Reform Elections.org News & Commentary: The Worst and Best in Election Reform, 2005 (Because There Was More Bad than Good)

Reform Elections.org, A Project of The Century Foundation

The Worst and Best in Election Reform, 2005 (Because There Was More Bad than Good)

Tova Andrea Wang, The Century Foundation, 12/27/2005

So many grinches this year, Who-ville is more worried than ever about its democracy. The Georgia state legislature. The Department of Justice. Tom Delay. It was enough to make us believers in voting rights think we would be left with nothing under the tree. But despite a commitment to reform two sizes too small in so many quarters, there were at least some indications that 2006 might bring progress on elections after all.

The Worst	The Best
Georgia State Legislature. Georgia passes the most draconian voter identification bill in the country, requiring all voters to pay for and present government issued photo identification at the polls in order to vote. It is pre-cleared by the Department of Justice, but the Washington Post later reports that the career attorneys at the department almost unanimously argued in a lengthy memo that the law would deny minority voting rights. Political appointees ignored the advice.	Georgia Voting Rights Groups. In litigation brought by Common Cause, the ACLU, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and others, a judge enjoins the state from implementing the identification law, calling it a poll tax.
Carter-Baker Commission Report. Esteemed body proposes a voter identification scheme even worse than that enacted in Georgia—it requires all voters to present a “Real ID” driver’s license in order to vote. Many positive ideas for reforming the election system proposed are disregarded because of this horribly misguided and destructive recommendation.	TCF Report. The Century Foundation Working Group on State Implementation of Election Reform releases a report with numerous practical recommendations for improving our election system.
Texas Redistricting. A federal district court upholds an outrageous scheme by Texas Republicans to increase their power by taking the unprecedented step of redistricting in between census years, and engaging in a redistricting process that achieves no other purpose but to increase safe Republican congressional seats. And, once again, career Department of Justice attorneys had argued that the plan would dilute minority voting and should not be pre-cleared. Attorney General Ashcroft ignored them.	Supreme Court. Agrees to review the Texas redistricting scheme, giving elections experts hope that this destructive practice will be held unconstitutional.
Louisiana Elections. Voting machines and registration records are destroyed and the hundreds of thousands of voters displaced by Hurricane Katrina are given no information about their voting rights. Local elections are delayed, rescheduling to be announced. FEMA refuses to provide funds for rebuilding democracy and educating voters.	Iraq. Holds its elections on time.
Washington Gubernatorial Election. The miniscule margin of difference in votes between the gubernatorial candidates from 2004 keeps litigation around this election going well into 2005, leading to all sorts of accusations of fraud and ineptitude by both sides.	Washington Gubernatorial Election. Washington state judge restores sanity with a well reasoned opinion, remarking that the election was actually free of any real fraud, ending the election in June.
Punch Card and Lever Machines. They’re still around—see New York State—even though they are inaccessible to the disabled and relatively ineffective at accurately recording votes.	DREs with paper trails. While the controversy over the security over electronic voting machines rages on, many states take the appropriate step of obtaining the most accessible machines available with the added precaution of a voter verified paper trail.
Pennsylvania Ex-felon Voting Rights. State considers a bill that would roll back the rights of ex-felons on parole or probation to rejoin the democratic community.	Iowa. Governor Vilsak brings Iowa into the community of civilized nations by restoring the voting rights of ex-felons.
Arizona. State implements law that not only requires all voters to present identification in order to vote—it requires voters to prove their citizenship before being allowed to register to vote. It is anticipated this will result in thousands of disenfranchised American citizens.	Governor Doyle. Repeatedly vetoes extremely restrictive photo identification bill in Wisconsin
	Election Geeks and Advocates. These developments mean all of us who have made careers out of examining election administration can continue to earn a living. Special note should be made of the formation of the National Network for State Election Reform, a coalition of voting rights organizations that will press for fair elections and voting rights in every state.

Tova Andrea Wang is a senior program officer and Democracy Fellow at The Century Foundation.

The Century Foundation conducts public policy research and analyses of economic, social, and foreign policy issues, including inequality, retirement security, election reform, media studies, homeland security, and international affairs. The foundation produces books, reports, and other publications, convenes task forces, and working groups and operates eight informational Web sites. With offices in New York City and Washington, D.C., The Century Foundation is nonprofit and nonpartisan and was founded in 1919 by Edward A. Filene.