Chief Deputy Whip Diana DeGette (D-CO, pictured at right) introduced the E-Poll Book Improvement Act of 2007  today to improve elections and prevent a repeat of the voting difficulties that occurred in Denver during the 2006 elections.

“I was appalled by what happened in Denver on Election Day last November. It is inexcusable that residents would have to wait hours to simply cast their ballot,” said Rep. DeGette. “People's most fundamental right, the right to vote, was undermined due to poor planning and equipment malfunctions. This legislation is an important step in ensuring that never happens again.”

This legislation amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 by requiring the development of voluntary standards for electronic poll books. These poll books allow election officials to use electronic means to determine voter eligibility. The standards called for in this legislation provide guidance on how electronic poll books should operate and require these devices to be tested and certified. 

"Until we require that voting systems produce a voter-verified paper ballot, the results of our elections will always be uncertain," said Rep. Holt. "All Americans deserve to be confident that their vote will be counted, and it is my hope that the 110^th Congress will act soon to pass legislation that will ensure elections are fair, accessible, and auditable."

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) announced that the U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday, February 7 on "The Hazards of Electronic Voting – Focus on the Machinery of Democracy."

The hearing will focus on concerns related to the security and auditability of voting systems used in federal elections, with an emphasis on reported problems in the 2006 federal elections.

This article appeared in the electionline newsletter and is reposted with permission of the author.

While legislators are busy in statehouses across the country crafting new election-related legislation, the new (and old) members of the 110th Congress have been working on Capitol Hill as well.

First out of the gates to introduce new legislation was Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., who introduced the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2007 (H.R. 101). Davis' bill would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit some state election administration officials from actively participating in electoral campaigns.

"I think we can all agree that an inherent conflict of interest exists when a state's chief election official is responsible for monitoring and certifying the results of a federal election while actively participating in the campaign of one of the candidates in that election," Davis said when introducing the legislation.

The bill has nine Democratic co-sponsors and was referred to the Committee on House Administration.

Several other pieces of newly introduced legislation set out to amend the Help America Vote Act.

In the past year, concerns about the accuracy and integrity of computerized elections have entered the general consciousness and become accepted as serious. Issues that I addressed in the March 1, 2006, edition of the Spectator have since been written about in the national media, and the momentum has grown for legislative solutions to be found at the federal level. A new Congress is getting under way, and decisions will be made that will profoundly affect the way Americans cast and count their votes.

While computerized voting has been touted as a way to make elections easier and the results more reliable, an increasing number of voters, poll workers, and election officials have concluded that the process in 2006 was more difficult—not easier—and confidence in the tallies has been undermined. Many activists and legislators now question both the wisdom of relying on software to record votes, and the degree to which our elections depend on computerized voting systems and the manufacturers that sell them.

Read the Entire Article at the Washington Spectator