[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 18, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5611-S5612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ENSIGN:
  S. 2437. A bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require 
a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy under title III of such 
Act, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Rules and 
Administration.
  Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about an issue that 
is fundamental to our democracy. That issue is the right for each 
American to know that their vote has been cast and accurately counted. 
Earlier today, I introduced legislation, the Voting Integrity and 
Verification Act, which would provide each American with those 
assurances.
  The United States Constitution is sacred to Americans and it is the 
envy of the free world. It preserves the rights and freedoms that 
Americans hold so dear. Our Constitution also guarantees the right of 
each American to vote. Central to the integrity of our democracy is the 
right for each American to participate in our democracy.
  Democracy works best when each eligible voter participates. As a 
Nation, we learned in 2000 that even a Presidential election can be 
determined by handfuls of votes. I learned this lesson in my own 1998 
U.S. Senate campaign against incumbent Senator Harry Reid. In one of 
the closest Federal elections that year, a mere 428 votes separated us 
after all votes had been counted statewide.
  After the election I requested a recount in Clark County, the only 
county at the time using electronic voting machines. The result of the 
recount was identical to the first count. That is because there was 
nothing to recount. After rerunning a computer program, the computer 
produced the same exact tally.
  I conceded to Senator Reid and was elected to Nevada's other Senate 
seat in 2000, but I was still troubled by the fact that Clark County 
voters had no assurance that their votes had been accurately counted. 
Innocent computer malfunctions or intentional tampering could have 
altered their votes without anyone ever knowing.
  That is why I led the fight for voter verification paper trails in 
the Help American Vote Act (HAVA) that President Bush signed into law 
in 2002. A voter-verified paper trail would allow a voter to review a 
physical printout of their ballot and correct any errors before leaving 
the voting booth. This printout would be preserved at the polling for 
use in any recounts.
  Unfortunately, the language that is contained in HAVA has not 
resolved this issue. Now, I am working to address this issue once and 
for all. By introducing the Voting Integrity and Verification Act, I 
want to ensure that HAVA is clear--voters must be assured that their 
votes will be accurate and will be counted properly. A paper trail 
provides just such an assurance.

  A paper trail is not just a hypothetical answer to electronic ballot 
mishaps that may not ever happen. On January 6, 2004, a special 
election was held in Broward County, FL, for House District Seat 91. 
The margin of victory was 12 votes, but the machine failed to record 
the votes of 134 ballots. The results of this election have to be 
called into question, because the House seat was the only item on the 
ballot. It is doubtful that 134 voters would go to the polling place, 
stand in line, enter the voting booth but leave without casting a vote. 
Yet that was the explanation offered to explain the failure of the 
electronic voting machines to record 134 votes. This triggered an 
automatic recount under Florida law but there were no paper records 
with which to conduct a recount. Election workers were left to rerun 
the computer program. Just as happened in my Senate race, rerunning a 
computer program to conduct a manual ``recount'' did not change the 
outcome.
  In Maryland on November 5, 2002, and in Fairfax County, VA, on 
November 4,

[[Page S5612]]

2003, voters who used electronic ``touch screen'' voting machines 
watched as the ``X'' they placed on the video screen next to one 
candidate's name appeared in a box for the other candidate. There were 
no verified paper ballots, so a recount was not possible. The voters 
who witnessed such an irregularity, and all voters who used those 
voting machines, have no assurances that the machine accurately 
recorded their vote. This calls into question any results determined by 
these machines and shows that there is no limit as to the number of 
votes that may have been miscounted.
  It's not written in the Constitution this way, but it seems to me 
quite obvious that the right of citizens of the United States to vote 
shall not be denied on account of a lack of a paper trail. We must 
uphold the sanctity of our vote by making sure there is an accurate way 
to confirm and recount votes. I call on Congress to act swiftly to 
preserve America's faith in our election process and enact the Voting 
Integrity and Verification Act.

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