WASHINGTON (REUTERS) — Seeking to avoid a repeat of the disputed 2000 presidential contest, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to implement one of the biggest upgrades ever to the country’s election system.
On a vote of 357 to 48, the House sent the bipartisan measure to the Senate for final congressional approval, which will clear the way for President Bush to sign it into law.
Hailed as the first major civil-rights legislation of the 21st century, the $3.9 billion measure would help states replace antiquated voting machines, create statewide computerized registration systems, improve access to the voting booth for the disabled and adopt new anti-fraud provisions.
“The modernization of this system will ensure that each voter who wants to vote is given that opportunity while ensuring that each vote is counted only once,” said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican.
The measure would require states to comply with a number of new federal election standards, such as permitting people to check ballots and correct errors before their votes are counted and defining what constitutes a vote on various machines.
In addition, voters who are challenged at the polling place would be permitted to cast provisional ballots, which would be counted later if determined to be eligible.
“The Help America Vote Act of 2002 is the most comprehensive package of voting reforms since enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the lead House Democratic sponsor.
“This is truly a great day for democracy,” said Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, the chief Republican sponsor.
While the measure will have no impact on next month’s congressional elections, it will put in place a number of reforms before the 2004 White House contest.
The reform drive was triggered by the problem-plagued 2000 presidential contest, which revealed faulty voting machines and inaccurate registration rolls in Florida and other states.
An estimated 2 million to 2.5 million of the more than 100 million votes cast in the 2000 election nationwide were never counted. Many votes, particularly in Florida, were rejected because of so-called “hanging chads,” created when punch-card machines failed to cut all the way through a paper ballot.
A divided U.S. Supreme Court effectively decided the 2000 presidential election in favor of Bush when it refused a request by Democrat Al Gore for a recount of thousands of disputed Florida ballots.
Many lawmakers declared election reform to be a priority when the 107th Congress convened in January 2001. But it took until last week for House and Senate negotiators to resolve differences between a pair of election-reform bills passed by their respective chambers.
The White House was initially noncommittal but announced Wednesday that Bush would sign it.
“He thinks it’s a solid piece of legislation,” said Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.
A key difference between the House and Senate bills was resolved when House negotiators accepted anti-fraud provisions in the Senate bill. They would, among other things, require first-time voters who register by mail to produce identification when they cast their ballots.
Some civil-rights leaders voiced concern about the provision, fearing it could raise new hurdles in voting.
But the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed the measure last week, saying it would advance voting rights, and this week the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the nation’s largest and oldest civil-rights groups, expressed its support in a letter to lawmakers.
“This might not be the perfect bill, but it is a perfect beginning,” Rep. Corrine Brown, a Florida Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said before Thursday’s vote.
“It is the greatest accomplishment of the 107th Congress,” Brown said, adding it will “make sure what happened in the 2000 election never happens again in this country.”