Senate Stalls on Passage of Election Reform
Feature Story by Becky Dansky - 3/6/2002
After months of negotiations and over two weeks of Senate floor debate, a cloture vote on the “Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act” (S. 565) failed by a vote of 51 to 44 on Monday, March 4. This vote makes the promise of comprehensive election reform one step further away. Another cloture vote failed the week before by a vote of 49-39. Cloture is a method to end debate on a bill and force a final vote that requires 60 votes. If cloture is not invoked, then debate can continue or the Senate can move on to other business.While the Senate turned its attention to the energy bill, a small group of Senators, including Chris Dodd (D-CT), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Kit Bond (R-MO), Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), have returned to negotiations on the bill, in an attempt to work out a compromise. The major point of contention in negotiations is an anti- fraud provision that requires first time voters to provide photo identification, a utility bill or a government check when voting. This provision would have a disparate impact on African Americans, Latinos, the disabled, the elderly and students.
Saying that many people lacked those documents, Wade J. Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said the identification requirements "could result in suppression of the black and Latino vote." Just as Southern states used electoral qualifications to exclude blacks for decades, Mr. Henderson said, civil rights advocates feared "selective application of the ID requirements."
The American Association of Persons with Disabilities estimates that at least 3.5 million persons with disabilities will be impacted by this provision. At least 1.5 million undergraduates currently attend school out of state. These students are unlikely to have a photo ID or alternatives that display a local address.
CUNY Political Science Professor Francis Fox Piven has estimated that 5% of voting age Americans lack photo ID. In 2000, voting age population was approximately 206 million. This leaves 10.3 million people lacking ID. Conservatively estimating that only half are eligible to vote, this leaves over 5 million people potentially impacted. While these numbers must be reduced because the provision only affects first time voters registering by mail, this provision will still impact millions of legitimate American voters.
To address this, Senators Schumer and Wyden introduced an amendment that would allow states to use signature verification or attestation instead of requiring photo identification. According to a report from the GAO, only 23 states currently require proof of identity before a voter casts a ballot. In Senator Wyden’s state, Oregon, 2.5 million residents vote entirely by mail, a system that would be threatened by the photo ID requirement provision. However, Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Kit Bond (R-MO) oppose the amendment, claiming that it will allow for an increase in voter fraud.
Senator Bond has cited three major areas of concern: voter rolls with more names than there are people of voting age; judges breaking the law to extend voting; and dogs, dead people and fake people registering. The photo ID provision would do nothing to address the first two concerns. Outdated and duplicative voter rolls provide the greatest opportunity for widespread fraud, but this bill already requires statewide registration lists, the best method of addressing this type of fraud.
On Friday, February 27, a motion to table the Schumer-Wyden amendment was defeated by a vote of 51 to 46. However, Senator Bond refused to continue debate on the bill without coming to a resolution on this provision. Despite intense efforts to reach a compromise, it seems unlikely that the bill will be able to move forward, so long as it contains the Schumer-Wyden amendment. While negotiations continue, Senators Dodd, Schumer, McConnell and Bond seem optimistic about reaching a compromise and that the bill will soon return to the Senate floor.
