Help America Vote Act-What Now?
When people think of HAVA (if at all anymore) they usually think of Bush V Gore and maybe a requirement to get rid of punch card machines. What with recent Voter ID efforts to deliberately disenfranchise or inhibit voters and resulting push back from the courts we fall back to Federal law. The Help Americans Vote Act calls for Voter ID under certain circumstances. I don’t think anyone involved with the formulation or passing of this law had discrimination or party politics for motive. This is designed to avoid another debacle like Bush V Gore.
Think of it like this-Every election result that falls within the error margin of the process turns into a mathematical coin flip instead of an election via votes. So whatever vote fraud may do to the system, that’s only one small issue. Others remain. Double votes, damaged ballots, lost ballots, delays and problems with the mail and absentee ballots. Think about the math, the closer an election is, the more impact every error or process issue has. the close election may be the one that matters most.
A judge chosen by a republican or a democrat deciding an election?!
So back to my point-HAVA is the law of the land. What are we doing with it?
Voter identification
HAVA requires any voter who registered by mail and who has not previously voted in a federal election to show current and valid photo identification or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter. Voters who submitted any of these forms of identification during registration are exempt, as are voters entitled to vote by absentee ballot under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
Provisional voting
HAVA requires voters identified as ineligible (such as voters not found on the registered list), but who believe themselves to be eligible, to be able to cast a provisional ballot. After the election, the appropriate State or local election entity will determine if the voter was eligible, if so counting the vote and notify the voter of the outcome. Approximately 1.9 million voters nationwide cast provisional ballots in the 2004 election. Of those, approximately 1.2 million—or 64.5%—were counted.[5] Additionally, any time polling hours are extended voters are required to vote using provisional ballots.[6] Further, voters who do not comply with HAVA’s voter identification requirements are able to cast a provisional ballot.
More: Help America Vote Act