Voting Equipment Bill May Be Delayed

Voting Equipment Bill May Be Delayed

Opposition from state and local election officials may delay U.S. House action on voting equipment bill HR811.

A House vote on the bill sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt, D-NJ, was expected this week. But now the bill could be delayed or pulled entirely. HR 811 would require a voter-verified paper record for every vote cast nationwide beginning in 2008. It also would mandate routine random audits in most federal races and would designate paper ballots as the ballots of record for audits or recounts.

The question seems less about the goals than about speed of implementation and funding. The National Conference of State Legislatures sent Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter calling the bill “overly pre-emptive of state laws governing election administration.” The letter also complained of being saddled with an unfunded federal mandate.

Dave Leshtz, a staff representative for Rep. Dave Loebsack, says the congressman is getting many calls about HR811, a bill Loebsack co-sponsored. "They're still working on that so that states would not have to bust their budgets to comply," Leshtz told the Johnson County Democratic Central Committee Thursday. Leshtz was also confident the concerns of disability advocates would be met.