipartisan legislation to make it easier for every vote to be accurately and fairly counted.
For a time, that promise appeared to have been dashed. Senate Democrats pushed through an amendment to the election reform bill that almost certainly would have increased the potential for voter fraud. It appeared that Congress was headed for an impasse.
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But sometimes patience and hard work can lead to compromise - even in Washington. ... The Senate has now passed election reform legislation - and made needed improvements to the election process.
The bill, which passed by a vote of 99 to 1, would require states to check the identification of first-time voters and keep statewide registration lists. It also would send states $3.5 billion in federal grants to upgrade election equipment and procedures.
Most importantly, the Senate version of the bill (which will have to be reconciled with a version approved by the House of Representatives) now includes tough anti-fraud measures Republicans had insisted on. We were determined to pass a measure that would prevent the kind of voter fraud that took place in Missouri, for example, when a dead alderman and a dog cast votes in the 2000 election.
Many partisan special-interest groups opposed a provision Senate Republicans offered that required individuals registering under a state's "motor voter" law to cast their first vote in person or, as an alternative, to provide some form of legal identification in person or by mail, so that a valid signature could be obtained and kept on file. But without that provision, no positive form of identification would have been required at all at the time of voter registration. Additionally, seven motor-voter law states that currently do require voters to provide identification the first time they vote would have been barred from doing so in the future.
After weeks of discussions, a bipartisan compromise was finally reached. The language we had insisted upon was included in the bill.
The final bill also includes an amendment I authored -- supported by a wide range of state election officials and adopted unanimously by the Senate - that gives states the option of using Social Security numbers as a means of identifying registered voters. While protecting the privacy of an individual's Social Security number, states would now have the option of using those numbers to locate duplicated names on voter rolls, so that the same person is not voting multiple times. At the same time, Social Security numbers will ensure that a person eligible to vote will not be mistakenly stricken from rolls if his or her name is similar to that of an illegal voter.
With these important changes, I can now say with confidence that the election-reform bill passed by the Senate, while not perfect, will improve the system. It will also better ensure that only legal votes will be counted on election day.
Jon Kyl, a Republican, is a U.S. Senator from Arizona. The above commentary has been adapted from a weekly column Sen. Kyl issues, April 12, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
