HEARING ON THE 2008 ELECTION: A LOOK 

BACK ON WHAT WENT RIGHT AND WRONG 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 26, 2009 

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/administration/index.html 

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HEARING ON THE 2008 ELECTION: A LOOK BACK ON WHAT WENT 

RIGHT AND WRONG 

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50–807 2008

HEARING ON THE 2008 ELECTION: A LOOK 

BACK ON WHAT WENT RIGHT AND WRONG 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE 

ADMINISTRATION 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 26, 2009 

Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/administration/index.html 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION 

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania, Chairman 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

Vice-Chairwoman 

MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts 

CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas 

SUSAN A. DAVIS, California 

ARTUR DAVIS, Alabama 

DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California 

Ranking Minority Member 

KEVIN MCCARTHY, California 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

S. ELIZABETH BIRNBAUM, Staff Director 

VICTOR ARNOLD-BIK, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS

ZOE LOFGREN, California, Chairwoman 

CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas 

Vice-Chairman 

SUSAN A. DAVIS, California 

ARTUR DAVIS, Alabama 

KEVIN MCCARTHY, California 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

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(1) 

HEARING ON THE 2008 ELECTION: A LOOK 

BACK ON WHAT WENT RIGHT AND WRONG 

THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, 

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m., in room 

1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Zoe Lofgren (chairwoman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Present: Representatives Lofgren, Gonzalez, Davis of Alabama, 

McCarthy, and Harper. 

Staff Present: Liz Birnbaum, Staff Director; Tom Hicks, Senior 

Election Counsel; Janelle Hu, Election Counsel; Jennifer Daehn, 

Election Counsel; Daniel Favarulo, Legislative Assistant; Kyle Anderson, Press Director; Kristin McCowan, Chief Legislative Clerk; 

Gregory Abbott, Policy Analyst; Peter Schalestock, Minority Counsel; and Karin Moore, Minority Legislative Counsel. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Good morning, and welcome to the first hearing in 

the Committee on the House Administration Subcommittee on 

Elections. It is I think appropriate as we move into the 111th Congress that we take time to contemplate the past, and so today’s 

hearing is part of that process, to focus on the elections, what went 

right, what went wrong in the last year, and to set the stage for 

whatever action we may need to take as a subcommittee in the future. 

The good news is that we did not encounter severe problems 

throughout the United States in the general election last year, but 

the bad news is that problems voters and election officials faced in 

many cases were the ones we had been aware of and had been unable to improve upon. 

The election system was tested in November with 130 million 

Americans voting in the highest turnout in 40 years. There was an 

encouraging increase of 3.5 million newly registered voters, up 64 

percent from 2004. However, many of those voters did not have the 

chance to actually cast their ballot and have it counted. An estimated 4 million registered voters were unable to vote because of 

administrative problems in the election system. 

According to newspaper accounts, tens of thousands of eligible 

voters were removed from the voting rolls or blocked from registering. Our witnesses today will account for some of those instances, including purging of voter rolls by some States, and rigid 

matching requirements. 

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We have heard anecdotally about polling locations where voters 

faced photo ID requirements that caused confusion not only for the 

voter, but for poll workers, as well as confusion over issues, plus 

the increase in new voter registration databases, provisional ballots 

and the like. 

Now, the successes of the November 2008 elections are many, 

and election officials as we look at what went wrong also need to 

be applauded for all the things that went right. Jurisdictions were 

prepared. They hired more poll workers, they implemented contingency plans, leased voting equipment. And the number of States allowing for early voting, either by no excuse, absenteeism voting or 

in-person voting, increased, and it appears that a third of the general election voters actually cast their vote before election day. It 

is pretty clear that this had the effect of easing the pressure on the 

election day itself for that unprecedented turnout. So we are eager 

to hear more about that. 

We have some terrific witnesses here today who are going to be 

able to not only celebrate those who worked hard and made this 

a success, but help us as we look to what we can do here in the 

House to improve things further. 

I would note this is not about my bill, but I have introduced H.R. 

1719, the Voter Registration Modernization Act. This legislation 

would allow any eligible citizen to register to vote up to 15 days 

before election day over the Internet for all Federal elections occurring after January 1st, 2014. I think at some future date I hope 

that we will be able to have a legislative hearing on this bill, but 

this is just a preliminary step to get a survey of the entire scene. 

The Election Assistance Commission I am sure will pay close attention to the testimony today and determine their next steps 

about what the EAC can do to better assist election officials in 

their efforts to improve election administration. And while we can 

have hearings and pass legislation, in the end, so much of the responsibility is up to the EAC to ensure that they can fully support 

through information standards election officials in their duties. 

So I want to thank all of the witnesses, and I would now turn 

to the ranking member of this subcommittee, Mr. McCarthy, to see 

if he has an opening statement that he would either like to give 

or put into the record. 

[The statement of Ms. Lofgren follows:] 

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Mr. MCCARTHY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I, one, appreciate 

the hearing, but, two, I apologize for being a little late. I have two 

hearings going at once. We had Financial Services with some votes, 

and now we have Secretary Geithner over there. But I feel this is 

important as well. 

I thank the Chair for calling today’s hearing. In order to move 

forward, it is important to understand where we have been, and I 

welcome the opportunity to examine what worked well in 2008 general elections, as well as what could be improved as the 2010 election approaches. 

In the lead-up to the 2008 election, we heard countless stories 

from the media about the great burden that unprecedented turnout 

would place upon our Nation’s voting systems. Some even touted 

doomsday predictions that the electoral process would collapse 

under the strain. 

Madam Chair, as we sit here several months into the new Congress and the new administration, I will paraphrase Mark Twain 

by saying that the reports of the death of our Nation’s voting system were greatly exaggerated. 

While no election of this size and scope will ever be perfect, we 

have heard of no large scale voting issues or areas where a particular population was disenfranchised due to weakness in the system. There have been anecdotal reports of problems, and I expect 

we will hear cases from our witnesses today that will cause us concern and warrant further scrutiny. But given the enormous challenges that were faced in the 2008 elections, we must also give 

credit where credit is due; namely, with our State and local election 

officials. 

As I have often said, our elections should be run by those who 

know the electorate best. Any time the Federal Government tries 

to interfere with what should be a State-administered process, we 

run the risk of imposing a one-size-fits-all solution to a unique 

problem. 

I look forward to receiving testimony from our witnesses today 

on how to assist State and local election officials in carrying out 

their duties while not stifling their ability to effectively administer 

their elections. 

While the 2008 elections ran rather smoothly, there is one area 

in which we continue to fall short, ensuring that the men and 

women of the U.S. military who are willing to give their lives in 

defense of their country from locations around the globe are able 

to cast a ballot that will be counted. 

As you will recall in the last Congress, I introduced H.R. 5673, 

the Military Voting Protection Act, or MVP Act. The bill was endorsed by Vets for Freedom, the Nation’s largest veterans organization for those who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was written 

to ensure that military personnel are not left out of the election 

process while serving their country overseas. 

Studies have shown that our military personnel overseas have 

cast votes that were not counted due to lengthy delivery times involved in returning the ballots to the United States. It is clear that 

the military personnel serving overseas has the largest disadvantage when attempting to participate in our electoral process, yet 

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stitutional right while they put themselves in harm’s way to protect us. 

As our witnesses from the Election Assistance Commission who 

appear before us today will recall, in September 2007 the EAC released the report on military and oversea absentee voting, which 

found that the third largest reason for rejected ballots was that 

they were received by the election offices after the deadline stipulated by State law. The EAC findings also suggested that roughly 

10 percent of all uncounted military and overseas absentee ballots 

were rejected because they were received past the required deadline. 

In particular, I look forward to hearing from our EAC commissioners today as to what can be done to ensure that our Nation’s 

Armed Forces are not disenfranchised simply because they are 

serving our country overseas. 

Again, I thank each witness for the time they have spent preparing for today’s hearing. I look forward to receiving your testimony. 

Ms. LOFGREN. The gentleman yields back. Other members will be 

invited to submit their statements for the record. 

At this point I would ask unanimous consent to put the following 

documents into the record: A report by the Asian-American Legal 

Defense and Education Fund on the 2008 election; a letter from the 

ACLU on voter registration issues and the 2008 election; a statement by Mr. Miles Rappaport of DEMOS; a report and letter from 

Fair Vote on the 2008 election; and a statement from Project Vote. 

Without objection, those reports will be made part of the record. 

[The information follows:] 

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Ms. LOFGREN. We now turn to our first panel. It is a pleasure 

to introduce them. 

We have first Gineen Beach, who serves as the Chair of the Election Assistance Commission. She was appointed by President Bush 

in October of 2008. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Beach was the 

Minority Election Counsel with this committee as well as an election law adviser to former Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich. We 

welcome Ms. Beach back to the committee in her new role and look 

forward to her testimony. 

We also have Ms. Gracia Hillman. Gracia is currently the Vice 

Chair of the Election Assistance Commission and has served on the 

Commission since her appointment in 2003. Ms. Hillman’s prior 

work experience includes having served as Executive Director of 

the League of Women Voters of the United States, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and the National Coalition on 

Black Voter Participation. It is an honor to have you back again, 

Ms. Hillman. 

Mr. George Gilbert is the Director of the Guilford County Board 

of Elections in North Carolina. He served in this capacity for over 

20 years, where he has developed a wealth of knowledge in election 

administration issues. He has participated in many working groups 

and task forces that include the Election Center’s National Task 

Force on Election Reform, the National Academy of Science Electronic Voting Workshop, and the Election Assistance Commission’s 

Working Group on Election Management Guidelines. 

