One size doesn’t fit all voters

America has a long history in which the voting process has been largely controlled independently by states, according to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) at a hearing on the Bipartisan Electronic Voting Reform Act. The Bipartisan Electronic Voting Reform Act would help amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and provide for auditable, independent verification of ballots. This would ensure the security of voting systems.

According to Feinstein, the bill requires each state to establish a chain of custody protocols for voting systems, components and records where only appropriate election officials have access to machines. Feinstein said that the bill authorizes $30 million in grants for research, development and testing of independent verification technologies. Ranking Member Bob Bennett (R-Utah) said that America has a long history of vote manipulation and vote fraud and independent verification would bring a degree of reliability and security to voting.

The Honorable Todd Rokita, the Indiana Secretary of State, said that in order to facilitate the appropriate balance for an equal and effective partnership, National Associations of Secretaries of State (NASS) members agreed that members of Congress should respect America’s legal and historical distinctions in federal and state sovereignty as well as avoid pre-emptions of state authority when drafting federal legislation. In addition, Rokita said that the federal legislation should include a reasonable timeframe for implementing state requirements or programs.

Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law, said that eligible voters were disenfranchised by malfunctioning voting machines and inadequately trained poll workers. According to Arwine, 72 percent of voters in Georgia complained about problems at polling places and malfunctioning voting machines. Arwine recounted a story from a voter who had pointed out that the poll worker fed her ballot to the machine upside down. In response, the poll worker merely smiled and said that she was “one of the lucky ones.” Arwine said that she was excited about the bill as it would allow voters to feel confident that the votes they cast count for the candidate they choose. She said that this bill would also allow for disabled people to cast their votes independently and privately with its multimodal voting interface.