 |
|||
|
|
|||
|
09/18/07
08/02/07
|
Since the November 2000 Presidential election, previously obscure details of voting and vote counting have become the focus of ongoing public attention and legislative action at the state and federal levels. The Help America Vote Act was enacted in October 2002, and states have made many changes to election laws and procedures before and since. HAVA created a new federal agency; set requirements for voting, voter-registration systems, and other aspects of election administration; and provided federal funding. However, it did not supplant state and local control over election administration. Issues in the 109th Congress included state compliance with HAVA requirements, voter identification and citizenship requirements for voting, funding, and paper audit trails for electronic voting systems. In the 110th Congress, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a hearing on the reliability of electronic voting machines. Similarly, the House Administration Committee has held four hearings on the issue and ordered reported an amended version of H.R. 811, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007. The bill would require the use of paper ballots and mandatory partial recounts in federal elections. Electronic Voting Machine Controversy Currently, most jurisdictions use optical scan, direct recording electronic (DRE) systems, or both. There is no consensus on whether any one technology is best, although use of optical scan and DRE systems has been increasing for several years. States have different practices and requirements. HAVA does not require any particular voting system, but it sets requirements that influence what systems election officials choose. Systems used in federal elections must provide for error correction by voters, manual auditing, accessibility, alternative languages, and error-rate standards. Systems must also maintain voter privacy and ballot confidentiality, and states must adopt uniform standards for what constitutes a vote on each system. HAVA’s requirement for accessible voting systems (at least one per polling place) and other factors drove some states to adopt DREs, but controversy exists about the security of those systems. Some experts and advocates believe that the problem is serious enough to require that DREs also print paper ballots that would be verified by the voter and hand-counted if the election results were contested. Others believe that procedural and other safeguards can make DREs sufficiently safe from tampering, that use of printed paper ballots would create too many problems, and that the controversy risks drawing attention away from the demonstrated utility of DREs in addressing problems of access to and usability of voting systems. HAVA requires a paper audit trail for the voting system, but not paper ballots. However, many states have instituted paper-ballot-trail requirements. Election Reform Congressman Fattah is a cosponsor of several bills recently introduced in Congress that attempts to strengthen the provisions in HAVA. Most of these bills, such as H.R. 811, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007, would require a specific design standard for paper ballots rather than setting a performance standard that can be met in different ways, which was the approach taken by HAVA with respect to voting system requirements. Proponents of paper ballots argue that a legislated design standard is the only way to ensure that voting systems exhibit the desired level of verifiability and security. Opponents argue that such a design standard freezes technology and stifles innovation, thereby precluding the development and implementation of technologies with superior levels of verifiability and security than is possible with current technology. Campaign Finance Since the mid-1970s, the limits on contributions by individuals, political action committees (PACs), and parties, and an absence of congressional spending limits, have governed the flow of money in congressional elections. Throughout the 1980s and much of the 1990s, the two paramount issues raised by campaign finance practices were the phenomena of, first, rising campaign costs and the large amounts of money needed for elections and, second, the substantial reliance on PACs as a source of funding. Concerns were also voiced, by political scientists and the Republican congressional minority, over a third issue: the level of electoral competition, as affected by finance practices. Since 1996, the debate has shifted considerably to a focus on the perceived loopholes in current law (a source of increasing debate since the mid-1980s). The PAC issue has been greatly supplanted by more fundamental issues of election regulation, with observers finding new appreciation for the limited, disclosed nature of PAC funds. Concerns over competition have abated since Republicans won control of Congress in 1994, despite the perceived incumbency bias in the finance system. The issue of high campaign costs and the concomitant need for vast resources continues to underlie the debate, but even this has been almost overshadowed by concerns over the system's perceived loopholes. Although these practices are (largely) presumably legal, they may violate the law's spirit, raising a basic question of whether money in elections can, let alone should, be regulated. Interest has intensified, especially since 1996, over campaign finance practices that some see as undermining the law's contribution and expenditure limits and its disclosure requirements. Although these practices may be legal, they are seen as "loopholes" through which electoral influence is sought by spending money in ways that detract from public confidence in the system and that are beyond the scope intended by Congress. Some of the prominent practices are bundling, soft money, independent expenditures, and issue advocacy.
Campaign Finance (Shays-Meehan) Congressman Fattah is a strong advocate for campaign finance reform. He signed on to every attempt to pass meaningful reform until the legislation was finally passed. The Shays-Meehan bill was signed into law in March of 2002.
|
||
|
|
|||
