Congressional Quarterly
http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/09/state_of...sition_cou.html
Via Truthout
State Officials' Opposition
Could Jeopardize Voting "Paper Trail" Measure
By Kathleen Hunter
Congressional Quarterly
Thursday 06 September 2007
Strong opposition from state and local officials is threatening to derail an election-machine bill originally slated to come to the House floor Thursday.
The bill (HR 811), sponsored by Rush D. Holt, D-N.J., would require a voter-verified paper record for every vote cast nationwide beginning in 2008. It also would mandate routine random audits in most federal races and would designate paper ballots as the ballots of record for audits or recounts.
State and local officials have raised serious concerns about the bill, which the House Administration Committee approved May 8 on a 6-3 party-line vote.
The bill's supporters had hoped to quell dissent by amending the measure on the floor to give localities two extra years, until 2012, to meet some of the new requirements. But after Rules Committee members from both parties expressed concerns about the measure Wednesday, the bill's fate appeared in jeopardy.
The committee opted to reconvene Thursday rather than approve a rule for considering the bill Wednesday evening, raising the possibility that the bill could be delayed until Friday or pulled altogether.
If the bill does go to the floor, its supporters still will have to overcome opposition from key lawmakers such as the Administration Committee's top Republican, Vernon J. Ehlers of Michigan, who said, "The burden it will place on the states is unnecessary and - by all accounts - unimaginable."
State and local officials complain of being shut out of the process.
"If we are going to have this discussion, you should do it responsibly - and we have not been brought to the table," said Indiana Secretary of State Tom Rokita, president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
After seeing the proposed new language, the National Conference of State Legislatures sent Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a letter calling the bill "overly pre-emptive of state laws governing election administration." The letter also complained of being saddled with an unfunded federal mandate.
The bill also has drawn fire from groups representing disabled voters and from the electronic voting industry, which contends that the technology mandated by the bill could not be in place in time for the 2008 elections.
The bill's supporters, meanwhile, say the measure would ensure a much-needed backstop to verify the accuracy of ballot counting and that the new language represents a workable time frame.
After the 2002 Help America Vote Act (PL 107-252), "many states overhauled their entire elections systems in little time," Holt said.
The accuracy of electronic voting results has been a lingering question in Florida's 13th District, where Democrat Christine Jennings lost to Republican Vern Buchanan last year by 369 votes.
Significantly fewer votes for Congress were cast than for other races on the same ballot, raising questions about how well electronic voting machines functioned.
In the Senate, Rules Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has warned that moving too quickly might be "an invitation to chaos."