Finally, we are delighted to welcome Mr. Keith Cunningham. Mr. 

Cunningham is the Director of the Allen County Board of Elections 

in Ohio. He also has served as President of the Ohio Association 

of Election Officials, as well as on the EAC Board of Advisors. 

Welcome to you all. As you know, your full written statements 

will be made part of the record. We ask that your oral testimony 

consume about 5 minutes. There is a little machine there that we 

hope is working today. When the yellow light goes on, it means you 

have about a minute left to conclude your statement. We ask that 

you try and stay within the 5 minutes so we will have an opportunity to hear from all of the witnesses. 

We would like to begin with you, Ms. Beach. 

STATEMENTS OF THE HON. GINEEN BEACH, CHAIRWOMAN, 

U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION; THE HON. GRACIE 

HILLMAN, VICE-CHAIRWOMAN, U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE 

COMMISSION; GEORGE GILBERT, DIRECTOR, GUILFORD 

COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS; AND KEITH CUNNINGHAM, 

DIRECTOR, ALLEN COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. GINEEN BEACH 

Ms. BEACH. Thank you. Good morning, Chair Lofgren, Ranking 

Member McCarthy, and subcommittee members. Thank you for inviting us to be with you today. 

The 2008 general election was a highly anticipated exercise. Expectations were high and scrutiny was intense. Election officials 

worked to anticipate every possible scenario, and their efforts certainly paid off. We had a few glitches, but contingency plans were 

in place. 

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For example, in Connecticut, polling places were equipped with 

backup voting machines and memory cards. Los Angeles County 

was hit with floods and power outages. They moved the equipment 

and voting continued until the power came on. Voters in Rockdale 

County, Georgia, kept voting during a power outage because the 

voting machines were equipped with backup batteries. 

Election officials conducted preelection testing to make sure voting equipment operated properly. They explored ways to maximize 

traffic flow in polling places and they had extra ballots on hand. 

However, preparation and planning doesn’t mean much without 

poll workers. 

In the 2008 election, officials tried creative approaches to increase their poll worker training ranks. Thanks to the funds provided by Congress, the EAC helped by distributing grants to recruit 

college poll workers. The grants were crucial in recruiting the next 

generation of poll workers. 

I want to take a moment to thank those citizens who served our 

country and their community in the polling place. In February 

2008, I served as a poll worker in my home precinct. On that day, 

I arrived at the polls at 5:45 a.m. and was not released from my 

duties until 10 p.m. As the polling hours were extended due to increment weather. It was certainly a long day, and I appreciate all 

of the hard work that goes into administering an election. 

As of today, most information available about the 2008 election 

is anecdotal. The EAC’s election day survey provides a method to 

quantify a successful election. The data we collect from States will 

give us concrete information about how, where and when Americans vote. This raw data is not a sampling, and we expect to complete the survey this fall and will be glad to present the results to 

the subcommittee. 

We have come a long way since 2000, but there is still a lot of 

work to be done. The EAC must continue building a credible, rigorous certification program that States can rely upon. We have to 

do more work to recruit not only the next generation of poll workers, but also the election officials of the future. 

Overseas and military voters deserve better. According to an 

EAC study, a majority of absentee ballots sent to military and overseas citizens that were not counted during the 2006 election had 

been returned to election officials as undeliverable. Improving the 

transmission of ballots would help increase voting rates among our 

military and overseas voters. 

I commend Ranking Member McCarthy and Congresswoman 

Maloney who are working very hard to find solutions to the problems that our overseas voters face. 

The EAC’s mission is to assist in the effective administration of 

elections, and we stand ready to provide Congress, election officials, 

the public, and State and local officials with tools to meet these 

challenges. 

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Ms. Hillman. 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. GRACIA HILLMAN 

Ms. HILLMAN. Good morning, Chair Lofgren, Ranking Member 

McCarthy, and members of the committee. For the record, my 

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name is Gracia Hillman. I serve as the 2009 Vice Chair of the Election Assistance Commission. Thank you for this opportunity to testify on the historic election of November 2008. 

The 2008 election cycle energized American voters in ways that 

we have not seen since the 1960s. By all accounts, most things 

went right on election day. This is supported by a survey of 10,000 

American voters. According to that survey, 83 percent said their 

polling place was very well run, and 75 percent said they were very 

confident their vote was counted as cast. 

We need to remember that there is no activity in the United 

States like voting on a presidential election day. To put that in perspective, over 100 million people voted within an 18-hour window 

on November 4, 2008. Approximately 2 million people provided customer service to those voters. At least two-thirds of those workers 

were temporary, one-day employees who we commonly refer to as 

poll workers. There are well over 100,000 polling places scattered 

across the country in all of our States. I have yet to hear of any 

other same-day activity remotely similar to this exercise. 

As you know, Madam Chairman, there are no do-overs with elections. NASA can scrub a launch if need be. Manufacturers can 

delay a rollout if the product is deemed not ready. But election administrators must be ready for election day, irrespective of any and 

all unanticipated circumstances. 

There were random problems on election day, but we should not 

be unduly troubled by these revelations. Voting is mostly a human 

exercise and humans make mistakes. Nonetheless, all perceived 

and real problems need attention. Let me take a moment to address a couple of the most common complaints: 

Long lines at the polls. I witnessed early voting lines in Florida 

that exceeded 2 or more hours. Conversely, on election day, the 

longest wait I observed in Florida was about 30 minutes. The problem of long wait lines might be episodic in some jurisdictions and 

chronic in others. Nonetheless, election officials are aware that long 

waits to vote are a problem for the communities and voters they 

serve. 

Confusing voter registration and identification requirements. 

Voter registration and identification procedures get quite complex 

when varying State laws are layered on top of Federal requirements. Missed deadlines result in disenfranchisement, so it is no 

wonder that there are calls from the community to streamline 

these procedures. Perhaps the citizens most affected are college 

and university students and our newer voters. 

Accurate counts. Earlier I noted that 75 percent of survey respondents felt very confident that their vote was counted as cast. 

But that means that 25 percent had doubts. Voters deserve accurate and reassuring information about the current state of voting 

systems. Since the passage of the Help America Vote Act, America 

has undergone a major transition with the technology of our voting 

systems. EAC continues to develop Federal voting system standards to assure accuracy. Election officials need to continue to encourage interested voters to observe and participate in the logic 

and accuracy testing of the voting systems that will be used in 

their communities. 

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Provisional voting. On the one hand, provisional voting is understood as fail-safe voting so that no voter is turned away from the 

polls. Our 2006 election day survey reported that 1 percent of voters cast provisional ballots. In real numbers, that means 850,000 

provisional voters. We do not yet have the 2008 numbers, so I use 

2006 as an example. 

Based on that, there is growing concern that provisional voting 

is being used as a substitute for election day lists that should be 

accurate and complete. Moreover, voters do not understand why 

the provisional voting process is not uniform across the country. 

In summary, Madam Chair, election officials are to be commended for their excellent work. At the same time, voters should 

be encouraged to register complaints, election officials should be 

vigilant about identifying problems, and together they should develop reasonable remedies that can be adopted as quickly as possible. 

Thank you for this time, and I look forward to answering your 

questions. 

[The statement of Ms. Beach and Ms. Hillman follows:] 

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Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you very much, and for your service on the 

Commission. 

Mr. Gilbert. 

STATEMENT OF GEORGE GILBERT 

Mr. GILBERT. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I agree with what 

she said. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Okay. 

Mr. GILBERT. Good morning. I am George Gilbert, Director of 

Elections for Guilford County, North Carolina. For those of you 

who don’t know, Guilford County is where General Cornwallis 

began his retreat 228 years and 10 days ago. Greensboro is named 

for General Nathaniel Green, not because we have lots of trees, although we have that also. So if you are ever visiting there, we have 

a wonderful national battlefield site there that very few people 

know about. 

As for the 2008 general election, what did we do in North Carolina, that is, what did we do correctly? I have attempted to lay out 

in detail many of the things that we did right in my written statement. The successes I have documented with respect to same-day 

registration, early voting, electronic poll books and provisional voting in particular are all very worthy improvements, and I think we 

made a lot of progress in those areas. I have also tried to document 

some of the things I think were problems and will be continuing 

problems. 

When I circulated my draft testimony to several of my trusted 

and respected colleagues—Keith wasn’t one of them, by the way. 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Trusted, or respected? 

Mr. GILBERT. I will leave it open. One of them warned me 

against leaving the impression that election administrators think 

that everything worked fine and that nothing needs to be changed. 

I hope in my 5 minutes to dispel that notion. 

Certainly we have already heard about millions of registered voters or millions of eligible voters who were not allowed to vote in 

2008 due to faulty voter registration lists and procedures. In North 

Carolina, that has not been our experience. 

We did have 105,000 same day registrants during early voting 

who would not have been able to vote otherwise. But we had an 

additional 27,000 provisional ballots cast on election day that were 

not counted. The vast majority of those were not counted because 

those people failed to meet the registration requirements of North 

Carolina. 

For the most part, the lists were accurate and complete and they 

were in compliance with State law. Nevertheless, I think we will 

continue to have millions, certainly thousands of people, who lose 

the franchise in future years through their own failure to meet the 

requirements of voter registration in their State. 

In my view, that raises the question to you, is voting a right of 

citizenship? If voting is a right of citizenship, does the government 

have a greater responsibility to partner with its citizens in guaranteeing that right? 

No matter how many barriers to registration we remove through 

improving our registration process, we are going to continue to disenfranchise voters if citizen-initiated preregistration is required. 

