FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     Contact: Andrew Kirshenbaum, Program Associate Wednesday, October 20. 2004                     (301) 270-4616 or [email protected]

TAKOMA PARK, MD- FairVote-The Center for Voting and Democracy predicts that millions of eligible voters will be disenfranchised on November 2nd. With all eyes focused on the razor-thin margins of this year's presidential election, we believe that the probability is high that the results of the election may be marred by scores of voting problems on the state level, once again raising the possibility that the election will be decided by lawyers, rather than the people.

Our examination of reports from elections occurring after 2000 show that even after the initial implementation of the Help American Vote Act, Florida-like election problems will occur again:

1. Voting machines will malfunction ��� preventing voting and leading to lost votes

Most voters will be using the same voting equipment this year that they used in 2000 ��� when more than a million votes were lost in the presidential race due directly to problems with equipment and ballot design. New machines present their own problems. During the Florida primary 245 electronically cast votes were lost from voting machines in Hillsborough County, while in the California primary potential voters were turned away when electronic machines stopped working.  State elections officials have restricted public access to test results and certification reports, creating a lack of transparency that undermines voter confidence.

2. First-time and long-time voters alike will be turned away at polling booths because their names do not show up on the voter rolls.

State and county election boards have only haphazardly instituted provisional ballots and all too often provisional ballots cast, were never counted.   93% of all provisional ballots cast in Chicago precincts during the Illinois primaries this March were never counted, while most voters left the polls assuming they had cast valid ballots poll workers are still learning about the law; many voters in Florida���s primary were not provided with provisional ballots this year. At the same time, there are currently a handful of court cases pending to decide whether provisional ballots must be counted for President or statewide offices should a voter turn up at the wrong precinct.  The uncertainty and inconsistency in these voting procedures has the potential to disenfranchise untold numbers of voters this November���and be fought in court after the election.

3. Voters will face intimidation when trying to vote or simply find themselves not registered. 

Acts of intimidation and vote-tampering already have occurred when eligible voters have attempted to register to vote.  College students are facing particularly difficult obstacles in registering to vote, including misinformation indicating they would be subject to numerous taxes, fines, and even criminal penalities for registering to vote in their college town. Students in Arizona, Michigan, Texas, New York and Virginia have all reported deliberate attempts by local elections or elected officials to intimidate them into not registering. The misconduct extends beyond student voters however, as one report alleged a private voter-registration organization went so far as to rip up Democratic voter registration cards in Nevada.

  ���If American citizens are being intimidated when they attempt to register vote, just imagine what is going to happen on the drive up to polls or at the polling places themselves,��� says FairVote Executive Director, Robert Richie.  ���For example, in South Dakota primaries this summer, many Native American voters were prevented from voting after they were challenged to provide photo Ids - which they were not required to present under state or federal law.���

 
Call for a real solution before 2008

���The real problem is that Americans do not have a federally protected right to vote,��� comments Richie..  Contrary to popular belief there is no right to vote in the U.S. Constitution.  The Bush v. Gore decision states ���The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for President of the United States��� thus states set electoral policies and procedures. FairVote believes that decentralized protection of the right to vote exposes Americans to widespread voter disenfranchisement.

FairVote joins a growing number of scholars, civic rights and elected officials in supporting the addition of a right to vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) has been joined by nearly a tenth of the U.S. House in support of such an amendment, H.J. Res. 28. ). HR Res. 28 would make voting a right of citizenship that all voting-age Americans are entitled and would require Congress to set national voting standards for states to follow to ensure that every American has an equal opportunity to vote and have their vote counted..  .

According to Rep. Jackson Jr. ���Voting is not only democratic right, it is a human right.  That human right is not in our Constitution���.
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