Election reform? "We're not ready"

By Karen Branch-Brioso

WASHINGTON -With the next presidential election a year away, Missouri and Illinois are among the states postponing many statewide elections improvements until 2006.

The improvements are part of a federal initiative in response to the 2000 presidential election debacles that will be overseen by a new federal Election Assistance Commission. The four nominees to the commission went before the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday, months after they were to have been at their posts. They were questioned briefly but no vote was taken because the committee lacked a quorum.

The full Senate is expected next month to confirm the four nominees, including former St. Louis County elections director Paul DeGregorio. But civil rights leaders, state election officials and activists for the disabled - awaiting the commission's creation since Congress authorized it a year ago - are impatient. After Tuesday's hearing, they crowded around the nominees.

The confirmation of the members will start the process of releasing $830 million in federal aid for voting improvements. The panel will also serve as a national bully pulpit to promote better standards.

"The public at large and people with disabilities have an expectation that in next year's elections we're going to be voting on modern, accurate and accessible equipment - and the delays in creating the commission means that's impossible," Jim Dickson of the American Association of People with Disabilities said in an interview.

At least 16 states, including Missouri and Illinois, plan to seek federal aid but postpone replacing their punch-card or lever voting systems until 2006, according to Sean Greene of electionline.org, which is tracking state compliance with the law.

And 28 states also have asked to postpone until 2006 the law's demand that they have a statewide voter-registration database - a fraud-prevention measure that aims to keep people from registering in several jurisdictions.

Missouri and Illinois are among those 28, although election officials say the delay in the commission didn't sway that decision. The fast-approaching Jan. 1 deadline did.

"We're not ready," Dianne Felts, director of voting systems and standards for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said in an interview. She said she expects the state to have its computerized voter database up and running by May.

Spence Jackson, a spokesman for Missouri Secretary of State Matt Blunt, chalked up the delay to it being "a very monumental task. The system had to be interactive with all 116 jurisdictions in Missouri, as well as the state departments of Corrections, Health and Revenue," he said.

The commission is part of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which authorized money to help states replace outdated voting machines and to improve fraud protections while enhancing voter access to the polls. The law set a February deadline for the nominations of the commission's four members, but congressional leaders didn't finish submitting their choices to President George W. Bush until May; Bush forwarded the nominations to the Senate Oct. 3 - after background checks were completed.

DeGregorio suspects that the delays in setting up the commission may have prompted some states to postpone improvements until the federal funds can be released.

"Most of the states have taken some kind of action by either passing state legislation dealing with election reform or discussing the issue. ... States like Georgia and Florida have taken the lead by getting rid of punch-card voting," DeGregorio said in an interview. "I do think that some states will ask for waivers (to postpone improvements until 2006). Had things happened sooner, there may have been less of that, but, unfortunately, some people are waiting for this commission and the money to be released and some won't be able to buy equipment in time for the 2004 election."

Since part of the commission's job is to approve such postponements, that will likely be one of the first orders of business once the members and their staff are in place.

The commissioners also will oversee testing of voter systems and establish voluntary guidelines. They will create a nationwide clearinghouse for state and local governments to share information as a way to improve standards nationwide. They will be able to conduct studies to promote "effective administration of federal elections."

But before they do any of that, the members can expect to receive an avalanche of state election reform plans, which must be published in the Federal Register by the commission before those states can see most of the money to implement those plans.

The states have already received a total of $650 million, money that the law did not require the commission to release. But there's another $830 million waiting to be distributed once the commission is in place - and that's just from last year's budget. Congress is now wrangling over this year's budget for voting improvements: The House has $500 million in its version of the budget, but the Senate has $1.5 billion, thanks to efforts last week by the law's main sponsors, including Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo.

"The states all finished their plans this summer, but they have to be delivered to the commission," said Leslie Reynolds, executive director of the National Association of Secretaries of State, whose president met with the commission nominees for lunch right after their hearing Tuesday.

If confirmed, the commission will be split-down-the-partisan-middle: DeGregorio and Deforest Soaries Jr., a pastor and former New Jersey Secretary of State, were the Republican leaders' choices; former League of Women Voters leader Gracia Hillman of Washington and lawyer Raymundo Martinez III of Texas were the Democrats' picks.

To e-mail reporter Karen Branch-Brioso.

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