Hoyer Introduces the Secure America's Vote Act

by Meghan Mullan   Business Gazette  June 28, 2005

U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) of Mechanicsville has introduced an election reform bill called the "Secure America's Vote Act of 2005."

The bill, introduced today, will build upon the achievements of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) of which he is a co-sponsor, he said.

"Since the 2004 election, I have devoted significant time to assessing the impact of HAVA," he said.

He cited a recently-released report by the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project which found that of the 17 million new voters who participated in the 2004 election, approximately 1 million of these new voters can be attributed to reforms in voting machines and administrative practices over the past four years.

"But clearly the 2004 election was not flawless," he said. "One deficiency was the inconsistent treatment of provisional ballots by states, which HAVA requires states to provide to voters whose registrations are in doubt when they appear at polling places."

Some states in 2004 refused to count provisional ballots if they were not cast in the right polling precinct, even if they were cast in the correct county or voting jurisdiction, and for federal candidates for whom voters were eligible to vote, Hoyer said.

HAVA provided that a voter's provisional ballot should be counted if the voter is eligible to vote for the federal candidates who are listed on the ballot, notwithstanding which precinct it was cast in, he said.

"Under the legislation I am proposing today, starting in 2006, a provisional ballot cast in a federal election would be counted if the voter is eligible and casts the ballot in the correct county or township. Starting in 2008, provisional ballots would be counted if they are cast at any polling place in the state. Only those votes for federal candidates for whom the voter is eligible to vote will be counted," he said.