[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 14 (Thursday, February 14, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S832-S835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EQUAL PROTECTION OF VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 2001--Continued
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I want to make sure that I clarify
something. Just because we are not having additional votes does not
mean Senators could not come over and offer additional amendments.
Senator Dodd has indicated a desire to stay here for as long as there
are those who have amendments. We may be able to obtain a finite list.
I hope we can continue to chip away at those amendments tonight and
tomorrow.
I want to accommodate Senators who have dates with spouses and
significant others, but there may be those who have neither and would
be more than willing to come over and talk about election reform. If
that is the case, we are ready. I know Senator McConnell is every bit
as interested in moving this legislation along.
I applaud our managers and thank them for their willingness to stay
here and continue this effort. Please, if Senators have amendments,
come to the floor. We will do these two votes and we are interested in
doing more, even though we will not have additional rollcall votes
tonight.
I yield the floor.
Vote on Amendment No. 2891, As Amended
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to amendment No.
2891, as amended.
The amendment (No. 2891), as amended, was agreed to.
Mr. DODD. I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. McCONNELL. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Amendment No. 2890
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, is the pending business now the Lieberman
amendment?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be
allowed to speak for up to 6 minutes as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The
Senator from New Mexico is recognized.
(The remarks of Mr. Bingaman are printed in today's Record under
``Morning Business.'')
Mr. BINGAMAN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The
Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I am about to propound a unanimous consent
request which has been cleared on both sides. I ask unanimous consent
that at 5:16 p.m. today the Senate resume consideration of the
Lieberman amendment, No. 2890; that there be 2 minutes of explanation
and the Senate then vote in relation to the amendment; that following
the vote, regardless of the outcome, the Senate resume consideration of
the Burns amendment and there be 2 minutes of explanation prior to a
vote in relation to the amendment; that no second-degree amendments be
in order to either of the two amendments prior to the vote, with all
time equally divided and controlled in the usual form; and that if an
amendment is not disposed of, it recur in the order in which it was
voted, without further intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DODD. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Amendment No. 2890, as Modified
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent I be allowed to
modify the amendment. Apparently one of the pages of the amendment was
inadvertently left off.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment will be so modified.
The amendment, as modified, is as follows:
(Purpose: To authorize administrative leave for Federal employees to
perform poll worker service in Federal elections)
At the end of title IV, add the following:
SEC. 402. AUTHORIZED LEAVE FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES TO PERFORM
POLL WORKER SERVICE IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS.
(a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the
``Federal Employee Voter Assistance Act of 2002''.
(b) Leave for Federal Employees.--Chapter 63 of title 5,
United States Code, is amended by inserting after section
6328 the following:
``Sec. 6329. Leave for poll worker service
``(a) In this section, the term--
``(1) `employee' means an employee of an Executive agency
(other than the General Accounting Office) who is not a
political appointee;
``(2) `political appointee' means any individual who--
``(A) is employed in a position that requires appointment
by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate;
``(B) is employed in a position on the executive schedule
under sections 5312 through 5316;
``(C) is a noncareer appointee in the senior executive
service as defined under section 3132(a)(7); or
``(D) is employed in a position that is excepted from the
competitive service because of the confidential policy-
determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character of
the position; and
``(3) `poll worker service'--
``(A) means--
``(i) administrative and clerical, nonpartisan service
relating to a Federal election performed at a polling place
on the date of that election; and
``(ii) training before or on that date to perform service
described under clause (i); and
[[Page S833]]
``(B) shall not include taking an active part in political
management or political campaigns as defined under section
7323(b)(4).
``(b)(1)(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), the head of an
agency shall grant an employee paid leave under this section
to perform poll worker service.
``(B) The head of an agency may deny any request for leave
under this section if the denial is based on the exigencies
of the public business.
``(2) Leave under this section--
``(A) shall be in addition to any other leave to which an
employee is otherwise entitled;
``(B) may not exceed 3 days in any calendar year; and
``(C) may be used only in the calendar year in which that
leave is granted.
``(3) An employee requesting leave under this section shall
submit written documentation from election officials
substantiating the training and service of the employee.
