Both New Hampshire primary elections are going to be recounted, since Dennis J. Kucinich has put up $27,000 to get the Democratic recount started, and Albert Howard (who was on the New Hampshire Republican ballot) has donated $56,000 to re-tally the Republican vote. But the only reason these elections can even be recounted is because voting precincts in New Hampshire use paper ballots. And now some folks on Capitol Hill want to make it easier for other states to switch to non-electronic voting systems before the November election.
Rush Holt, a Democratic representative of New Jersey, introduced new legislation today that would reimburse all state and local jurisdictions that opted to convert to a paper ballot voting system, offer emergency paper ballots or convert audits by hand counts.
Speaking at a news conference in Washington this afternoon, Mr. Holt said there’s still time to make sure the 2008 presidential election doesn’t see the same voting controversy as happened in Florida in 2006, when some 18,000 electronically recorded ballots were marked “no vote,” and there was no accounting for what happened.
This bill, called the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008, is a modified version of a bill Mr. Holt introduced last year that would have required a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote cast, in addition to random auditing. Since that more all-encompassing bill is still awaiting the House floor, Mr. Holt introduced this one, which moves from a paper ballot mandate to a paper ballot enticement.
“Those counties, those states that want to do the right thing for their voters will be able to do it with this incentive,” Mr. Holt said.
Mr. Holt was joined by Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, and Robert Wexler, Democrat of Florida, at the podium. Mrs. Maloney said the bill is necessary to reinstate voter confidence.
“Unfortunately electronic voting has become synonymous with anxiety, uncertainty and doubt, and electronic votes can get miscast, machines can break down, and we know from audits and so forth that it is susceptible to hacking,” she said.
Mr. Holt cited a General Services Administration study as finding that the measure would cost about $630 million dollars to reimburse voting jurisdictions for “reasonable costs” incurred to switch over every state to a paper ballot system.
As of right now, there are 20 states that will hold unauditable elections in 2008.
There’s significant bipartisan support for the bill, Mr. Wexler said. There are some two dozen congressmen already signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is said to be behind it too. Among the rest of the House leadership, Mr. Holt says there’s “encouragement, yes,” but “iron-clad promises, no.”
Mr. Wexler also said that Charlie Crist, the Republican governor of Florida, sounded “excited” during one of their recent conversations about the bringing more election accountability to the state infamous for its election mishaps.
“If it can be done in Florida, it can be done anywhere,” Mr. Wexler said.