NEW YORK - March 14 - Voters in the United States will benefit from much-needed solutions to an epidemic of election problems if Congress takes serious action on the Count Every Vote Act, re-introduced last week by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH). Miles Rapoport, President of Demos, a national election reform and voting rights research and policy organization, issued the following statement supporting key provisions in this legislation:

“Senator Clinton and Representative Tubbs Jones should be applauded for their vigilance and energy in re-introducing this far-reaching legislation, which will correct many of the most serious and pressing problems with elections in the United States. The Count Every Vote Act addresses the most serious obstacles that citizens confront in exercising their right to vote—many which came to light following the debacle of 2000, and then through uneven implementation of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). While this bill should undergo further revisions to more thoroughly address the broad array of problems with voting technology and ballot auditing procedures, most key provisions echo the reform agenda that Demos has pursued since the 2000 elections, and recently promoted in advance of the 2006 election cycle with a policy briefing book entitled ‘Fulfilling America’s Promise.’

“The Count Every Vote Act rightly addresses ongoing problems with voter registration procedures, which remain the greatest single barrier to full voter participation. In election after election, thousands of eligible voters make their way to the polls on Election Day, only to find that their names have been left off the voter rolls.

“Provisional balloting, the so-called ‘fail-safe’ voting protection prescribed by HAVA, has been a major disappointment. One-third of the 2 million provisional ballots cast in 2004 were discounted because of widely varying and sometimes restrictive state implementation, as well as poorly understood and applied counting procedures.

“This legislation corrects major flaws in HAVA’s provisional balloting requirements. Voters casting provisional ballots in counties where they have registered would be assured that such ballots would be counted, even if they had been directed to the wrong precinct. And states would be required to publish uniform standards for counting them. A forthcoming Demos analysis of provisional balloting problems reported in last November’s elections shows that poll workers continue to misunderstand and misapply federal provisional balloting requirements on Election Day.

“The Count Every Vote Act would also require, for federal elections, a simple and effective remedy to most voter registration problems: Election Day Registration (EDR). EDR allows any eligible citizen to register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day, and it works well—for voters, for election officials, and for American democracy. The seven states that currently have EDR see an average 10 to 12 percentage point increase in participation over states without it, according to a report Demos just published, entitled ‘Voters Win with Election Day Registration, A Snapshot of Election 2006.’

“Voter participation would also rise if all citizens were actually welcomed to join in our democracy. The Count Every Vote Act does away with the most blatant exclusion of millions of otherwise eligible citizens—the lifetime disfranchisement of individuals caught up in the criminal justice system. This legislation takes a major step forward to match the practices of other modern democracies, and would require that states not restrict voting by those who have completed their prison terms, parole or probation.

“These and the other proposed reforms of systemic voting barriers would help create a democracy that meets the needs of modern, 21st Century American democracy, and go a long way toward restoring the public’s confidence in elections. To their credit, Senator Clinton and Representative Tubbs Jones go beyond these broad changes to address the poor planning, incompetence, and overt conflicts of interest that have also marred many recent elections. The Count Every Vote Act would require minimum state standards for allocating voting systems and poll workers, seek to avoid long lines at the polls, mandate poll worker training in advance of elections, and prohibit top election officials from engaging in partisan political activity. Fundamental shortcomings like these were evident in the elections last November.

“While the Count Every Vote Act is about nine-tenths correct, Demos cannot embrace Title I in its approach to voting systems. That section of the bill sanctions the continued use of direct recording electronic voting systems (DREs), which have proven to be fundamentally flawed for the counting and recording of our vote—and just adding a paper trail requirement, as suggested in the bill, will not correct those flaws. As deliberations move forward with the Count Every Vote Act, we hope that it will be amended to preclude the continued use of DRE technology and to require a real paper ballot marked either by hand or by a non-tabulating ballot marking device. Such a paper ballot standard is critical to ensuring the integrity of our elections.

“Overall, The Count Every Vote Act should receive wide bipartisan support and, strengthened to correct the voting technology concerns, should pass through Congress and gain the signature of President Bush. This bill will correct many problems faced by Americans at the polls; citizens of the world’s foremost democracy deserve no less.”

For more information on Demos’ reports on election procedures and voting technology, or to download a copy of the “Fulfilling America's Promise” policy book, visit www.demos.org.

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