Kerry, Clinton Offer Bill to Revamp Election Laws
Thu Feb 17, 2005 04:21 PM ET
By Thomas Ferraro   Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Failed U.S. presidential nominee John Kerry and fellow congressional Democrats offered a bill on Thursday to address voting problems like those reported last November in the pivotal state of Ohio.

President Bush won the state by less than 120,000 votes among the more than 5.5 million cast as he captured a second term amid a crush of claimed irregularities in Ohio.

Complaints included ones of partisan election officials, voter intimidation, long lines and an inadequate number of voting machines in neighborhoods that favored Kerry.

Kerry rejected calls to challenge the results, but has vowed to make upgrading elections laws a top priority even as he keeps open his options of running again in 2008.

"This has to nothing to do with the question of the outcome of 2004 (election)," Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, told a Capitol Hill news conference. "This has everything to do with full civil rights of Americans. Period."

Joining Kerry in introducing the bill were Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who is also viewed as a potential 2008 presidential contender, and Barbara Boxer of California.

Clinton brushed off suggestions that the bill could be seen as designed to help a possible 2008 White House bid, saying she simply wants to make sure every eligible American can vote.

"If you think it's a Hillary election 2008 (issue), get a life," Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat who introduced the same bill in the House of Representatives, told reporters. "This is about serious issues right now."

Democrats may have difficulty winning much traction with the legislation in the Republican-led Congress. Yet election laws seem certain to be an issue on Capitol Hill.

Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Christopher Bond of Missouri offered a bill of their own on Thursday designed largely to combat voter fraud.

Both the Republican and Democratic bills would build on the sweeping legislation passed by Congress after the disputed 2000 presidential election. The law helped states replace antiquated voting machines, educate voters and train poll workers.