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2008 I think demonstrated in many States that measures such as 

our same day registration and election day registration can certainly ameliorate the effect of the registration requirements. But 

these palliatives will actually only exacerbate the competition between voter registration and voting itself. 

In my written testimony, I have discussed at length many of the 

drawbacks of executing voter registration in the middle of the voting process. It delays and frustrates voters, it puts extreme burdens on the administrative process, and I am sure it complicates 

and adds expense to your campaigns. If the objective is to enable 

eligible citizens to vote while excluding those who are not eligible, 

the States must assume a more active role in identifying the eligible voters and enabling their right to vote. 

I think there are clear advantages to both government and its 

citizens of establishing the best possible pre-election list in some 

fashion. It is doubtful that the government alone can produce a 

complete and accurate account of eligible citizens. Establishing residence for voting purposes actually requires citizen input. It cannot 

be a burden placed on the government itself. 

While I am here today representing my own county and my own 

experience, I also cochair the Election Center’s Legislative Committee. Among the chief questions we are investigating at this time 

is whether or not automatic registration of eligible citizens would 

be preferable to the existing system. 

My prediction is that we will find a blend of government and citizen initiatives far superior to anything we are doing or perhaps 

even contemplating today. Same day and election day registration 

can certainly contribute and provide an important safety net for 

the voters that we miss in this process, but I think that both same 

day and election day will work much better if we minimize their 

use, rather than relying on them. The Election Center will welcome 

the opportunity to work with this committee to find the blend of 

registration options that will make voting truly a right of citizenship. 

Thank you for this opportunity to testify. I will be happy to answer any questions. 

[The statement of Mr. Gilbert follows:] 

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Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you very much. Now we turn to Mr. 

Cunningham. 

STATEMENT OF KEITH CUNNINGHAM 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Thank you. 

Madam Chairman, Mr. Ranking Member, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I 

bring you warm regards from my colleagues in the Buckeye State. 

In 2008, our election system served the largest number of voters 

and realized the largest voter registration numbers in our history, 

successfully. So I want to begin by saying unequivocally and without hesitation, I do not concur with those who assert that America’s election system is broken. 

In 2008, America’s election officials toiled under the pressure of 

media, advocates, political parties, lawyers, lawsuits, judicial rulings, excessive public records, legislative changes, and the prediction of total meltdown. And despite those distractions and disruptions, local election officials across America, including those of 

us in Ohio, arrived at election day prepared. Much of that preparation was due to many of the materials provided to us by the Election Assistance Commission, I would add. 

In Ohio, we saw absentee voting skyrocket. Voters literally 

turned our previously mail-based absenteeism program into an inperson early voting program. This could have been a disaster but 

for the fact that our locally controlled boards were able to be flexible with those circumstances and successfully addressed the wide 

variety of local needs. 

I want to say to you that there is no standard election. Every one 

is different, every one has different dynamics, and every one requires consistent and diligent supervision on a day-to-day and 

sometimes hour-to-hour basis, and that can only be accomplished 

through hands-on local approaches. 

This is why I believe America’s voters are best served as much 

as possible with a decentralized voting system. Without the ability 

of our election generals to make certain calls on the front lines as 

they need to, we will certainly throw our system into paralysis. 

While I believe the 2008 election was a success for America’s 

election officials, I acknowledge there are always things that we 

can do better, and in that spirit I would respectfully like to offer 

several suggestions that I believe can improve elections in America. 

First, we must provide better education and training to our Nation’s local election officials. This is a point that has been lost over 

the last few years in the discussion about poll worker training. I 

am referring to programs like the Election Center’s Certified Election and Registration Administrator Program that George and I are 

both graduates of. 

We must begin to understand that elections are conducted best 

in stable environments, and since 2000 we have seen legislative 

changes, at least at the State level, for nearly every 2 years under 

the premises of election reform. Many of those changes are actually 

knee-jerk reactions to anecdotal reports, and I believe it is time we 

give legislation a bit of a rest. 

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Legislative changes have been occurring at such a rapid pace 

that election officials, poll workers, and even voters are straining 

to comprehend just what is required of them. 

We must accept that every human problem is simply not something we can cure with Federal legislation. I believe we must begin 

to advocate the right to vote carries with it a certain personal responsibility, and registration is one of those responsibilities. 

Registration statistics are planning tools for election administrators, and if indeed the trend is to move away from the electronictype machines to paper-based ballot systems, it is going to be more 

important than ever to understand how and where our resources 

need to be employed. 

If voters are to be served well, then we need to know how many 

of them we can expect so we can print the appropriate number of 

ballots, have them available in the right places and quantities, provide enough voting equipment, hire enough poll workers, guarantee 

enough parking, along with the 101 other things that we need to 

do to properly prepare for voters on election day. 

Finally, I believe that we must realize that the election infrastructure is currently not capable of doing what some think it can 

or should. Most elections offices were using punchcard systems just 

31⁄2 years ago, and we just have begun building databases after the 

passage of HAVA. 

The fact is, as a nation, we completely ignored investment in the 

infrastructure of our election system until after the failures of 

2000. We have improved our technology, but we are nowhere near 

the sophisticated and mature systems utilized by other government 

agencies, and it is going to take us another 10 years and perhaps 

millions if not billions of dollars to achieve that goal. 

In closing, I want to say to you that thousands of people like 

George and myself are working throughout the country every day 

to ensure the system, despite the intense levels of criticism it receives, is performing to its highest capacity. And while we may not 

always agree on what the right answer is, you can be assured that 

we are working hard to try to make this system work for all voters 

in our country. 

I also look forward to your questions. 

[The statement of Mr. Cunningham follows:] 

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Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you very much, Mr. Cunningham, and to 

all of our witnesses. 

We now have a time when the committee members have an opportunity to ask questions for as long as 5 minutes of the witnesses. I would turn first to our ranking member, Mr. McCarthy, 

to inquire if he has questions. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. A couple questions. One, I want to thank you all for your testimony. I appreciate 

the opportunity that you would come. Part of it was what went 

wrong and what went right, and that is kind of what I wanted to 

focus on. 

Mr. Cunningham, I think you raised a couple very good points, 

ways to improve, but also about legislation. The one thing I have 

found—it is okay, you are a freshman. 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. That is your ring? 

Mr. MCCARTHY. We have had so many changes in election law 

each time, it is almost take a little breather room, because we have 

found a process that actually worked very well, but let’s see what 

worked right. You need a little time on this basis. 

But I saw where the New York Times’ recent editorial said the 

States have far too much leeway in running elections. Does everybody agree or disagree with that statement? 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. I abjectly disagree with that statement. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Mr. Gilbert. 

Mr. GILBERT. I think that the States do an excellent job. We are 

all learning as we go along and as the environment changes. But 

elections are local, and in large measure you can’t respond to those 

local factions with something that is uniform nationally. 

So, yes, I think the States have to take the lead. There is no 

harm in giving them direction and objectives, but the States have 

to take the lead there. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Ms. Hillman. 

Ms. HILLMAN. I didn’t see the article that you are referring to, 

but I would say that the States are certainly doing the appropriate 

job in conducting elections. However, I also believe that Congress 

has a responsibility with respect to Federal elections to make certain that its intention and concerns are addressed through the 

States. 

Ms. BEACH. I believe that right now the way the Constitution is, 

the Federal law provides the States and local jurisdictions run elections. So it is really up to all of you to decide what you want to 

do. But the way the system works currently is the way it does. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Now, I am the one that kind of got to the theme, 

I don’t want to put any words in anybody’s mouth, but the last 

election with all the anticipation and the turnout and the education 

of people, there was great fear that things would go wrong. I think 

overall it went rather well. I kind of take that from everybody’s 

statement. But I still believe, is there a place that we can improve? 

Now, I believe we do have a disadvantaged group out there, and 

I believe it happens to be the military. I was wondering if anybody 

else has any comments on that, of ways we can improve, or if you 

disagree with me that maybe they are not? Starting with Mr. 

Cunningham. 

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Mr. CUNNINGHAM. I believe that much of that improvement rests 

in the hands of the military. Boards of elections are somewhat limited. We can get the ballots out of our office, if indeed we are using 

ballots. But once they hit the mail service, then they are pretty 

much out of our hands. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. So if we had a tracking system, much like how 

we ship things now, if the military did something like that, it 

would be more helpful to you? 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. I believe so. I believe if there was some direct 

way that we could actually get the—I am not faulting the United 

States mail service. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. It is difficult if you are overseas or someplace 

else. 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Correct. If we had a more direct way to get 

the ballots in the hands of the military, so that they—we don’t 

know where most of the people really are. So if we could get the 

ballots more directly in the hands of the military, they could get 

those ballots distributed to where they need to go. It is a very unusual and unique situation, no doubt. 

Mr. GILBERT. The military is obviously highly mobile. Most of the 

ballots we get back undeliverable are primarily because those men 

and women in the military have moved. We mail a ballot to them 

automatically over a 2-year period, and they don’t stay in one place 

for 2 years. So I think Keith is absolutely right, if we have a way 

of identifying where those people are. 

I would also say the same thing applies to our civilian population 

here at home. It is a highly mobile society, and as I pointed out 

in my testimony, you are going to miss a lot of people if you rely 

on their initiative. Obviously, the military people don’t always take 

the initiative to let us know what their new address is. Neither do 

domestic civilians. 

We have to find some way that government can help better track 

where those people are. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. The only thing I find different with military 

than domestic, domestic gets to choose where they go, military tells 

them where to go. So we know that they are being moved. But if 

they had a tracking system on the ballot where you could track the 

ballot, because a lot of it, it doesn’t get there in time, and the mail 

process for the military is not always going the same 2–day service 

somewhere in your State. 