``(4) An employee who uses leave under this section to
perform poll worker service may not receive payment for that
poll worker service.''.
(b) Regulations.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 6 months after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Office of Personnel Management
shall prescribe regulations to carry out the amendments made
by this section.
(2) Effective date.--This subsection shall take effect on
the date of enactment of this Act.
(c) Reports.--
(1) Initial report.--Not later than June 1, 2005, the
Office of Personnel Management shall submit a report to
Congress on the implementation of section 6329 of title 5,
United States Code (as added by this section), and the extent
of participation by Federal employees under that section.
(2) Subsequent reports.--
(A) In general.--Not later than 6 months after the date of
each general election for the Office of the President, the
Office of Personnel Management shall submit a report to
Congress on the participation of Federal employees under
section 6329 of title 5, United States Code (as added by this
section), with respect to all Federal elections which
occurred in the 54-month period preceding that submission
date.
(B) Effective date.--This paragraph shall take effect on
January 1, 2008.
(d) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--The table of
sections for chapter 63 of title 5, United States Code, is
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 6328
the following:
``6329. Leave for poll worker service.''.
(e) Effective Date.--Except as otherwise provided in this
section, this section shall take effect 6 months after the
date of enactment of this Act.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, very briefly, this amendment responds
to a problem that exists with implementing the election laws of our
country which will be greatly strengthened if we pass the bill that is
before the Senate now. That problem is the shortage of nonpartisan poll
workers, documented by the GAO and the commission headed by Presidents
Carter and Ford. This amendment builds on a successful program started,
at least one I know of, in Los Angeles County and in the State of
California to allow civil servants--not political appointees but civil
servants--to take election day off at the request of local election
officials, to work as nonpartisan poll workers while continuing to be
paid for their Federal employment, receiving no compensation from the
election officials of local jurisdiction.
I have the feeling I have sufficiently described what I believe is a
very meritorious amendment. I urge its adoption.
Mr. McCONNELL. With all due respect to my friend from Connecticut, he
is not talking about election officers; every State has an equal number
of Democrats and Republicans who put on the election and keep it
honest. What my friend from Connecticut is talking about is poll
workers; in other words, workers who will go work for one candidate or
another. We know Federal employees are overwhelmingly Democratic,
Federal employee unions are overwhelmingly on the Democratic side.
In effect, what the Senator from Connecticut is suggesting is that
Federal union employees be given a paid holiday by the taxpayers of the
United States to go out and work for Democratic officials on election
day. I strongly urge this amendment be defeated.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the modified
amendment of the Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Lieberman, No. 2890.
The yeas and nays have been ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Montana (Mr. Baucus) is
necessarily absent.
Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr.
Domenici), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the Senator from Utah
(Mr. Hatch), and the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Campbell) are
necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 46, nays 49, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 33 Leg.]
YEAS--46
Akaka
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Breaux
Byrd
Cantwell
Carnahan
Carper
Cleland
Clinton
Corzine
Daschle
Dayton
Dodd
Durbin
Edwards
Feingold
Feinstein
Graham
Harkin
Hollings
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerry
Landrieu
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Mikulski
Miller
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sarbanes
Schumer
Stabenow
Torricelli
Wellstone
Wyden
NAYS--49
Allard
Allen
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Chafee
Cochran
Collins
Conrad
Craig
Crapo
DeWine
Dorgan
Ensign
Enzi
Fitzgerald
Frist
Gramm
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Helms
Hutchinson
Hutchison
Inhofe
Kohl
Kyl
Lott
Lugar
McCain
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Nickles
Roberts
Santorum
Sessions
Shelby
Smith (NH)
Smith (OR)
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Voinovich
Warner
NOT VOTING--5
Baucus
Bennett
Campbell
Domenici
Hatch
The amendment (No. 2990), as modified, was rejected.
Mr. CRAIG. I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. BROWNBACK. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Amendment No. 2887
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There are now 2 minutes equally divided on the
Burns amendment.
