Washington, DC – Participating in the NAACP 97th Annual Convention, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) today underscored the need to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, enforce voting rights and address the unfinished business of election reform. Senator Clinton has introduced comprehensive legislation, the Count Every Vote Act, to make sure that every American is able to vote and every vote is counted. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) has introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

“The Voting Rights Act helped take our country forward, helped us to build an America that reaches ever closer to her ideals. We should not have to plead or to debate the importance of protecting the right to vote in America. It is critical that we reauthorize the Voting Rights Act and make sure these rights are enforced,” said Senator Clinton. “We also need to make sure that voters have faith in the fairness and accuracy of our voting system and the Count Every Vote Act is an important step toward restoring this covenant. We must be able to easily and accurately count every vote so that every vote counts.”

The Count Every Vote Act will provide a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast in electronic voting machines and ensures access to voter verification for all citizens, including language minority voters, illiterate voters and voters with disabilities. The bill mandates that this ballot be the official ballot for purposes of a recount. The bill sets a uniform standard for provisional ballots so that every qualified voter will know their votes are treated equally, and requires the Federal Election Assistance Commission to issue standards that ensure uniform access to voting machines and trained election personnel in every community. The bill also improves security measures for electronic voting machines.

To encourage more citizens to exercise their right to vote, the Count Every Vote Act designates Election Day a federal holiday and requires early voting in each state. The bill also enacts “no-excuse” absentee balloting, enacts fair and uniform voter registration and identification, and requires states to allow citizens to register to vote on Election Day. It also requires the Election Assistance Commission to work with states to reduce wait times for voters at polling places. In addition, the legislation restores voting rights for felons who have repaid their debt to society.

The Count Every Vote Act also includes measures to protect voters from deceptive practices and conflicts of interest that harm voter trust in the integrity of the system. In particular, the bill restricts the ability of chief state election officials as well as owners and senior managers of voting machine manufacturers to engage in certain kinds of political activity. The bill also makes it a federal crime to commit deceptive practices, such as sending flyers into minority neighborhoods telling voters the wrong voting date, and makes these practices a felony punishable by up to a year of imprisonment.

“The endurance of our democracy requires constant vigilance. We cannot let another Election Day go by without doing everything we can to make sure that voters have confidence in our voting system and exercise their right to vote,” said Senator Clinton.

The following is a summary of the Count Every Vote Act:

Count Every Vote Act

More Accountable and Accessible Voting Systems

• Require that all voting systems produce a paper record that can be verified by the individual voter and that would constitute the official record for any recount;

• Require a mandatory recount of voter-verified paper records in 2 percent of all polling places or precincts in each state;

• Set minimum standards for the number of voting systems and poll workers at each precinct, and require that every precinct have at least one machine that can provide audio and pictorial verification and that is accessible to language minority voters;

• Establish new security standards for voting equipment manufacturers, including a ban on using undisclosed software and wireless communications devices in voting systems.

More Opportunities for Citizens to Register to Vote and Cast Their Ballots

• Allow voters to register and cast a ballot on election day;

• Require states to provide in-person early voting opportunities before Election Day;

• Prohibit states from demanding excuses from voters who request absentee ballots;

• Give voters more options for proving their identity to election officials;

• Prohibit election officials from rejecting voter registration applications that are missing information which has no effect on the specific voter’s eligibility.

Discourage Partisan Manipulation and Deceptive Practices in Elections

• Make certain federal election campaign activities off limits to chief state election officials and top-level executives and owners of voting system manufacturers;

• Require states to act in a uniform and transparent manner when attempting to purge voters from state registration lists;

• Provide for the prosecution of those who engage in deceptive practices to keep people from voting in federal elections.

Expand the Right to Vote

• Require states to allow ex-felons who have completed their prison, parole and probation terms to register and vote in federal elections.

Ensure That All Votes Are Counted

• Require that provisional ballots be counted state-wide, allowing voters who are registered in a state but cast provisional ballots in a wrong precinct to still have their votes counted for all eligible federal races.

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