If you could follow up on the answer, Ms. Hillman? 

Ms. HILLMAN. Sure. One of the things I would say about the 

2008 election cycle is that several jurisdictions were caught off 

guard during the primary cycles with not having sufficient number 

of ballots and long lines, so they had a chance to correct those 

issues for the general election. So the primary cycle served as sort 

of a trial run. 

With respect to the issue of the military, I really do think there 

is an appropriate role for the military to have those officers who 

are designated to take care of election issues to be a bit more engaged in helping the military to participate. 

The whole issue of how the ballot gets transferred, I must say 

that I am a believer that technology and Internet are the best answers to those problems. I understand security issues and concerns 

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about security over the Internet. But when you have got citizens 

scattered throughout the globe and there is no other way, particularly for States with late primaries, to meet a tight window, then 

I think it is worth the research that the Election Assistance Commission will be doing on being able to use the Internet to reach 

those voters. 

Ms. BEACH. As Chair of the EAC, one of my priorities is to look 

into military and overseas voters and see if there are ways that we 

can find solutions, because we are here to assist State and local 

election officials. We certainly will be having a hearing this spring 

on that and will be bringing in State and locals, because some of 

them have demonstrated and set up programs to deal with this 

issue, and hopefully we can share their best practices with everybody. 

Mr. MCCARTHY. Thank you for your answer, and thank you, 

Madam Chair. 

Ms. LOFGREN. I turn to Mr. Gonzalez for any questions he might 

have. 

Mr. GONZALEZ. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. My 

only observation on assisting members of the military service: Until 

we have the Department of Defense fully engaged and participating 

willingly, it’s just not going to happen. My sense of it is that we 

don’t have that. I think we can do a whole lot, and I surely would 

like to join Mr. McCarthy in a certain effort, maybe not a particular legislative remedy that may be sought at this time, but it 

is worth exploring, because I think therein lies the answer. 

Mr. Gilbert, I am going to be looking at your testimony. Same 

day voter registration, in your jurisdiction what you did, you extended it during the early voting period. 

Mr. GILBERT. That is correct. 

Mr. GONZALEZ. I am from Texas. Our early voting, we have about 

2 weeks. Then it ends about a little bit more than a week before 

the election. Is that what you had? 

Mr. GILBERT. Ours ends on Saturday preceding the Tuesday election. It begins roughly 21⁄2 to 3 weeks prior to the election. 

Mr. GONZALEZ. And you indicated that you had 244,000 voters 

exercise the right to vote by way of same day registration, a quarter of a million? 

Mr. GILBERT. We had 105,000 statewide same-day registrants, 

which is about 2.5 percent of our total vote. 

Mr. GONZALEZ. And then you indicate the verification process 

and such. And there is no doubt, because I think Mr. Cunningham 

said in his testimony, ‘‘expecting someone to register 30 days in advance of an election is not a hardship in light of the chaos which 

could eventually develop without accurate registration roles.’’ 

By your testimony, Mr. Gilbert, you are saying as more people 

are aware of same day registration, the more they will participate. 

And of course, that is about order of participation. 

Now, everyone up here who has ever been in a campaign, and 

we all have, the greatest effort and the greatest expenditure of 

money to engage that potential voter is probably in the last 30 days 

of an election as we lead up to it. Some people would say the best 

effort is exercised, and some people would say it is the worst effort, 

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because all sorts of issues come to a head at that point. But truly, 

that is the maximized effort by the candidate. 

I don’t know, now some people may disagree with that, but as 

we go into it, I assure you, it is those 30 days that really count. 

So I think that is when we engage the voter or we engage the interest. 

And I am a great believer in same day registration, but I think 

Mr. Cunningham has a concern. How do you address Mr. 

Cunningham’s concern? And you expressed some reservations. But 

I think in your testimony you are not saying that you are going to 

abandon it. ‘‘Limiting or discouraging this by letting their wait 

lines become longer and longer is not an acceptable option.’’ But 

how do you address Mr. Cunningham’s concern? 

Mr. GILBERT. I think the solution is for us to have the most effective and most complete database going into the election. I agree 

100 percent with Keith on that. 

I agree with Ms. Hillman that we need to have those registration 

lists as complete as possible prior to the election so that we can in 

fact minimize the actual registration process during early voting or 

on election day. But I think in order to do that, the States themselves are going to have to take the initiative to compile those lists 

and to provide more complete lists, and not leave it completely on 

the voter initiative. If you provide same day or election day registration and all registration is just voter initiative, those numbers 

will grow larger and larger and larger and we will administratively 

not be able to handle that and it will clog up the entire system. 

So I think we need to compile those lists. The government needs 

to have a more active role in compiling those lists, and not simply 

wait for the voter to come register. 

Mr. GONZALEZ. If same day registration results in greater voter 

participation, which at the end of the day we are all together on 

that, it is worth the effort. It is just a matter of logistics and the 

process to accommodate it. 

Mr. GILBERT. That is correct. If we have all of those people, if 

we have all of our residents and all of our citizens in our database 

on election day and all we have to do is look them up and have 

them declare their residence at that point, that takes care of the 

problem. They don’t necessarily have to have filled out a registration application ahead of time. 

Mr. GONZALEZ. Thank you very much, sir. I yield back. 

Ms. LOFGREN. The gentleman yields back. 

Mr. Harper. 

Mr. HARPER. Thank you. My phone is on silent, for those of you 

who may be concerned. I won’t use the excuse we were in a Budget 

Committee hearing until almost midnight last night, that I forgot 

to change it back. 

Thank you for being here. This is an important issue, and obviously it is our desire that everyone who wishes to vote has that opportunity and every vote is counted and counted properly. I think 

we would all agree on that. 

I guess my question would be for Mr. Gilbert and Mr. 

Cunningham. In your respective States, when you talk about a 

database, I assume that database would be under the control of 

your Secretary of State and that it is still going to depend upon the 

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local election commissioners to update and control and purge and 

change and make sure those are accurate lists. 

Would that be a fair statement? 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Yes, sir. I believe the local election official is 

the closest person to the voter and is the interface with the voter. 

So I think that information needs to come through the local official. 

But I will say this: There is a lot of criticism about the database 

purging, and local election officials tend to take a hit on that. I believe the problem is more a result of lack of clarity. Many of these 

regulations are somewhat cloudy in their scope. Again, that goes 

back to the issue of better education of local election officials and 

more clear direction from those that are passing legislation as to 

exactly what we should be doing in the area of purges and registrations. 

Mr. HARPER. Along with that, are there any voter ID requirements in your respective States? 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Ohio has a voter ID requirement, and, quite 

frankly, it is driving some provisional balloting because of the address component. I think it is one of the laws of unintended consequences that has reared its ugly head there. 

I believe that if we maybe relieve the ID provision of the address 

component and strictly who the person is and confirm that identification, we will see a reduction in provisional ballots and a 

smoother election day. 

Mr. GILBERT. In North Carolina, the ID requirement for by mail 

registration is of course in accordance with the NVRA. They just 

have to prove that they are a person, who they are. They don’t 

have to have the address confirmation. But the same day registration ID, that identification requires address confirmation, too, and 

I think that is appropriate for same day and election day registration. 

Mr. HARPER. And that address or residence verification is done 

by any utility receipt, not necessarily a photo ID. 

Mr. GILBERT. It doesn’t have to be a photo ID. It can be either 

a driver’s license photo ID, or it can be a utility bill, a bank statement, things like that. There are a variety of things that confirm 

that voter’s address. 

Mr. HARPER. As far as any evidences that you have seen out 

there of voter fraud, any of you, has that been something that you 

felt is prevalent? We have certainly had documented examples in 

my own State of that taking place. Did you see that as an issue 

in 08? 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Well, I would address voter fraud this way. 

There is a lot of people that claim well, there is no voter fraud, so 

we don’t need to do anything about it. I would respond by saying 

my home has never been broken into, but I still lock the doors 

when I leave. So I think reasonable measures that guard against 

voter fraud are well advised. 

Mr. HARPER. Anybody else? 

Mr. GILBERT. I would just add that one of the reasons that we 

don’t see much evidence of voter fraud is because we actually do 

look for it. We do monitor for that. We encounter things that we 

think are suspicious or out of the ordinary on a day-to-day basis 

in our local office and we look into those things. So voter fraud is 

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something that at the local level we are very sensitive to and try 

to keep it out of the news, try to keep it from happening. We try 

to take preventive measures. I think many of our State laws also 

are directed toward that end. 

Mr. HARPER. One final question dealing with military issues and 

how we can make sure that doesn’t happen. It seemed to be a problem with us in my home State of Mississippi, that when the ballot 

in 2008 was finally approved, it was getting rather close, considering you were going to be sending it off and getting it back. 

Is there enough preparation time from the time your ballot is locally approved and sent off? Do we need more time to get it there 

as one possible solution to make sure we get these ballots back? 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Any time you have a date certain situation, 

time is of the essence. I fully concur with Commissioner Hillman. 

We need to be investing in the Internet opportunities that we have 

to serve our military. I think the military needs to engage it a little 

more. 

I will say that I think the component that requires us to automatically mail for 2 years to a military person is probably not 

working, because it is very unlikely that person is still where they 

were a year ago and we get a lot of those back. 

Mr. HARPER. I thank each of you for your time. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you. 

Mr. Davis. 

Mr. DAVIS of Alabama. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. 

Let me try to pick up two sets of questions with my 5 minutes. 