The Senator from Nevada.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the
quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I understand there is a minute on each side
on the Burns amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
Mr. DODD. I yield to the Senator from Montana.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
Mr. BURNS. I thank my good friend.
Mr. President, this amendment is pretty simple. It allows the
director of elections in each county or the secretary of state to purge
the list every 4 years, or every other Federal election.
Right now, they cannot purge it but every other Presidential
election. So you are carrying dead weight for 8 years. It costs
Missoula County $16,000 just to maintain these big lists. It also makes
a lot of people ineligible to vote even though they are on the list.
This is strongly supported by the secretaries of state of your
States. I ask for your support. This makes more sense. This is where
the mischief is in elections.
I yield the floor.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished
Senator from New York.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to this amendment.
Right now, the voter lists have to be purged every 8 years. The Burns
amendment would conflict with the motor-voter law; furthermore, many
people would be needlessly purged. People who did not vote in two
elections would be purged from the list and would have to reregister
In a bill where we are trying to make it easier for people to vote,
this takes
[[Page S834]]
two steps backwards and makes it harder.
We have taken care of this in the bill. The lists are purged at some
point, but it should be a longer period of time. Simply because you
miss two elections should not take you off the rolls.
I urge defeat of the amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, very simply stated, you have the right to
vote, but you also have the right not to vote in two elections and not
be purged. If the Burns amendment were adopted, and you missed two
elections because you didn't want to vote, you would be off the list.
That is too extreme.
I urge rejection of the amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to amendment No.
2887. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the
roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Montana (Mr. Baucus) is
necessarily absent.
Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Utah (Mr. Hatch), the
Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the Senator from Colorado (Mr.
Campbell), and the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici), are
necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. (Mr. Dayton). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 40, nays 55, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 34 Leg.]
YEAS--40
Allard
Allen
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Cochran
Craig
Crapo
DeWine
Ensign
Enzi
Fitzgerald
Frist
Gramm
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Helms
Hutchinson
Hutchison
Inhofe
Kyl
Lott
Lugar
McConnell
Murkowski
Nickles
Roberts
Santorum
Sessions
Shelby
Smith (NH)
Smith (OR)
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Warner
NAYS--55
Akaka
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Byrd
Cantwell
Carnahan
Carper
Chafee
Cleland
Clinton
Collins
Conrad
Corzine
Daschle
Dayton
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Edwards
Feingold
Feinstein
Graham
Harkin
Hollings
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Landrieu
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
McCain
Mikulski
Miller
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sarbanes
Schumer
Stabenow
Torricelli
Voinovich
Wellstone
Wyden
NOT VOTING--5
Baucus
Bennett
Campbell
Domenici
Hatch
The amendment (No. 2887) was rejected.
Mr. REID. I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. CRAIG. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Amendment No. 2906
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I call up the amendment I have at the
desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from New York [Mrs. Clinton] proposes an
amendment No. 2906.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading
of the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To establish a residual ballot performance benchmark)
Beginning on page 8, line 19, strike through page 9, line
3, and insert the following:
(5) Error rates.--
(A) In general.--The error rate of the voting system in
counting ballots (determined by taking into account only
those errors which are attributable to the voting system and
not attributable to an act of the voter) shall not exceed the
error rate standards established under the voting systems
standards issued and maintained by the Director of the Office
of Election Administration of the Federal Election Commission
(as revised by the Director of such Office under subsection
(c)).
(B) Residual ballot performance benchmark.--In addition to
the error rate standards described in subparagraph (A), the
Director of the Office of Election Administration of the
Federal Election Commission shall issue and maintain a
uniform benchmark for the residual ballot error rate that
jurisdictions may not exceed. For purposes of the preceding
sentence, the residual vote error rate shall be equal to the
combination of overvotes, spoiled or uncountable votes, and
undervotes cast in the contest at the top of the ballot, but
excluding an estimate, based upon the best available
research, of intentional undervotes. The Director shall base
the benchmark issued and maintained under this subparagraph
on evidence of good practice in representative jurisdictions.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise to do two things. The first is to
thank my colleagues, Senators Dodd and McConnell. I thank my colleagues
for the extraordinary work they have done in crafting an election
reform bill that will significantly improve our Federal election
system.
