[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 6, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H9431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           MALFUNCTIONS WITH VOTING MACHINE NOT UNPRECEDENTED

  (Mr. THOMAS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, to briefly explain what occurred on the 
machinery, this is not unprecedented. On May 4, 1988, the same 
situation occurred. As one might guess, it is a human error.
  There was a Member who had a card, and we all know that these new 
cards are much better than the old laminated ones but they do go bad. 
When that Member's name was adjusted on the visual screen, it was 
placed first, out of order alphabetically, and so when the votes were 
recorded they skipped one. They did not match up.
  I want to assure every Member that the computer is far more 
sophisticated than that. These lights are for visual purposes only. The 
machine records the vote according to a unique identifier number. 
Regardless of where a Member might be placed alphabetically the unique 
number from the card records the vote.
  However, I want to compliment the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Dingell), who is one of the few Members around here who remembers this 
is the way we used to do business on an ordinary basis, about a quarter 
of a century it was done under this system, the other half with lights. 
The votes were recorded accurately, but given the concern over the 
visual reference it was entirely appropriate to go through this 
procedure. It was a revisiting of a previous existence of the Congress.
  Our hope is that the human errors are now minimized, but the actual 
vote that is recorded, notwithstanding the visual display, was recorded 
accurately by the machine.

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