The Count Every Vote Act

Senators Hilary Clinton (D-NY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) have introduced a bill called the Count Every Vote Act which, they say, will address several key concerns about American voting. Among the concerns the bill addresses are: a voter verified paper ballot for electronic voting machines, "access to voter verification for all citizens, including language minority voters, illiterate voters and voters with disabilities. The bill also designates Election Day as a national holiday and requires early voting in each state, and allows for same day registration for voting.

So let's take a look at the major provisions one by one, starting with some easy ones.

Early voting: This in essence is not a bad idea and one that could be encouraged among the states, but it should not be required. The time place and manner of elections, as clearly stated in Article I of the Constitution is the purview of the states, the Federal Government should not be involved in mandating this--at least not without funds to pay for the expenses.

Felon Re-Enfranchisment--under most state laws, if a felon has completed his/her sentence, including an probation, they can and should have their voting rights re-instated. However, this has turned out to be more of a problem than it would seem. States do need to do a better job of this. In the era of computer records, this shouldn't be a problem.

Election Day as a National Holiday: I have always been a big proponent of this idea. We are the only democracy in the world--to my knowledge, that doesn't have election day on a weekend or a national holiday. We also have the lowest voter turnout of any industrialized nation. Even Iraq, where voters had their very lives threatened if they voted had a better turnout than the United States. Giving Americans the day off to participate in their most important right is just good government. It also reduces the excuse--I had to work.

No-Excuse Absentee Balloting. Many states require voters who wish to submit and absentee ballot provide some sort of excuse for requesting one, like going to be out of town on business or vacaction, working a job that prohibits voters from making it to the polls, etc. I don't know whether anyone has the excuse denied since that could be seen as an infringement on their ability to vote. So If someone wants to vote absentee, the states should not stand in the way. Provided the person is a registered voter, the state should provide an absentee ballot no questions asked.

Disabled Access--This is a no brainer. Voting should be available to all citizens regardless of their physical handicaps. The fact that some states do not have provisions for handicapped voting is downright shocking if it indeed exists.

Voter Verification in Minority Languages--this is plain dumb and an affront to me as a citizen. If some immigrates to this country, becomes a citizen and choses to vote--excellent, welcome to the grand experiment. But to provide that person, who had to demonstrate proficiency in English to become a citizen, with minority language verficiation is an expense that the government should not be forced to bear. If a person cannot verify, in English, their choices, then is that person a fully functioning citizen. I think not. Besides, what are they verifying, their selections for office, meaning the candidates names, which is not provided in other languages since they are proper names.

Finally, the big one--a Voter Verified Paper Trail. If one of hte goals is to reduce wait times a polls, having this mandate will guarantee longer lines since it will take time. I have seen electronic voting machines and the ones I have used can be programmed to warn voters that they have not voted in some races, prevent the selection of two candidates and other steps to ensure that the ballot, once cast is valid. Having a paper trail is merely a Luddite response to the fears of people that someone will hack the machines. A Paper trail is no guarantee that the voters intent will be more discernible than electronic voting or any other method of voting. This method will simply increase the expense of voting with no discernible effect on the security and sanctity of the voting process.

All in all, this bill is a mistake because the big errors outweigh the smaller more common sense gains.

The bill is S.450 in the Senate and HR 939 in the House. To get a full text of the bill, go to Thomas, the Library of Congress legislative website.

Here is Sen. Boxer's Press Release on the bill.

Hat Tip to Election Law Blog