Counting Electoral Votes--Joint Session of the House and Senate Held Pursuant to the Provisions of Senate Concurrent Resolution 1

COUNTING ELECTORAL VOTES--JOINT SESSION OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE HELD PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1 (HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES--JANUARY 6, 2005) -- (House of Representatives - January 06, 2005)

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, Ohio symbolizes that the Help America Vote Act fell short of the lofty goals set by this Congress. Ohio's Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, in a State in which all statewide offices are controlled by Republicans and, in our State legislature, Republicans outnumber Democrats two to one in both chambers, our Secretary of State repeatedly took actions to make it more difficult for as many Ohioans as possible to have their votes fairly cast and accurately recorded.

No national standards were set for voting equipment because the Bush administration appointed members of the Election Assistance Commission so late that their confirmation was nearly a full year later than required by HAVA itself. They had no time to recommend standards until it was too late, and those standards are still not in place today.

The Ohio Secretary of State tried to force county boards of elections to buy equipment that his own reports showed to be flawed. Federal dollars that this Congress appropriated to help modernize elections became stuck in Ohio between the Secretary of State's office and local boards of elections who were often in deep disagreement as to which machine standards were trustworthy.

Just prior to election, Secretary Blackwell continued to frustrate the enfranchisement of Ohioans with actions ranging from specifying paper weight standards for voter registration forms that even his own office could not meet, and then fighting the availability of provisional ballots right up until 3 p.m. on Election Day. In fact, people who had requested absentee ballots and had not received them were denied provisional ballots until a Federal court ruling that was issued at 3 p.m. on Election Day, after who knows how many Ohioans were denied ballots that they were prepared to cast for the candidates of their choice.

No one can change the outcome of this election; but believe me, hundreds of thousands of Ohioans do have questions about the way that this election was handled in Ohio, in a State in which the winning margin was only 118,000 votes. Implementing the actual intent of HAVA and amending it where necessary deserve the full investigation of this 109th Congress, and it ought to be our first order of business.

I commend the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) of Cleveland who experienced these abuses in her area for bringing this to national attention. We are very proud of her. We are very proud of the Members who have chosen to join her. I would ask my Republican colleagues, starting with the Committee on House Administration, to join us in this effort to make HAVA really work as we approach the elections of 2006.

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