April 3, 2001

Associate Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and Director of the Task Force on Election Administration for the National Commission on Federal Election Reform

 Good morning and thank you for this opportunity to discuss election reform. I want to say at the outset that while I am a task force director for the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, I am not speaking on behalf of the Commission. Like professors Walters, Keyssar and Ansolabehere, I have been closely involved in evaluating what happened in the 2000 elections and how the U.S. Congress can improve elections in America.

We should begin with the understanding that, under Article 1 Section 4 and the 14^th Amendment, Congress does have a constitutional role overseeing federal elections. I want to call particular attention to last month’s excellent paper on this by the General Accounting Office (GAO-01-470, "The Scope of Congressional Authority in Election Administration," March 13, 2001). Whether the federal government should use a heavy hand or a light touch is up to you, but be bemused by anyone who argues that Congress has no authority in this area. You have the power, and I trust you will use it wisely.

This month and last, Congress has been deeply divided over how to proceed with election reform. Republicans tend to emphasize possibilities for – and some say the prevalence of – fraud. There is fraud in voter registration and fraud in the use of absentee ballots. Republicans are right, because vote fraud does happen in America.

Democrats tend to point to voter intimidation, especially of minorities. Examples seem not so hard to find. It is widely believed that the poorest Americans use the poorest-performing machines. So some wait in long lines to vote on antiquated systems that are seriously flawed. Democrats are right, because vote suppression does happen in America.

Concerns about fraud and intimidation are shared on both sides of the aisle. Election reform will have to be bipartisan. As the Congress explores various proposals, I encourage you to consider that election administration in America has not been getting worse. It has been getting better. But it is not nearly good enough, and what has long been considered a "condition" is now re-defined as a "problem." How big is the problem?

• There are about 1.4 million poll workers at
• 200,000 polling places, complete with
• 700,000 voting machines, which are overseen in
• 6,800 election jurisdictions, and
• 3,200 of those election districts are counties.
• Each state has different rules.
• Many state election officials are exceptionally defensive.
• Worse still, many state legislators are under the mistaken impression that Congress is about to give them money to upgrade their voting equipment. So they are dragging their heels, and in all likelihood few significant reforms will be in place by the November 2002 elections.

You know what will happen if reforms are not in place soon. Come November 2002, the media will be camped in precincts across America. In some places, maybe a couple dozen but more than enough, the media will find poorly designed ballots, bloated registration lists, malfunctioning machines, and bumbling volunteers. They will find fraud. They will find vote suppression. And Americans will wonder what Congress had been up to for the last two years. Brace yourselves for that public reaction twenty months from today. And in the meantime, do the following.

First, recognize that elections and their administration are exceptionally – exquisitely – complicated in America. Then appoint a permanent panel of experts to develop national standards on registration procedures, on poll worker training, on ballot designs, on access for the disabled, on voting machine technologies, on provisional ballots, on reporting requirements, and on recount procedures. Minimum standards, uniformly applied in every precinct, should be a national goal. The body that develops these standards should be non-partisan at best and bipartisan at least. The Office of Election Administration within the FEC is not up to this job.

Second, Congress should let states decide how to implement many of the national standards. For example, Congress might require that state election files share a common key with DMV records, so that people who register through the DMV under the National Voter Registration Act can be quickly registered with election officials. Changes of address through the DMV might also be used to update registration files. While this makes perfect sense, today just three states keep their computer files in a format that allows sharing of information between election officials and DMVs. If such sharing becomes a national standard, let the states themselves decide how best to implement the requirement.

Similarly, Congress might require minimum error rates for ballot designs and voting machines. But it would be wise to let manufacturers figure out how to meet those standards, whether by paper ballots, optical-scanners or fancy electronics.

Third, you will find near unanimity among local election officials that the voter registration system in America is seriously flawed. Fraud is relatively easy to commit, but we have no good sense for how widespread it is. NVRA has done noble things, but it needs to be improved. Today in most jurisdictions, a person needs no identification to register, no proof of citizenship, no proof of residency whatsoever. Registration lists are not automatically purged when the same person moves and registers somewhere else. Registration lists are not automatically linked with death records. The situation is a mess, and I assure you that election administrators across the country would love some help in cleaning up the system.

Professor Ansolabehere can tell you about vagaries and biases in voting machines. I will leave that to him, so let me make, instead, some quick comments on a number of proposed reforms.

First, it is in your power to change the date of federal elections, and you can do it without a constitutional amendment. Some of you support making election day a holiday. Some of you want to move elections to Veterans Day. There is research on this, and moving to Veterans Day is unlikely to increase turnout. A fair number of voters will take vacations. But there is something compelling about voting on a day that commemorates the men and women who fought for our right to vote. Furthermore, voting on a holiday allows students and the gainfully employed work at the polls. It should be much easier to recruit volunteers.

Second, Congress should show strong support for the national adoption of provisional ballots. This will be crucial given redistricting for the 2002 elections. Provisional ballots help root out mistakes and they help election officials update voter files. Nobody who is plausibly eligible should be turned away from the polls in America. Provisional ballots, which are counted only after it is determined that a person was indeed eligible to vote, should be easily available.

Third, many of you argue that we need a national poll closing time. Election administrators hate this idea. They can scarcely staff the polls already. Granted, the national news media have behaved disgracefully, and there is no question but that reports of election results on the East Coast influence voters in the West. Instead of national poll closing times, I urge you to consider – for presidential tallies only – a national reporting time. When California closes at 8 p.m. Pacific, let every state reveal their results at once.

Finally, fourth, beyond vote fraud and voter intimidation, the real scandal of American elections is that young people do not vote. More than two thirds of the eligible voters under 34 years of age did not vote in the presidential election. That is a crisis. Maybe it is because most American schools no longer teach civics. Maybe it is because their baby boomer parents, along with the popular culture, raised them on a diet of cynicism. The 2000 election merely confirms their skepticism and reinforces their lassitude. But don’t give up hope. High school and college students today are a stunningly self-less generation. They deeply believe in community service. Young people should know that public service is community service. But that is something they can only learn by experience, and what better way than to get students involved in the community service of working at the polls, and meeting their neighbors, and embracing the cranky ennobling mechanics of democracy.

The real losers last November were not Democrats or Republicans. They were the generation of tomorrow’s voters, or tomorrow’s non-voters. So what you are doing today in this hearing, and what the committees of jurisdiction will do in the coming months, is so very important. I assure you and all other members of Congress that the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, that President Ford and President Carter and the worthy men and women on the commission are rooting for you and will be by your side.

Thank you.