The first one has to do with early voting. There is a lot of interest 

right now in the Progressive community, and to some extent, candidly, in the Democratic community in early voting there is a real 

embrace of it. I would sound one cautionary note about it. 

To me it seems that early voting favors whoever is ahead and 

whoever has the most money to spend on television and get out the 

vote efforts. Now, that happily, from my perspective, was Barack 

Obama in October 2008 and early November 2008. I do not have 

pitch perfect confidence in every election going forward my guy or 

my lady is going to be the person who has the most money and is 

ahead, and I think that is something that has to be appreciated. 

In election after election, what we see is that early voting locks 

in the political state of play in the race in mid-October and early 

October, and that is a systematic bias that in some cases helps 

Dems and in some cases Republicans, but I don’t think we can 

have a genuine conversation about early voting without understanding that and taking that into account. 

For example, the Tennessee Senate race in 2006. Harold Ford 

won a majority of the votes cast on election day. He lost by a reasonably comfortable margin in the early voting because his opponent, now Senator Corker, had the capacity to outspend him 31⁄2

to 1 on television, and if you are in an early voting scenario, it 

seems to me that when you take a hit in the polls, that is a hit 

in votes. 

Normally when you are subjected to a negative attack or a scurrilous allegation in the campaign, you have time to counter it by 

running your own ads, by getting another message out. Early voting, you are losing votes every time an allegation airs. 

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Am I the only one with that perspective? Does anyone on the 

panel want to react to that observation? Mr. Gilbert? 

Mr. GILBERT. Most of the studies of the States who have had 

early voting, and certainly in our experience in North Carolina, 

have indicated that early voting typically does not increase turnout. The same people are going to vote who vote, whether they vote 

early or vote election day. You may have the moment-by-moment 

variables that are changing from day-to-day within a campaign affecting how the people are voting that day, but those variables are 

uncontrollable, whether they be 2 or 3 weeks prior to election day 

or election day itself. 

So I think it is a kind of a crap shoot either way. You are taking 

a chance on what news is going to come out in headlines on Monday, the day before the election. 

In fact, in our experience, the early voting really has not—it may 

tend to favor one candidate or the other during that period, but it 

has not really been shown to have an impact on the final outcome 

of those elections. 

Mr. DAVIS of Alabama. This is what I would say, to give you an 

example. In my State of Alabama right now there is an effort underway by some legislators to create early voting in Alabama. And, 

frankly, their stated motivation is they think that it helps Democratic candidates. I just don’t buy that. I think it helps whoever is 

ahead, and that won’t always be the Democratic candidate. 

Mr. Cunningham, were you trying to jump in on that? 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Yes. My experience is that the turnout in 

early voting had to do with candidate motivation and on-ground 

tactics, not so much advertising. But I will say to you that I think 

this is one of the problems, if we tried to make decisions on election 

administration with political tactics in mind, we will never get the 

problems that we have solved. 

Mr. DAVIS of Alabama. I 100 percent agree with that. That is 

why I was trying to make the observation that we shouldn’t do 

that. 

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. I believe the biggest question in front of us all 

is, is this still a 13-hour, one-day event. In 1952, 60 million people 

voted for President. Last year, 130 million people voted for President. By and large, we are still doing it the same way. Early voting 

clearly takes the pressure and the panic off of election day. 

Mr. DAVIS of Alabama. Let me try to slip in one final point in 

my final 30 seconds. This is I suspect beyond the scope of this 

panel; maybe it is more of a Judiciary Committee question. 

As you know, Mr. Gilbert, you are from a Voting Rights Act covered State. As you know, the Supreme Court will be reviewing, I 

suspect in a few months, the question of whether Section 5 still has 

vitality. There are some that argue that Section 5 is cumbersome 

as far as the election process goes, cumbersome as far as the preelection process goes. I disagree with that. 

I want to know if you could briefly speak as someone who is in 

a VRA covered State on whether you agree with the critiques of 

Section 5 or not? 

Mr. GILBERT. I happen to be a Section 5 county. Forty-five counties in North Carolina are covered by Section 5 pre-clearance requirements. I have never found it to be cumbersome. I have never 

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found it to interfere with our election process. And my personal experience is that it still serves a very worthwhile purpose. 

Mr. DAVIS of Alabama. I would just end, if I can, Madam Chairwoman, by echoing that, and hoping that we pass that observation 

on to the Judiciary Committee and include it as we think about 

possibly responding to what the Supreme Court may do on Section 

5. 

Mr. Cunningham, I kind of like something you said. You mentioned the fact that, well, the fact that your house has never been 

broken into doesn’t mean you never lock the doors. The fact that 

there is demonstrably less racial discrimination in every area of 

American life doesn’t mean we get rid of Title 7. The fact that 

there is less discrimination against women doesn’t mean we get rid 

of Title 9. So it does not follow that simply because there is less 

race conscious voting than ever, we eliminate some of the safeguards that helped us get to the point where there is less race conscious voting than ever. 

I yield back. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Many of us serve also on 

the Judiciary Committee, so we will be able to bring those comments back. 

These have been good questions. I want to touch on a couple of 

items. 

Mr. Gilbert, your electronic poll books, do they update a voter’s 

status in realtime? 

Mr. GILBERT. We do not. During the early voting period, that update is probably about every 30 minutes. We don’t do a real-time 

update. We do it in a batch mode. That way we don’t get shut down 

if we lose communication. That is the reason for it. We are updating the voter’s central records on a periodic basis throughout the 

day. 

Ms. LOFGREN. But every 30 minutes is pretty close. 

Mr. GILBERT. It is close to realtime. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Very good. I am interested in the issue of overseas 

voting, including our military. It seems to me there are a number 

of issues, but one of the issues, as has been mentioned by Mr. 

Harper, sometimes the ballot is finalized, and by the time you mail 

it and then you mail it back, it is too late. 

Although there are security issues that have been expressed, and 

I am not sure yet been resolved, on Internet voting, it seems to me 

that if you are overseas, whether you are in the State Department 

or the military or whatever, and you know you are registered and 

where you are registered, if you were able to put in the Zip Code 

and download a copy of the ballot and fill it out and mail it in, at 

least you would solve that mail-out problem entirely. The safeguard would be you are signing it, and unless you are actually registered, the ballots aren’t going to be counted by the election officials where you think you are registered. 

Wouldn’t that work? Wouldn’t that help a lot? 

Mr. GILBERT. We certainly used that. As a matter of fact, we use 

that technique when we are faxing ballots or something similar to 

that. The problem you end up with there is that you end up having 

to count those ballots by hand, and in jurisdictions where you have 

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a substantial number of overseas voters, that would become very 

problematic. 

I personally don’t see any greater security risks associated with 

Internet voting than I see with voting by mail in general. I think 

we can address those security issues, and I would certainly be in 

favor of moving more in that direction. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Couldn’t you, maybe the technology isn’t here, but 

in California now and I think many States, and I think ultimately 

all the States are going to end up with scanned ballots because 

there is a paper record. You can do a scanned ballot that you 

downloaded and printed as well as that you have delivered, can you 

not? 

Mr. GILBERT. Well, the technology is not there for counting those 

automatically yet. Perhaps it could be done. With optical character 

recognition and things like that, we may well be able to. I know 

our vendor is working on tabulation systems that will read a ballot 

digitally and as a picture. That is possible. I don’t know that much 

about the technology. 

Ms. HILLMAN. Madam Chair, if I may add that I think for the 

short term, for 2010 and 2012, it would seem to me that cooperation between the military and our embassies to facilitate voting 

would be one of the most efficient approaches. Technology will definitely be there. And I think we in the United States have to become comfortable with the use of technology in voting. 

The concerns about the lack of security exist in every single 

thing that we do in this country. And there were procedures in 

place, chain of custody and other things that protect the security. 

So I think you are absolutely right. It won’t take but some research and development for us to have a touch-screen machine that 

serves all voters, including the disabled and the States that require 

putting ballots in many languages. It is efficient, it is cost-efficient 

and can produce a durable paper ballot that can withstand many 

hands, can be counted through a scanner, can be stored and 

archived for a period of time, and that the Internet can come into 

play. But I think given what I have heard in the recent years, we 

are probably a good 10 years away, I think, before this country is 

going to embrace the full use of technology for voting, the way we 

embraced the full use of technology for all our banking and billpaying needs. 

Ms. LOFGREN. I will just close by saying that certainly I don’t 

think these are alternatives. We ought to be getting our military 

to be more aggressive in interfacing so that our men and women 

in uniform are able to vote. 

But they are not the only people overseas. I mean, we have Mormon missionaries, we have State Department, we have millions of 

Americans overseas who want to vote. You know, I come from Silicon Valley, so when you are talking technology and you use the 

word ‘‘10 years,’’ my constituents go crazy, they are thinking 10 

months. 

So we will see how this develops. I appreciate your testimony. 

We look forward to your continued good service to our country. And 

we will keep the record open. If there are additional questions, 

Members will have 5 days to submit them, and we would ask if 

that occurs, that you respond to those questions. 

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Ms. LOFGREN. We will call forward the next panel, please. Thank 

you very much. 

As the next panel is coming forward, I will introduce them. First 

we have Ms. Melanie Campbell, who is the Executive Director and 

CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. She is 

a nationally recognized expert on black civic participation, election 

reform, voting rights and coalition building. Throughout her 20 

years of experience, she has led a number of election reform and 

voting participation programs that include the VOTE Election Reform Task Force, Unity Civic Engagement and Voter Empowerment Campaign, and the Black Youth Vote Program. 

