Despite the passage of the Help America Vote Act ( P.L. 107-252 ) in 2002, many election-reform issues have continued to arise in conjunction with subsequent federal elections. Attempts to address those issues legislatively have taken form in many bills introduced in recent Congresses. Others were introduced in response to events, especially problems that occurred during the 2004 federal election and as a result of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Still others addressed longstanding election-reform issues. Some were very specifically targeted to a particular issue, whereas others were more comprehensive, focusing on several issues. Among other issues that arose in conjunction with recent federal elections and which were addressed by proposed legislation were
concerns about political activity and conflict of interest among voting system vendors and among election officials, the use of deceptive practices relating to voting by political operatives or others, enforcement of HAVA requirements, access to polling places by observers, the provisioning of voting machines to polling places, the level of training given to pollworkers, voting rights of convicted persons, various aspects of voting-system security, voter identification, and voter-registration requirements. Other issues addressed by one or more bills included absentee and early voting, alternative language requirements, authorization of and budget submission by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), election crimes, the date on which elections are held and whether or not election day should be a holiday, the gathering and reporting of statistics relating to elections, the workings of the Electoral College, extension of voting rights to residents in areas other than the 50 states, extension of HAVA deadlines, HAVA payments to states, proportional representation and instant-runoff voting, redistricting procedures, state laws on election administration, voter error, voter information, and voting leave for employees on election day. 5122 ( P.L. 533 prohibited the use of cryptography in the record. District of Columbia Voting Rights Restoration Act of 2005.
Despite the passage of the Help America Vote Act (P.L. 107-252) in 2002, many election-reform issues have continued to arise in conjunction with subsequent federal elections. Attempts to address those issues legislatively took form in many bills introduced in recent Congresses, particularly the 109th. Some of those bills responded specifically to issues that arose from the passage of HAVA. Others responded to events, especially problems that occurred during the 2004 federal election and as a result of the hurricanes of 2005. Still others addressed longstanding election-reform issues. Some were very specifically targeted to a particular issue, whereas others were more comprehensive, focusing on several issues. The various approaches taken by those bills may be used in legislation considered by the 110th Congress. The issues addressed included the following:
concerns about conflict of interest and political activity among voting system vendors and among election officials, voting rights of convicted persons, election crimes, the use of deceptive practices relating to voting by political operatives or others, voting rights in the District of Columbia and other areas other than the 50 states, early and absentee voting, authorization and authority of the Election Assistance Commission, the Electoral College, enforcement of HAVA requirements, voter error, election holiday, voter identification, voter information, alternative language requirements, voting leave for employees on election day, access to polling places by observers, payments to states, proportional representation and instant-runoff voting, the use of provisional ballots, the provisioning of voting machines to polling places, redistricting procedures, state laws on election administration, election statistics, the level of training given to pollworkers, security of electronic voting systems and verifiability of ballots, and voter-registration requirements.
In addition to appropriations, two bills with election-related provisions were enacted: reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act (P.L. 109-246), and defense reauthorization (P.L. 109-364). This report will not be updated.