I am genuinely puzzled by this. Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich, representing Ohio's 10th district, was one of only two Democrats to vote against the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008 (HR 5036).
According to the Associated Press, the act, sponsored by New Jersey Democrat Rush Holt, Jr., would have...
....allowed states and jurisdictions to be reimbursed by the federal government for converting to a paper ballot system, offering emergency paper ballots or conducting audits by hand counts.... The bill would have provided reimbursements for states to provide voter-verified, audited balloting for the general election, but it would not have mandated standards for the states.
This comes as a big surprise who remember Kucinich's protest of the results of the 2004 presidential election on the House floor.
From a section on the Congressman's own web site about voting:
On January 6, 2005, Congressman Kucinich, along with a number of his Democratic colleagues, objected to the official counting of the electoral votes on the House floor. This objection led to debates, in both the House and Senate, on the irregularities and problems of the 2004 elections and the pressing need to reform the electoral system. Congressman Kucinich spoke during these debates, passionately advocating for election reform. Numerous problems were documented in the election in 2004 including the misallocation of voting machines, which created in some cases 10 hour waits for voters, and excessive restrictions on provisional ballots which served to disenfranchise voters. Congressman Kucinich continues to work with his colleagues to correct the problems of our electoral system.
Rush Holt might disagree with that last statement:
"This increases the likelihood around the country that there will be unaudited elections and lingering questions in many jurisdictions about the validity of the vote, and no way to answer the questions," Holt said. "There is no reason this shouldn't have passed."
Many Republicans hid behind the issue of cost to justify their anti-democratic votes. But not all. Several Florida Republicans, including Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (*shudder*), voted for the act, presumably because of the 2000 election debacle in their state.
After what happened to Senator Kerry in Ohio in 2004, what is Kucinich's excuse? This is a genuine question, if anyone has specific knowledge if this was a symbolic protest vote or otherwise.
Did Kucinich consider the bill too weak or the expense too great - an estimated $685 million - to help restore the validity of elections? I can't seem to find his justification anywhere.
I'd like to know whether that 2005 speech was more than just grandstanding.
Update: Thanks to rjones2818 for this Alternet story, which has a lot more detail about the bill.