Title: Reform panel urges paper trail on votes

Author: Will Lester, AP News

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

Publication Date: Mon, Sep. 19, 2005

Website/URL: San Diego Union-Tribune

General Topic: Baker/Carter Commission Report on Voting Systems Reform



Election reform panel suggests paper records of electronic votes

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Electronic voting machines should leave a paper trail of ballots, and the government should provide free photo IDs to nondrivers to help check eligibility, a commission on reform recommends.

The private commission, created to suggest ways to improve the electoral process, also favors four regional primaries to be held after the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.

Also, states should develop registration systems that allow easy checks of voters from one state to another, according to the report by the bipartisan panel led by former President Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker.

The report, which makes 87 recommendations, is to be presentated today to President Bush.

The Commission on Federal Election Reform had to balance concerns about better access for voters and worries about preventing voter fraud.

“Americans are losing confidence in elections,” Carter and Baker wrote. “While we do not face a crisis today, we need to address the problems of our electoral system.”

Voter confidence dropped after the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The outcome was delayed for weeks because of problems with ballots in Florida.

Congress responded with the Help America Vote Act, signed into law in 2002, that allowed spending of several billion dollars to help states update voting systems, streamline voter registration and provide voter and poll worker education.

Among the commission’s recommendations are:

■ The presidential primary system should be reorganized into four regional primaries, held after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. A regional primary would take place each month from March to June.

■ All “legitimate domestic and international election observers” should be granted unrestricted access to the election process, within the rules of the election.

■ States should prohibit senior election officials from serving or assisting others’ political campaigns in a partisan way.

■ Congress should pass a law to require voter-verifiable paper audit trails on all electronic voting machines.

■ States should establish uniform procedures for the counting of provisional ballots, which voters can use when there are questions about their registration.

San Diego Union-Tribune:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20...19election.html

Same article published in:

The Kansas City Star (registration required-free) on 9-19-2005

The Washington Times on 9-19-2005

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