I am very pleased that in this legislation we call for national
standards for voting systems. I appreciate greatly the call for
national standards for voting systems, provisional voting, and
statewide voter registration lists in all voting systems used in
Federal elections. I believe these national standards are critically
important because the rights of citizens in one State to exercise their
constitutional right to vote should not be any greater or lesser than
the rights of a citizen in any other State.
In considering and passing this bill, we are also making a statement
of our values and, in a direct way, repudiating those who attacked our
country on September 11 because of our commitment to a free and
democratic system that we would like to see replicated in every nation
of the world. But the only way we can demonstrate to the rest of the
world that we put our values into practice is if each and every
American has faith that our election system is the best and fairest.
I rise to offer an amendment that will provide a greater assurance
that the rights of voters to vote and have their votes counted in
Federal elections will not vary widely from State to State.
As we know, the bill we are considering requires by 2006 that all
voting systems used in Federal elections have an error rate that does
not exceed the standards established by the Director of the Office of
Election Administration. That refers to the rate that voting machines
make mistakes in reading ballots.
This standard is important because it means that by 2006 all voting
systems used in Federal elections will have to use technology and
equipment that does not result in more than a minimum percentage of
votes being discarded.
Yet as important as this standard is, it deals with only one of the
two pieces of the problem of discarded ballots because this standard
concerns votes uncounted due to mechanical errors of the voting system,
but it does not address at all the major problem of residual votes
which are overvotes, undervotes, or spoiled votes that are discarded
due to unintentional human error.
Residual votes, not mechanical errors, are by far the most common
reason why ballots are discarded and not counted and why, therefore,
voters who thought they were doing the right thing ended up being
disenfranchised.
Over the past four Presidential elections, the total rate of residual
vote errors has been slightly more than 2 percent. This translates into
more than 2 million voters in these elections not having their votes
counted. The percentage of residual votes is even higher in Senate
elections.
With respect to last year's Presidential election, the Caltech-MIT
voting technology project reports that voting ballot problems led to an
estimated 2 million votes never being counted because ballots were
ambiguous, spoiled, or unmarked. Though 500,000 of these ballots
represented abstentions, the remaining 1.5 million ballots represented
votes where the voters actually believed they had recorded a vote for
President even though their votes were ultimately discarded.
In addition to the Caltech-MIT study, the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights found that in some precincts as many as 20 percent or more of
the ballots were discarded.
Other researchers and media analysts found the same results, and many
of these discarded votes were actually what we call residual votes.
[[Page S835]]
For these reasons, the Election Reform Commission, chaired by our
distinguished former Presidents, President Carter and President Ford,
the so-called Carter-Ford Commission, recommended unanimously that we
focus not just on machine errors in improving our election system, but
on these unintentional human errors as well.
The Commission members from both parties from all regions of the
country did so because they knew that focusing only on mechanical
errors was not good enough; that only by measuring residual votes will
we be able to assess effectively whether the voting process as a whole
is giving citizens an equal opportunity to have their votes counted.
The bottom line is that there is no dispute that residual votes are a
major problem. The question is, What are we going to do about it?
The amendment I have offered provides a fair, reasonable, and
effective answer. This amendment calls upon the Office of Election
Administration to establish a national performance benchmark for
residual votes, measured as the percentage of residual errors at the
top of the ballot, excluding an estimate based upon the best available
research of intentional undervotes.
Like the other benchmarks in the bill, voting systems used in Federal
elections would have to meet it. This amendment mirrors the language
already in the bill that calls upon the Office of Election
Administration to set a benchmark with respect to mechanical error
rates. The amendment, however, puts in the final piece of the puzzle
for requiring this benchmark for residual votes as well.
For any who might be concerned that the benchmark is measured by
subtracting an estimated number of intentional undervotes, that is not
the case.
In considering this particular issue, the Carter-Ford Commission
noted there has been considerable progress in determining how often
intentional undervotes occur. We can take this data from the National
Election Studies, from the Voter News Service, and we can then use it
for the determination as to how we consider this remaining problem.