Next we have Ms. Patty Ferguson Bohnee. Ms. Bohnee is a Native vote election protection coordinator with the National Congress 

of American Indians. She has extensive experience in election law 

and has assisted in voting rights litigation on behalf of tribes. She 

is also an associate clinical professor and director of the Indian 

legal clinic at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona 

State University. 

Next, Mr. Arturo Vargas. Mr. Vargas is the Executive Director 

of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, known colloquially as NALEO. As Executive Director, Mr. 

Vargas has worked to engage the Latino community in civic participation, as well as to ensure that the election system enhances opportunities for all Americans. Prior to joining NALEO, he was vice 

president for community education and public policy at MALDEF, 

the Mexican American Defense and Educational Fund, as well as 

education policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza in 

Washington, D.C. 

We have next Mr. Eric Eversole, who is a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association. He is a former litigation attorney for the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, where he brought numerous cases to protect military and 

overseas voting under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act. 

And finally, we have Mr. Doug Chapin, who is the founding director of electionline.org, which is a nationally recognized voice in 

election administration policy, since 2001. Prior to his work with 

the Pew Center on the States, he was in private legal practice in 

Washington, D.C., as well as an elections counsel with the U.S. 

Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. 

So we welcome all of you. As with the prior panel, your full written statement will be made part of the record. We would ask that 

your testimony consume about 5 minutes. When you have a minute 

left, the little orange light will go on that machine in the middle 

of the table, and when it turns red, it means your 5 minutes are 

up, and we would ask you to conclude the statement. 

We will begin with you, Ms. Campbell. 

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STATEMENTS OF MELANIE CAMPBELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL COALITION OF BLACK CIVIC PARTICIPATION; PATTY FERGUSON BOHNEE, NATIVE VOTE ELECTION 

PROTECTION COORDINATOR, NATIONAL CONGRESS OF 

AMERICAN INDIANS; ARTURO VARGAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LATINO ELECTED AND APPOINTED OFFICIALS; ERIC EVERSOLE, FORMER ATTORNEY, 

CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE; 

AND DOUG CHAPIN, DIRECTOR, ELECTION INITIATIVES, 

PEW CENTER ON THE STATES 

STATEMENT OF MELANIE CAMPBELL 

Ms. CAMPBELL. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the 

Subcommittee on Elections. My name is Melanie Campbell. I am 

the CEO and Executive Director of the National Coalition on Black 

Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable. 

The national coalition trains and engages African American leaders, youth organizers and activists on the best practices to increase 

civic engagement and voter participation and, in more recent years, 

voter protection and assistance. 

The 2008 election cycle was indeed the most historic election of 

our lifetime. Not only did we see record voter turnout in the African American community, we witnessed record turnout among 

young people and other marginalized communities. And, yes, we 

also witnessed the first African American to be elected President 

of the United States of America. 

As historic and record-breaking as the 2008 election cycle was, 

it is vital that we also remember there were thousands of Americans who went to the polls on election day to cast their historic 

vote and were turned away mainly because of election administration errors, or they were victims of voter deception or voter intimidation. 

What went wrong? In 2008, our State-based Unity ’08 coalitions 

in 11 States witnessed a continued need for election reform that 

mostly reiterated the need to improve our election administration 

system, specifically a need to consider universal or same-day registration as a viable solution to alleviate one of the most consistent 

problems voters face on election day, and that is being denied the 

right to vote because someone did not process their voter registration card properly, or their registration was mistakenly or illegally 

removed from the voting rolls in their community. 

In my experience of leading grassroots, nonpartisan voter participation campaigns for over 20 years, voter registration problems at 

the polls have been a persistent challenge, and voter fraud accusations have been too often misdiagnosed by some elected officials on 

a national and State level for decades. 

In 2008, for example, our State coordinator Cynthia Downs Taylor in the Hampton Roads area had to work with students who had 

been intimidated with threats that they would lose their financial 

aid if they were registered to vote, not getting the specific information that really impacted some students, but most students that is 

not the case. 

The current voter registration process during major elections like 

we experienced in 2008 creates surges in registration as deadlines 

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approach, and this volume contributes to backlogs and processing 

delays for our election administrators. On behalf of many of us, not 

all of us, in the civic engagement NGO community, it would be 

wonderful for us if we had to get out of the voter registration business, because universal registration or same-day registration would 

take that need away, and we would focus more on civic education 

and other areas that are needed. 

We also helped to sponsor the 1–866–MYVOTE1 hotline. From 

January to December, we received over 300,000 calls on that hotline, and the top two problems were poll locator problems. The 

number one problem was registration. 

What went right. We believe early voting is what went right. Listening to the last panel, many of the things I concur, some I don’t, 

but many I concur that it made it easier, it took the pressure off. 

It put the pressure on for some of us who were in a nonpartisan 

position. We had to work even harder over the period, but we believe it had a very, very positive effect. 

The national coalition joins the Brennan Center for Justice, the 

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Advancement 

Project, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and countless others in calling for reform of the voter-registration process. As I mentioned, we 

believe early voting is something that we should look at. We concur 

with the Advancement Project specifically that Congress should 

consider enacting legislation to require States in which voter lines 

were longer than 45 minutes in 2004 or 2008 to submit a remedial 

plan to eliminate or minimize wait lines. 

I am getting close to my moment. 

In closing, we must all remember that democracy is about people, 

voice and opportunity. Elections are about shaping the future. Election reform is a continuum that requires constant review as reform 

policies are implemented. In the words of global rights advocate Dr. 

Keith Jennings, every practice that discourages people from voting 

is a blow to democracy. 

Thank you for this opportunity, and I look forward to any questions you may have. Thank you. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you very much. 

[The statement of Ms. Campbell follows:] 

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Ms. LOFGREN. We turn now to Ms. Ferguson Bohnee. 

STATEMENT OF PATTY FERGUSON BOHNEE 

Ms. BOHNEE. Thank you very much, Chairwoman Lofgren, members of the subcommittee. On behalf of the National Congress of 

American Indians, thank you for inviting us here to present testimony on the 2008 elections in Indian country. 

NCAI is the oldest and largest national organization representing tribal governments. NCAI also runs the National Native 

Vote Program, which is designed to develop election infrastructure 

within our tribal communities and to encourage and empower Native Americans to vote. 

In 2008, with the assistance of tribes, we organized Native vote 

campaigns in 20 States. One portion of our Native vote campaign 

is the Election Protection Project, and I serve as the Election Protection coordinator for Arizona. 

I would like it to briefly address the history of voting within Indian country, and then I will discuss some lessons learned from 

this election, particularly with regard to the new voter ID requirements. 

Native Americans were denied the right to vote longer than any 

other group in the United States, 54 years after African American 

men and 4 years after women. Unfortunately after the Federal 

right was granted in 1924, many States continued to formally deny 

Native Americans the right to vote well into the 1960s. 

Historically, States used several arguments to justify the continued disenfranchisement of Native voters. Many of these prohibitions were embedded in the State constitution. For example, in one 

State, Indians were not considered civilized, and their continued 

participation in their tribal communities precluded participation in 

other elections. The requirement that Native Americans be civilized 

before been being granted the right to vote has had perhaps the 

most long-lasting negative effects in Indian country. It has perpetuated the pervasive culture that tribal elections are for Native, and 

State and Federal elections are for non-Natives. 

There are historical issues surrounding voter registration. Specifically past governmental efforts at registering or identifying a 

list of Native Americans have been for the purpose of taking land, 

relocating the communities, or forcefully removing our children to 

boarding schools. These experiences are ingrained in the collective 

memory in many Native communities and are apparent in the ongoing resistance to register with any government entity. This includes registering to vote. It also includes registering for a State 

government ID card. Thus we find the trend to require State-issued 

photo ID cards for voting purposes very concerning. 

In addition to the historical hesitancy behind registering with the 

State government, there are a number of other practical reasons 

why tribal members lack State-issued identification. The REAL ID 

Act and lack of birth certificates are two examples. Tribal ID documents are not treated as acceptable forms of ID for obtaining a 

REAL ID-compliant driver’s license. The practical effect of this is 

a decrease in the access to State driver’s licenses for Native Americans as tribal documents are our most common form of ID. 

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If tribal documents are not accepted by States, the next document usually required is a birth certificate, and this also is not an 

option for much of Indian country. Many Natives are born outside 

of a modern hospital system because they are born at home. Many 

never receive a birth certificate. In fact, the Indian Health Service 

did not even begin issuing birth certificates until 1968. It is estimated that as many as 30 percent of the population of our reservations do not have birth certificates. 

Even if Native Americans did have perfect access to State IDs, 

they should not be forced to obtain them. Tribal governments issue 

their own identifying documents. The Federal trust and treaty relationship is directly between the tribes and the Federal Government, not the State government. Tribal members should not be 

forced to go to a State government to obtain proof of who they are 

in order to participate in the Federal election process. Tribal government ID documents should be accepted just as any other government document. 

Unfortunately there are dozens of documented problems with acceptance of tribal IDs for voting purposes. Over the last three election cycles, the States have become more aware of the need to accept tribal IDs, but this is only after years of State-by-State advocacy by the tribal folks. Of the 20 Native vote States surveyed regarding their acceptance of ID for voting, only a handful include 

tribal ID encoder regulations. In many instances it was a discretionary decision made by the secretary of state. 

From my experience as a Native Vote leader in Arizona, this ad 

hoc approach to tribal ID is problematic. In 2004, Arizona passed 

a law to require IDs for any elector voting in person on election 

day. Arizona’s secretary of state adopted procedures limiting the 

types of ID which fail to take into consideration the inability of 

many reservation voters to obtain such ID, and knew that several 

tribes did not issue qualifying ID. As predicted by counties and 

tribes, the ID requirement resulted in a lower turnout on reservation and numerous uncounted ballots for failure to meet the ID requirement. 

