Yesterday, I diaried about Senators Boxers' bill which would "reimburse jurisdictions for amounts paid or incurred in preparing, producing, and using contingency paper ballots in the November 7, 2006, Federal general election." Senators Chris Dodd & Russ Feingold have joined Boxer in co-sponsoring the legislation. John Kerry has also joined as a co-sponsor and introduced a
Sense of the Senate bill, recognizing the need for emergency paper ballots which could be used in the event of machine malfunction or other election day mishaps.
A statement from Kerry on the matter:
"It's a disgrace that a Congress and an Administration which talks about exporting democracy around the world ignores the challenges of our own democracy right here at home. We have seen American citizens disenfranchised in our elections for the simple reason that no effective back up system was in place. That's a national scandal. But here we are, 42 days away from another election, and Congress has again dragged its feet even after we mobilized 35,000 citizens to demand a hearing for our Count Every Vote Act, even after what we saw just this month in Montgomery County. We need emergency action now. That is why I am co-sponsoring the Dodd-Boxer legislation to provide emergency paper ballots and that is why Russ Feingold and I are introducing our resolution today demanding election day back-up plans. We have a duty to ensure that no citizen will be denied the right to vote in 2006."
Over in the House, Democratic Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey has introduced
similar legislation to the Boxer-Dodd bill. Holt's bill would go a step further in explicitly stating that any used emergency paper ballots would be treated, not as provisionals, but as a regular ballot.
I urge all of you to support the 'Confidence in Voting Act of 2006' by contacting your representatives via the Secretary of State Project. With only days left until Congress will adjourn until the mid-terms, it will take all of our collective energy to not only stop the flawed legislation currently before Congress but also to push this bill as well. It's been called too little, too late by some. That's a fair criticism but I'd rather have too little, too late than nothing at all. This way there's at least some window of opportunity, however close to the mid-terms, for local elections officials to safeguard against the chances of voters being turned away at the polls.