Now that the 2008 election cycle has officially begun, it’s long past time to start working on meaningful election reform. While people committed to fair elections may differ on how particular aspects of the voting process should work, we can all agree that the status quo of unverifiable, unauditable, untrustworthy elections has to end. To do this, Congress needs to pass strong election reform legislation in the first session, no ifs, ands or buts. Our window of opportunity is narrow -- failing to pass a voter verification bill as soon as possible could doom 2008 voters to the same unacceptable problems we’ve seen in the past.
Two legislative measures have already been introduced in the 110th Congress that would go a long way to making sure that every American has a right to cast a vote that counts: Rep. Rush Holt’s Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007, and Sen. Barack Obama’s Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act. Both of these are measures that the progressive community should rally behind not just to make sure that another election isn’t jeopardized (or stolen) but also because we understand that democracy only works when every citizen has a right to vote. Enacting these bills should be a top priority for Congressional leaders.
Representative Holt’s initiative is a big step forward in correcting the problem of unverifiable, unauditable paperless machines, while ensuring that voting is accessible to all. Untrustworthy machines have already changed the outcome of at least one election -- and that’s one election too many. First and foremost, Holt’s legislation would require that every voting machine produce a paper ballot and be fully audited. Voters will be able to verify that their votes are being recorded accurately, and true hand recounts of the paper ballots (not just a re-print from an infected machine) will ensure that votes are counted accurately too.
The Holt legislation allows local jurisdictions to select the voting technology that works best for their voters, so long as it is fully verifiable and subject to mandatory audits. It maintains crucial protections for voters with disabilities and minority language voters without sacrificing the security we need to make sure elections are trustworthy. All source codes would be available for inspection and wireless components that connect voting machines to the Internet would be banned. The bill can, and should, be strengthened as it moves through the legislative process, but even in its current incarnation the Holt bill is a real improvement for all citizens and worthy of our support.
The common sense approach to fair voting that Holt’s bill brings to the inside of the polling station, Senator Obama’s bill brings to the outside. His legislation, which like Rep. Holt’s bill was never given a vote in the Republican-controlled Congress, outlaws the kind of deceptive practices we saw in places like Maryland and Orange County, California in the last election. Not only would the bill make it a crime to knowingly and intentionally mislead a voter about election information -- such as sending a voter to the wrong polling place or identifying Republican candidates as Democrats to fool voters -- it would also allow private parties to obtain injunctions to stop misinformation campaigns as soon as they start and requires the immediate dissemination of corrective information.
These two bills jumpstart the push in Congress for election reform. Other more comprehensive bills coming down the pike, including those from Congressional leaders like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Representatives John Conyers and Stephanie Tubbs Jones, embrace the core principles laid out in the Holt and Obama bills in addition to other needed reforms. Make no mistake, 2008 is right around the corner and reforming the system will not be easy. But we owe it to all voters, including ourselves, to make sure that the outcome in 2008 is one we can trust.