Even with all the success over the years, there remain a number 

of legal and cultural obstacles that hinder full participation by 

America’s Native community. Additional examples are included in 

my written testimony. 

The Native Vote campaign and elected tribal leaders seek to empower participation in elections, but without alternatives to new ID 

requirements, it remains challenging for Native Americans to fully 

participate in the election process. 

If IDs are going to be required for any voting purposes, we ask 

for two things: Amend the REAL ID Act to accept tribal documents 

as proof of ID and citizenship for purposes of obtaining a State 

driver’s license, and amend HAVA to clarify that where any form 

of ID is required, tribal documents will also be accepted. 

Thank you so much for your time and commitment to hearing 

from the Native community. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you very much. 

[The statement of Ms. Bohnee follows:] 

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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Vargas. 

STATEMENT OF ARTURO VARGAS 

Mr. VARGAS. Thank you, Madam Chair, Mr. Harper. Thank you 

for the invitation to testify before you today. 

Through our voting engagement, voter protection and information hotline programs, we learned about the challenges of Latino 

voters in 2008. The majority of calls we received were questions 

about basic election information. There was significant confusion 

among voters about each State’s primary system, and I am surprised no one here has discussed the issues that we had during the 

primaries, which I will discuss a little bit, questions about whether 

or not primaries were open, closed or modified, or if it was a caucus. 

We assisted callers with locating their polling places, determining their registration status. Some callers indicated they never 

received their election materials; others reported registering before 

the deadline and never having their applications processed. Others 

found that their names were missing from the rolls despite having 

voted in previous elections. And at least 30 voters on our hotline 

reported being turned away from the polls without being offered a 

provisional ballot. Many callers also indicated experiencing challenges related to language accessibility, suggesting that some 

Latino voters were made to feel uncomfortable by poll workers 

when they did not speak much English. Some callers reported that 

they never received election materials in their language. Another 

significant problem faced by Latino voters was confusion surrounding voter ID requirements, both with HAVA and State laws. 

We offer the following recommendations so that voting can be accessible to all Americans. State and local jurisdictions must undertake vigorous efforts to improve their practices for providing basic 

information to new voters and in a timely manner. We take for 

granted that the public understands how to vote. Whether you are 

a first-time voter at the age of 18 or a first-time voter at the age 

of 88 because you are a naturalized citizen, oftentimes voting can 

be a confusing process, and jurisdictions need to provide more timely and more relevant information. 

Jurisdictions should implement effective systems to allow voters 

to quickly verify their voter registration status. The most effective 

system we have seen are on-line computer-based systems which 

allow for instant verification of someone’s registration status. 

State and local jurisdictions must make significant improvements 

of the voter registration practices and maintenance of the voter 

registration databases. 

State and local jurisdictions must undertake vigorous and effective efforts to provide language assistance. As language-minority 

citizens, we need special assistance as what is required by Federal 

law. 

Jurisdictions must improve poll worker training and recruitment, 

especially for bilingual poll workers, and their training must include the specific needs and rights of language-minority voters, the 

nondiscriminatory application of voter ID requirements, the proper 

use of provisional ballots and basic customer service. 

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The Department of Justice should strengthen its enforcement of 

the Voter Rights Act, HAVA and the National Voter Registration 

Act, and enclosed with my testimony are specific recommendations 

we made to the Department of Justice. 

States should cease efforts to impose proof of citizenship and 

voter ID requirements that are more restrictive than those required by the Help America Vote Act. There has been an alarming 

increase in State efforts to impose proof of citizenship and voter ID 

requirements that go beyond the Federal mandate. Restrictive 

voter ID requirements impose significant burdens on certain voters. 

Some of the voter ID laws require specific address matches, as 

mentioned by the previous panel. We actually received calls from 

voters who did not have a specific address and were turned away 

from the polls. 

State and local jurisdictions must establish stronger partnerships 

with community-based organizations. These organizations often can 

help election officials implement more accessible voting practices. 

Political parties and policymakers should examine the impact the 

2008 accelerated primary season on voter turnout. We actually saw 

much more enthusiasm and much more campaigning, for example, 

Chair Lofgren, in our State of California. Rarely have we seen candidates come and campaign during the primaries. That really invigorated the electorate and I think contributed to a stronger turnout. 

We should look at the consequences of perhaps national or regional 

primaries. 

The public sector should invest more in nonpartisan voter education and engagement efforts. Again, as you know, in California 

there was a massive amount of resources invested in the primaries, 

but come the general election, candidates were not to be seen. All 

the attention was shifted away to battleground States, and voters 

in States like California were largely ignored. Two-thirds of Latino 

voters live in States that were largely ignored. We should have an 

investment in resources in nonpartisan efforts so that all voters are 

engaged in our elections, not just voters in battleground States. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you very much. 

[The statement of Mr. Vargas follows:] 

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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Eversole. 

STATEMENT OF ERIC EVERSOLE 

Mr. EVERSOLE. Good morning, Madam Chair. Thank you for the 

opportunity for allowing me to testify today regarding military voting in 2008. 

I wish I had good news to tell you, but I don’t. Every piece of 

data that has been collected thus far, including a survey or study 

conducted by the Overseas Vote Foundation, as well as evidence 

that I have been able to gather personally from the States, paints 

an absolutely dismal picture for the military voter in 2008. In Minnesota, for example, 15.7 percent of eligible military voters and 

their dependents were able to cast a valid absentee ballot in the 

2008 election; 15.7 percent of 22,000 citizens were all that were allowed to participate. In Missouri it was 18.8 percent; in Nebraska 

14; 131⁄2 percent in Arkansas; and saving the worst for last, Alabama, where out of 91,000 military and overseas voters, 6.3 percent 

were able to cast an absentee ballot that counted. It is truly shocking and shameful. 

If there is one thing to take away from the 2008 election with 

regard to military voting, it is this: Military voters cannot suffer 

one more Federal election without some form of reform to ensure 

that they are able to vote in their Federal elections. 

With that being said, I have offered a few recommendations for 

the subcommittee to consider. I have tried to take a look at possible 

legislative fixes that would provide a significant benefit to military 

voters without creating a lot of controversy, and also would be easy 

for the States to implement by 2010. I know that the subcommittee 

is considering things like Internet voting, but even if something 

like that passes, it may be 8, 9, 10 years before it is actually implemented, and certainly wouldn’t be implemented, I doubt, before the 

2010 election. 

But that being said, I would like to focus on at least two of the 

recommendations that I did make. The first one is there has to be 

some clarification in the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act to make clear that jurisdictions have to provide military voters with 45 days to receive and cast and return their absentee ballots. 

Now, States may decide to do it differently. In jurisdictions that 

allow 45 days, some of them decide to mail the ballots out about 

30 days before the election and allow 15 days for the ballot to come 

back. Some States just mail out their ballots 45 days before the 

election. But currently there are 10 States and the District of Columbia that allow less than 35 days. And part of the problem here 

is that the Department of Justice, the Voting Section has taken the 

position that while it recommends 45 days, and every Federal 

agency that has looked at this recommends 45 days, every nonprofit group that has looked at this recommends 45 days, the Justice Department has taken the position that it will not enforce 

UOCAVA unless a State sends out a ballot less than 30 days before 

the election. 

They have no study that I am aware of that supports that viewpoint, and, in fact, when I went back and looked at their most rewwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING

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cent lawsuits, they cite the Federal Voting Assistance Program, the 

former Director Polly Brunelli as the expert for 30 days. 

The results, I think, are pretty clear with regard to how that impacts the military and overseas voter. As several people have mentioned, a very large number of the ballots are coming back late. In 

Minnesota, for instance, of the rejected ballots that were rejected 

by the States, 70 percent were rejected because they came back 

after the deadline. So that is one recommendation. 

The second recommendation that I would make and ask this subcommittee to consider is that it should consider amending section 

7 of the National Voter Registration Act and make military pay 

and personnel offices a voter registration agency under section 7 of 

that act. That would essentially require those pay and personnel offices to provide voter registration materials when a servicemember 

comes in, which, in fact, most servicemembers, as some of you may 

know, come in to their pay and personnel offices when they change 

their permanent duty station or prior to going on deployment. So 

every time they change their duty station, or every time they go 

on to deployment, they have to fill out a bunch of administrative 

forms anyway. It seems to me reasonable that one of the forms 

should be a Federal postcard application. 

With that being said, I thank you again for allowing me to testify, and I look forward to your questions. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you very much. 

[The statement of Mr. Eversole follows:] 

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Ms. LOFGREN. All the bells and whistles mean that we have a 

vote on the floor of the House. We would like to get Mr. Chapin’s 

testimony and then our quick questioning so that we don’t hold you 

back over past the voting time. 

Mr. Chapin. 

STATEMENT OF DOUG CHAPIN 

Mr. CHAPIN. My name is Doug Chapin, and as of January 2009, 

I am director of election initiatives at the Pew Charitable Trusts’ 

Center on the States, a division of Pew that seeks to advance nonpartisan, pragmatic policy solutions to issues facing States and 

their citizens. 

Pew has invested more than $20 million in the field of election 

administration since 2001. Our work in elections follows an approach used by Pew across its areas of interest. First we take the 

performance-based approach to election administration. Americans 

demand an election system that offers optimal performance, administrative efficiency, and cost-effective use of public funds. This is especially important in the currently constrained fiscal environment. 

