III 

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; 


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•SRES 588 IS 

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 


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•SRES 588 IS 

possible example: Make preparations to fall back to paper 

ballots if necessary.’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that each 

2 State and jurisdiction that uses electronic voting equip3 ment should have in place for use in the November 7, 

4 2006, general election a backup system, such as the use 

5 of paper ballots, in the case of any failure of the electronic 

6 voting equipment. 

Æ 


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