TheOtherView
Opinions from around the country

It’s about time the deficiencies in the American voting process were addressed. The House and Senate have both passed the Help America Vote Act to address the disenfranchisement that occurred in the 2000 elections.

With President George W. Bush saying he will sign the bill, there will be relief from antiquated voting machines, bad registration lists and a host of other difficulties some states have.

The bill allows a person not on the registration rolls to cast a provisional ballot that is counted if it can be later determined the person was eligible to vote under state law.

This provision of the bill will prevent people who want to vote from being turned away because of bad voter registration lists, such as happened in Florida in 2000 when thousands of voters were inappropriately dropped from the registration rolls.

The act also requires that voters be allowed to check and correct any mistakes on their ballot. This will prevent a person’s vote from being nullified by mistakenly double voting in a race.

Voter fraud is also addressed, with new requirements when it comes to identification.
Anyone registering to vote is required to show identification either when they register or when they vote, depending on how they register.

Although some have expressed concerns the identification requirements will hurt minority turn out and registration, the requirements are open and reasonable. Should a voter not have a driver’s license or social security number, as required in the final stage of the act, the state will assign a number to them.

The only real concern is that the government has authorized spending the $3.9 billion needed to make it happen, but it has not appropriated any of it yet.

The concern is with the legislative backup over spending the act will not be funded fully by the federal government before states need to make changes.

This act fixes problems highlighted in the 2000 election, without hurting any group of voters. America needs this and it needs the federal government to fully fund the plan.

This is a staff editorial from the Crimson White at the University of Alabama. This editorial was distributed by U-Wire