By Janice K. Brewer, Arizona Secretary of State
Earlier this month, a U.S. House Congressional Committee gave its approval to a so-called election reform bill (H.R. 811) that – if given final approval – would be among the most colossal wastes of taxpayer money in history, and worse still, would severely diminish the ability for visually impaired and other disabled voters to participate in the election process.
This bill, ironically entitled “the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007”, does absolutely none of what its title promises. It will force our State to trash at least $15 million of brand new voting devices for disabled voters – all of which produce a paper record – and replace them with voting technology that does not exist and may not be available to market until 2016.
Arizona has made significant progress in the area of election reform. In 2002, Congress appropriated approximately $3.6 billion to the states in part to rid the country of punch card and lever voting devices (no more “hanging” or “pregnant chads.”) Within a year we replaced our State’s antiquated punch card voting devices with proven optical scan technology, we procured voting devices for the disabled community, we mandated that all voting devices produce an auditable paper record of the votes cast, we required a post-election manual audit be conducted after the election to assure the machines worked properly, and we drafted strict security protocol during all handling and transportation of voting machines and ballots.
In the end, H.R. 811 could cost Arizona taxpayers $15 million to replace perfectly good machines that were used successfully during the 2006 statewide elections. More troublesome, is the fact it will outlaw the very machines that are currently used by the disabled in Arizona, thus taking away these voters’ rights to vote in private for at least another decade. I have no doubt this is why national disability group leaders oppose this bill. The only group that stands to benefit the most from this ridiculous legislation is the voting equipment vendors.
Some in Congress seem bent on moving this unnecessary and costly legislation forward, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Congressman Harry Mitchell, and Congressman Raul Grijalva, who have all unfortunately signed on as co-sponsors. Hopefully, when learning this bill will disenfranchise Arizona’s disabled voters while wasting millions of tax dollars unnecessarily, they will change their minds.
I urge Congress to reject this bill or at the very least change its name to the “Disenfranchisement of Disabled Voters Act” or “Waste More Tax Dollars and Line the Pockets of Voting Equipment Vendors.” Either way, H.R. 811 will have no positive effects here in Arizona.
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