Senator Chris Coons Reintroduces the FAST Voting Act
Senator Coons and others filed this bill last November, after we saw one more US election marked with long lines to vote, registration questions and issues and other problems that got in the way of very many Americans to exercise their franchise. He has reintroduced this bill, with Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to help states to improve their election capabilities and make it easier for Americans to vote. From the website:
This bill authorizes a federal program that would award grants based on how well applicant states are able to improve access to the polls in at least nine specified ways, including:
- Providing flexible registration opportunities, including same-day registration;
- Providing early voting, at a minimum of 9 of the 10 calendar days preceding an election;
- Providing absentee voting, including no-excuse absentee voting;
- Providing assistance to voters who do not speak English as a primary language;
- Providing assistance to voters with disabilities, including visual impairment;
- Providing effective access to voting for members of the armed services;
- Providing formal training of election officials, including State and county administrators and volunteers;
- Auditing and reducing waiting times at polling stations; and
- Creating contingency plans for voting in the event of a natural or other disaster.
There’s video of Senator Coons’ floor speech reintroducing this bill and calling for his colleagues to help states’ get their voting houses in order:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbOUc_CDwNc&feature=share&list=UU2lOVbsddn1HIkcDnmCw6tA[/youtube]
I’m a fan of all of these measures, but it strikes me that the Republican states have a vested interest in a broken voting system so I wonder how far this will get.
Tags: Chris Coons, Voting
I really don’t like this idea of incentivizing good voting behavior by these states. Coons’s bill sounds good, but it would require states to take the lead on this and behave well to receive the grant. We saw how this worked with Race to the Top. Do we actually think those red states will want to cede some of their autonomy for a federal grant they most likely see as overreach anyhow? I much prefer a bill, I believe, Barbara Boxer was floating around that pretty much made these things the law of the land and not some wishy-washy grant. These states need to be forced into some semblance of voting consistency. A “poor-little-baby, let-me-hold-your-hand” grant like this is just not good enough for me, though I do appreciate Sen. Coons’s intent.
Since the Constitution allows states to run their own elections (with certain well-defined exceptions), the incentive grant is about all Congress can do to influence them. It’s like RTTT, except with useful requirements.
I agree with Mike. As President Obama said, “Our (civil rights) journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote,”
Those lines aren’t flukes. They are intentional voter suppression. States should not be able to choose between a grant or voter suppression.
All of the sudden the lines are “voter suppression?” What happened to voting the first Tuesday in November and thats it unless you vote absentee? If you have precincts which are always busy, add extra machines. Not rocket science here guys. Let Delaware figure it out without more overreach from the fed.