Dateline: 02/20/02

Not even a perfectly reformed political campaign is much good if the election itself ends up in legal turmoil, like the 2000 presidential epic. So, before it takes on the campaign finance reform bill, the U.S. Senate appears poised to pass a bill setting in motion the most sweeping upgrade of the national voting system in U.S. political history.

After considering dozens of amendments, the Senate hopes next week to pass the bill S. 565, the Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2001. The House of Representatives approved a similar bill, H.R. 3295, in Dec. 2001, exactly one year after a Supreme Court ruling effectively halted further hand recounts of disputed ballots in Florida, thus sealing the state's popular vote and the national electoral vote in favor of George W. Bush.

Here are the main highlights of the voting reform bills now before Congress:

Voting System Upgrades
Both the Senate (S. 565) and the House (H.R. 3295) versions of the voting reform bill call for the states to implement three major upgrades to their voting systems.

• States would be required to use updated voting machines capable of notifying voters if they improperly selected more than one candidate in a given race, or had failed to vote for any candidates in a given race.
• States would be required to provide voting machines capable of allowing blind voters to cast secret ballots. (Election officials currently mark ballots for blind voters.)
• States would be required to centralize voter registration rolls, birth and death certificates, and other voter identification records in order to prevent incidents of fraudulent voting, including the casting of multiple ballots by the same voter.

At a national level, the bills would require steps be taken to better protect the voting rights of military personnel stationed overseas.

Both versions of the bill offer federal financial assistance to help the states upgrade their voting systems. The Senate bill would provide $3.4 billion over five years, while bill approved in the House would provide $2.65 billion over three years.

The House bill would also allocate $400 million to help completely eliminate the punch card ballot system with its "hanging chad" that played such an infamous role in the disputed 2000 Florida vote.

Other changes voters may see as a result of voting reform legislation include:

• A "same day" voter registration process
• A process to allow a voter to cast a "provisional" ballot at a polling place other than the one at which they are officially registered
• Sample ballots mailed to all registered voters at least 10 days before elections.

Once the Senate passes its version of the bill, a House-Senate conference committee will meet to work out compromises and create a single, combined bill to be sent to President Bush.