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Aid urged for voter machines
By JOHN BALZ © St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2001 WASHINGTON -- More than 60 members of Congress, including eight from Florida, introduced legislation Wednesday that would distribute nearly $600-million nationwide to help states update their voting equipment and avoid a repeat of the November presidential election. Every precinct in the country that uses punch cards -- about 72,000 -- would be offered $6,000 to purchase new voting machines. Precincts would be free to choose whatever technology they wish but must have the machines in place by the 2002 election to be eligible for the stipend. If all precincts participate the total cost would be about $432-million. The proposal, one of a flurry of legislative offerings, comes as state and federal lawmakers' heads are still ringing from the Florida election debacle. A commission authorized by Gov. Jeb Bush recently recommended banishing punch cards to the electoral scrap heap and leasing new equipment at a cost of $20-million for the next election cycle. In Congress, Democrats and Republicans are eagerly throwing in their two cents about how to prevent future election outcry and confusion. "No state has done more soul-searching than Florida in trying come up with different solutions to this problem," said Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, at a Capitol Hill news conference. "This bill represents exactly what we need to do as federal officials to be part of the solution to make sure that the painful lessons we experienced in Florida . . . do not happen." In addition to the punch card buyout, $150-million would be awarded to states next year for voter education programs, poll worker training and research and development grants intended to develop better equipment. A four-member commission would also be set up to study voting standards, ballot design and the voter registration process. The bill's sponsors hope the grants would be extended for five years, boosting the total cost of the package to almost $1.2-billion. About two-fifths of the country's precincts could receive the $6,000 stipend, which represents the rough cost of implementing an optical scanner system. About one of every 25 Florida ballots was thrown out in the November election, and bill supporters say modern technology can dramatically reduce the error rate. Typically, one out of 66 ballots counted by an optical scanner is discarded. Local election commissioners will have the option to use the money for more advanced -- and expensive -- voting systems like touch-screen computers. A single unit usually costs between $3,000 and $6,000 and the number of machines needed varies depending on a precinct's voting population. The bill is only a one-time payout to states, which would be responsible for picking up any future maintenance or operational costs. Despite claims by sponsors that the bill is bipartisan, only one Republican, Rep. Steve Horn of California, has signed on. Rep. Ric Keller, R-Orlando, who has not seen the bill, said that $600-million dollars is "a lot of money" and that it would make more sense to have states individually decide upon and allocate resources to fix voting deficiencies. Just one of numerous proposals clogging up the congressional pipe, including one by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., for $2.5-billion in election reform funding, its passage is far from assured. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the bill's primary sponsor, said he expects members from different parts of the country to support his proposal. "Every voter in every state has a direct interest in the integrity of voting every place in the United States," Hoyer said.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