Second, Pew considers it a central part of our mission to involve 

election officials in our work. State and local election officials have 

a unique and critical role in any effort to improve our election system, both because of intimate understanding of the process and 

their responsibility to implement any changes. Indeed in 2008, Pew 

partnered with election officials from more than 20 States, including Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Cunningham, as part of our work to study 

and test changes to the status quo. 

Finally, we routinely involve leaders from the private sector and 

others outside the election community, taking advantage of their 

expertise to help election officials confront pressing issues by sharing insights and serving as a source of ideas and support for the 

most innovative approaches to reform. 

With that as background, let me quickly turn to observations 

about the performance of the American election system in 2008. 

The biggest story of 2008 was that the system worked better 

than anticipated. Even those of us who adamantly refused to predict a meltdown were holding our breath as the polls opened on November 4th because of the combination of a system in flux and potentially record turnout. The good news is the meltdown didn’t happen. By and large our election system appeared to handle the historic turnout of voters. In fact, according to a new national MIT 

survey conducted for Pew with support from AARP and the JEHT 

Foundation, most Americans who voted in 2008 had an overall 

positive experience. 

Fewer than 2 percent experienced registration problems, most of 

whom resolved the problem at the polls with the provisional ballot—with a regular rather than a provisional ballot. And fewer 

than 2 percent had any problem with voting equipment regardless 

of the type of equipment they used. 

And yes, the survey’s findings also raised concerns. While 2 percent experiencing a problem may seem small, that is a number 

large enough to affect a very close race. 

The bigger story is that MIT found that 38 percent of nonvoters, 

or the equivalent of over 8 million people, said problems with the 

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election system were a major factor in their nonvote in the election. 

I would like to submit a copy of the executive summary of that report which is released today. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Without objection, that will be made part of the 

record. 

[The information follows:] 

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Mr. CHAPIN. Applying these findings to the estimated 23.2 million registered voters who did not cast a ballot, MIT estimates that 

approximately 3 million did not cast a ballot because of a problem 

with registration. Between 2 and 3 million did not vote because of 

long lines. More than 2 million could not find out where to vote. 

Approximately 2 million requested but did not receive an absentee 

ballot, and almost 2 million did not vote because they said they did 

not have proper ID. 

What worked on election day? Voters had better information. 

Last fall, Pew released a report entitled ‘‘Being On Line Is Not 

Enough,’’ in which we found that States had a long way to go to 

do a better job of making voting information available online. 

Fortunately, we were also able to offer States a solution through 

a partnership with State and local election officials, the League of 

Women Voters and Google, called the Voting Information Project, 

which seeks to make information available on line. Our goal is to 

take that project nationwide in the next few years. 

Second, voters cast ballots before election day in ever greater 

numbers. Election officials, the media, candidates and advocacy organizations were very successful in getting voters to vote by mail 

or early in order to avoid the crush on election day. In fact, early 

voting was so popular that the MIT survey found that many early 

voters stood in lines twice as long as their counterparts on election 

day. 

As more States discuss whether to adopt or how to adopt early 

voting, Pew is there conducting research to help them study the 

issues and opportunities involved. Our research, which we will be 

releasing over the next several months, will consider what does and 

doesn’t work and help States think about next steps. 

Unfortunately, not everything worked as well. Voter registration 

captured a lot of attention in 2008. We have a system in this country which is still very much paper-based, requires election offices 

to hand-enter and hand-match registration information, which 

makes it susceptible to human error. Most often election offices are 

inundated with registration forms at the end of an election cycle 

when time and resources are tight, many of whom come from outside groups which require extra attention to build the rolls. 

Problems with registration were largely concentrated among 

younger voters and people who moved. In fact, one in four people 

who had moved residences within a year of election day reported 

a problem with their registration. 

States are already taking a lead on registration reform. Secretaries of State Robin Carnahan of Missouri and Trey Grayson of 

Kentucky recently wrote an op-ed in Roll Call in which they issued 

a call for voter registration modernization. I would like to offer a 

copy of that op-ed for the record. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Without objection. 

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Ms. LOFGREN. We are going to have to ask you to wrap up, because we have to go to the floor to vote. 

Mr. CHAPIN. Yes, ma’am. 

Pew shares the Subcommittee’s concerns about military and 

overseas voting. I would like to commend everyone for their attention to better data on election performance, focusing on cost efficiency, and I want to also again echo the call to involve State and 

local officials and people from the private sector and elsewhere. 

[The statement of Mr. Chapin follows:] 

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Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you very much for your testimony, and for 

the testimony of you all. We have about 7 minutes until the vote 

is called, so I will turn to Mr. Harper for his questions. 

Mr. HARPER. Thank you, Madam Chair. We will make it quick 

because I know we have to go vote. 

Mr. Chapin, your numbers that you stated, 3 million that had 

problems or couldn’t vote because of registration problems, or 2 

million because of other problems, are those actual figures, or are 

those extrapolations that were done? 

Mr. CHAPIN. Those were extrapolations done from the survey 

findings to the estimated number of nonvoters. 

Mr. HARPER. I wish we had time to go into that on the numbers 

and those statistics and those things, because, as you know, 69 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot—or 64 percent, or 

whatever it is. Anyway, looking at all those numbers is an ongoing 

issue. 

I would say personally I do support the sovereignty of the tribes, 

so that is something we are willing to look at. We want to make 

sure that we do something that is fair and provides safeguards that 

are in there. 

The biggest problem that I see is in the area of military voting, 

because military personnel cut across all racial lines, all areas, all 

segments of our society. And the fact we had a rather dismal record 

of making sure the military voters get that opportunity to vote who 

particularly may be overseas, whether that is the time lag or the 

delivery lag, whatever it may be, that is something that we can’t 

have happen again. And I think it will go towards the goal that you 

have to make sure that all citizens have the opportunity to vote. 

We can’t make every citizen vote, but we can give them that opportunity. It is a privilege and a responsibility. But the military is another area. 

One question I would have, Ms. Campbell, on voter ID—and I 

know we are on a very short time, so I will ask a quick question— 

I do believe that voter ID is an acceptable way to prevent voter 

fraud that we might have in different regards. And one thing that 

you had indicated in the materials is about AARP, I believe you 

said, estimated that in Georgia that maybe 36 percent of those over 

the age of 75 couldn’t have those requirements. And I think some 

States have addressed that by excluding those over a certain age. 

That has been one way to address that. 

Driver’s license problems. You know, my son has special needs, 

so he can’t drive, but he has a State photo ID. So when I have a 

chance for him to fly or fly with me, I have his photo ID. It was 

very easy to get it. Maybe there is a way there, ‘‘voter ID light.’’ 

Do you think that is something in conjunction that could work? 

Ms. CAMPBELL. I think part of it is there is no standards, and 

a lot of this was done, laws were passed. Not necessarily all the 

facts are there. So the challenges when our elected officials create 

legislation that is not based on facts all the time, it is problematic 

for all of us. 

Mr. HARPER. Ms. Campbell, would you be willing to look at all 

issues? 

Ms. CAMPBELL. Oh, we look at all issues. Definitely. Madam 

Chair, we have a survey that we did on voter experiences, and once 

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that is finalized, I would like to see if that can be entered for the 

record as well. 

Ms. LOFGREN. We would love to see the report. 

Mr. HARPER. Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to submit 

the following documents for the record: One, a U.S. Census Bureau 

table about voter turnout; two, a collection of voter fraud articles 

and court documents; and three, a 2007 study by the Institute of 

Public Policy on voter identification laws. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Without objection, those items will be made a part 

of record. 

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Ms. LOFGREN. And the gentleman yields back. 

I will be very quick. First let me say the testimony has been very 

helpful, and I appreciate it very much. There are things to follow 

up with from here. 

I would just like to say, Ms. Bohnee, that your testimony reminded me of a field hearing—it wasn’t much of a field hearing, 

honestly—that I attended in New Mexico several years ago. And 

the individual who testified from the Navajo Nation went through 

why the photo ID issue wouldn’t work. He said, okay, we don’t 

have driver’s licenses, and we don’t have birth certificates, and, by 

the way, 80 percent of the tribe refuses to have their picture taken 

because they think it steals their soul. And so basically you are 

saying the Navajos are not going to be permitted to vote. And it 

just became so stark to me in that testimony what had been done. 

So I think the idea that a tribal ID is not given the stature it 

should. It a very problematic thing, and I would look forward to 

working with the gentleman. We have got to fix that. 

Clearly we have to deal with overseas voters, most especially 

military, but not just military. We have other Americans who are 

doing the country’s bidding. Whether it is an AID or the awards 

bidding on a mission, we need to find a way for those people to be 

able to participate. I am confident that we can do that. 

So again, we will hold this record open for 5 days. If there are 

additional questions, we will get them to you and ask in that case 

that you respond as promptly as possible. We look forward to additional information. 

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Ms. LOFGREN. And I will just say this: People don’t realize that 

the witnesses who come here are volunteers. They are here just to 

help inform the United States House of Representatives so we can 

make good decisions and make a better country. We really do appreciate your service in that regard today. 

We thank you, and this hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:38 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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503 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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504 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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505 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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506 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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507 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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508 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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509 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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510 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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511 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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512 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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513 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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514 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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515 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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516 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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517 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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518 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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519 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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520 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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521 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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522 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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523 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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524 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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525 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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526 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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527 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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528 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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529 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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530 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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531 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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532 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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533 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


Insert offset folio 585 here 50807A.494
534 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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535 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


Insert offset folio 587 here 50807A.496
536 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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537 

wwoods2 on DSK1DXX6B1PROD with HEARING


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