The Caltech/MIT study, for example, said exit polls suggested
approximately 30 percent of residual votes, less than 1 percent of all
votes, are intentional. Individually and collectively, therefore, we
can estimate these intentional undervotes and knock them out and only
focus on the unintentional where someone thought they were actually
marking the ballot.
I hope when we establish these national standards, we recognize this
is an important issue. Yes, we need to take care of those mechanical
errors but we also have to take care of the unintentional human errors.
We have learned in election after election, not just in 2000 but in
many of our elections, that hundreds of thousands of our fellow
Americans have gone to the polls believing they were exercising the
most fundamental of their constitutional rights. They cast their
ballots and they never knew their ballots were not counted and their
voices were never heard.
I hope the Senate will consider this problem and will favorably act
upon my amendment so we can, at the end of this process, say clearly
and unequivocally to all Americans we have put into place the best
possible system we can to ensure every vote truly counts and that our
election system matches our values.
Mr. CRAIG. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Amendments Nos. 2908 To 2910, En Bloc
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I have three amendments that have been
cleared on both sides: one by Senator Chafee, one by Senator Judd
Gregg, one by Senator John McCain. I send the three amendments to the
desk and ask that they be considered en bloc.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will report the amendments, en bloc.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. McConnell] proposes
amendments Nos. 2908 to 2910, en bloc.
Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendments
be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendments are as follows:
AMENDMENT NO. 2908
(Purpose: To clarify that States and localities with multi-year
contracts are eligible to apply for grants under the Act)
At the end of section 206(b), added the following: ``A
State or locality that is engaged in a multi-year contract
entered into prior to January 1, 2001, is eligible to apply
for a grant under section 203 for payments made on or after
January 1, 2001, pursuant to that contract.''
____
Amendment No. 2909
(Purpose: To ensure that States that are exempt from the National Voter
Registration Act of 1993 continue to remain exempt from such Act)
On page 17, between lines 22 and 23, insert the following:
(iii) Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this
subparagraph, if a State is described in section 4(b) of the
National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg-
2(b)), that State shall remove the names of ineligible voters
from the computerized list in accordance with State law.
On page 20, strike lines 13 through 15, and insert the
following:
(B) who is--
(i) entitled to vote by absentee ballot under the Uniformed
and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff-1
et seq.);
(ii) provided the right to vote otherwise than in person
under section 3(b)(2)(B)(ii) of the Voting Accessibility for
the Elderly and Handicapped Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ee-
1(b)(2)(B)(ii)); or
(iii) entitled to vote otherwise than in person under any
other Federal law.
On page 21, between lines 6 and 7, insert the following:
(5) Construction.--Nothing in this subsection shall be
construed to require a State that was not required to comply
with a provision of the National Voter Registration Act of
1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg et seq.) before the date of enactment
of this Act to comply with such a provision after such date.
On page 14, between lines 2 and 3, insert the following:
States described in section 4(b) of the National Voter
Registration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg-2(b)) may meet the
requirements of this subsection using voter registration
procedures established under applicable State law.
____
Amendment No. 2910
On page 10, line 22, strike ``Commission'' and insert
``Commission, in consultation with the Architectural and
Transportation Barriers Compliance Board,''.
On page 64, line 19, strike ``316(a)(2)).'' and insert
``316(a)(2)), except that--
``(1) the Architectural and Transportation Barriers
Compliance Board shall remain responsible under section 223
for the general policies and criteria for the approval of
applications submitted under section 222(a); and
``(2) in revising the voting systems standards under
section 101(c)(2) the Commission shall consult with the
Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance
Board.''.
Mr. DODD. I note the Chafee amendment is offered on behalf of Senator
Chafee and Senator Reed of Rhode Island. The amendment from Senator
McCain is offered on behalf of Senator McCain and Senator Harkin.
We have no objection.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendments
en bloc.
The amendments (Nos. 2908 to 2910) were agreed to.
Mr. McCONNELL. I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. DODD. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask consent I be allowed to speak as in
morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________