[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 104 (Tuesday, September 7, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H6733-H6734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SMART SECURITY AND ELECTIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, in November of 2000, America witnessed the 
breakdown of its electoral system. Four years later, as far as I can 
see, nothing that was broken has been fixed. Many Americans believe the 
same injustices to democracy that we witnessed 4 years ago could occur 
once again this November.
  The very security of our democracy is at stake. For all of the Bush 
administration's talk about securing our Nation from the threat of 
terrorism, no discussion of security would be complete if it did not 
address the need to secure our national election system.
  After the controversial election in 2000, one would think President 
Bush would do everything in his power to ensure the integrity of 
America's election system. I know that is what I would have done had I 
become President of this United States, particularly after having lost 
the national popular vote by more than half a million votes. But 
unfortunately, despite some Democratic efforts here in Congress, this 
administration has failed to win back the trust of our Nation's voters.
  The Help America Vote Act, which was signed into law in the year 
2002, was designed to assist States in upgrading their fragile election 
systems. I supported this legislation because it took steps in the 
right direction to make our election system secure. While some 
improvements have been made because of this act, its most useful 
reforms, the reforms that would actually ensure security, will not be 
in

[[Page H6734]]

place by the November election, and that is because this administration 
refused to release most of the Federal dollars promised by the Help 
America Vote Act until June of 2004, 2 years after it became public 
law, delaying what could have been a secure election this November.
  With 32 million voters in 19 States using punch-card ballots again 
this November, millions of voters will walk away from the polls not 
knowing for certain whether their votes were tallied correctly.
  The emergence of electronic voting systems, I believe, is a good 
thing, but not without verifiable technology. Sadly, Republicans have 
refused to allow for paper-verified voting trails to ensure that each 
vote is counted correctly. Without a paper trail, there will be no way 
to conduct a recount should an election be contested.
  Why have Congress and the Bush administration failed to produce vital 
changes since the drawn-out election of 4 short years ago? Some would 
say it is in the administration's best interests not to change the 
system.
  Mr. Speaker, there is an even greater threat lurking quietly below. 
That is, the possible disenfranchisement of voters due to inaccurate 
registration methods and the shady control of voting lists. A recent 
Caltech/MIT study concluded that 4 million to 6 million votes were lost 
nationwide in the 2000 election. Half of these were traced to 
registration problems. In the year 2000, thousands of Floridians were 
deprived of the right to vote because they shared the same name with 
someone who had been convicted of a felony. This type of 
disenfranchisement and the physical intimidation of some voters is no 
better than the practices used to prevent Southern blacks from voting 
in the 1950s and 1960s. It appears we have not come very far since 
then.
  We need to be smarter. We need to be smarter in order to secure our 
elections. I have introduced H. Con. Res. 392, the SMART Security 
Resolution, to address both foreign and domestic threats to our Nation. 
SMART stands for Sensible, Multilateral American Response to Terrorism. 
SMART security emphasizes the need for the United States to act as a 
leader and a model for other less sophisticated, less democratic 
nations. This means shoring up the credibility of our own election 
system, including the development of new, verifiable technology, to 
ensure that our Nation's poor and aged are not disenfranchised. It 
means avoiding a system where our own citizens are forced to cry out 
for international observers to ensure the fairness of our elections. 
SMART security means fully and quickly implementing the reforms 
stipulated in the Help America Vote Act.
  Mr. Speaker, how can this country ever hope to be a true democratic 
model for the rest of the world when its own elected leaders have 
failed to ensure that our election system is truly democratic? Let us 
be smarter about the way we elect our national leaders, because until 
we do, our election system will remain one accused of fraud and riddled 
with doubt, and we will not stand as an example of democracy in the 
rest of the world.

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