Senate to Vote on Election Reform Bill
Feature Story by Civilrights.org staff - 2/21/2002
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Over a year has passed since Election 2000, during which widespread voting irregularities were exposed, yet Congress has failed to enact comprehensive federal election reform. When the Senate returns on Monday, February 25, the Senate will continue debate on the Dodd-McConnell Substitute, which would set minimum national standards for states to follow in future elections.On December 12, 2001, the House passed the Help America Vote Act (H.R. 3295), sponsored by Robert W. Ney (R-OH) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD). The bill was opposed by a majority of civil rights organizations because it lacked sufficient provisions regarding accessibility issues for language minorities and the disabled, purge protections and measures to prevent voter disenfranchisement, among other concerns.
The Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act (S. 565) was originally introduced by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) in March 2001. After months of negotiations, Senator Dodd and Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced a substitute amendment on February 13 that, among other things, adopts minimum national voting standards. Under the Dodd-McConnell Substitute, states must adopt voting standards for voting system technology, provide provisional balloting for voters whose eligibility is in question on election day, and maintain computerized state-wide voter lists that are available on election day. The Dodd-McConnell substitute amendment to the Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act would increase voter accessibility and help ensure that citizens are not disenfranchised.
Several other amendments have been offered to the election reform bill. The Wyden-Schumer Amendment protects against discrimination by implementing an attestation or signature verification system to confirm voter eligibility. Currently, thirty-eight states use signature attestation and the Wyden-Schumer Amendment would allow them to continue its use. The Kennedy Amendment clarifies the bills “safe harbor” provision to ensure that new national election standards would be met in a timely fashion.
Though in support of comprehensive election reform, civil rights advocates, such as the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the NAACP, have found certain provisions in the legislation problematic and have shown their support for the Wyden-Schumer Amendment and the Kennedy Amendment. They charge that college students, minority voters, and voters with disabilities would be disproportionately affected by such a requirement. The civil rights community is aggressively working to ensure the passage of these important amendments and to prevent several weakening amendments from taking away from the bill’s merits.
