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[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 588 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 588

  To express the sense of the Senate that States should have in place 
backup systems to deal with any failure of electronic voting equipment 
             during the November 7, 2006, general election.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 27, 2006

   Mr. Feingold (for himself and Mr. Kerry) submitted the following 
     resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules and 
                             Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
  To express the sense of the Senate that States should have in place 
backup systems to deal with any failure of electronic voting equipment 
             during the November 7, 2006, general election.

Whereas widespread problems with new voting technology have been reported this 
        year in primaries in Ohio, Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, and elsewhere;
Whereas States such as Texas, Arkansas, and others have had to unexpectedly 
        administer provisional ballots after electronic voting machines failed;
Whereas equipment malfunctions in the Arkansas district 16 State Senate primary 
        race precipitated a recount that, in turn, produced a new winner;
Whereas computer problems in 4 southern Indiana counties required workers to 
        manually enter the number of votes for each candidate in each precinct;
Whereas a deadline to test electronic voting machines in West Virginia was 
        pushed back to the day before the May 9 primary election due to problems 
        and delays with the new machines;
Whereas glitches in the electronic voter check-in system in Montgomery County, 
        Maryland, resulted in polls remaining open for additional hours and 
        required a recount of thousands of paper provisional ballots;
Whereas 40 percent of registered voters nationally are expected to cast ballots 
        on new machines in the November 7 midterm elections;
Whereas the larger number of voters participating in the November 7 midterm 
        elections may result in even more equipment failures than occurred in 
        the primary elections;
Whereas millions of voters could be disenfranchised in the November 7 midterm 
        elections, as thousands have already been in 2006 primary elections, due 
        to the failure of electronic voting machines; and
Whereas former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and former Ohio Governor 
        Richard Celeste, co-chairs of the Committee to Study a Framework for 
        Understanding Electronic Voting of the National Academies' National 
        Research Council wrote recently: ``If major problems arise with unproven 
        technology and new election procedures, the political heat will be high 
        indeed. . . . Jurisdictions need to come up with contingency plans for 
        such November problems, if they haven't done so already. One possible 
        example: Make preparations to fall back to paper ballots if 
        necessary.'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that each State and 
jurisdiction that uses electronic voting equipment should have in place 
for use in the November 7, 2006, general election a backup system, such 
as the use of paper ballots, in the case of any failure of the 
electronic voting equipment.
                                 <all>
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