Florida Redux?

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Six years after the “hanging chad” presidential election debacle in Florida and four years after Congress passed legislation designed to prevent such disasters from happening again, alarms are once again being raised that these pivotal Congressional elections could be beset by chaos at the polls.

On Thursday, USA Today carried a front-page story headlined “Election glitches ‘could get ugly’” with the subhead “New voting equipment, lack of training feed fears.” And on Sunday, The Washington Post’s main headline declared “Major Problems At Polls Feared,” and the subhead read, “Some Officials Say Voting Law Changes And New Technology Will Cause Trouble.”

Let’s hope these warnings prove to be as overblown as the millennium Y2K panic, when it was feared that all the computers in the world would malfunction on Jan. 1, 2000, because of mis-set date codes. Industries spent billions in advance to adjust their computers and ward off the danger. Similarly, Congress has appropriated $3 billion to help states and localities buy electronic voting machines to avoid a repetition of Florida 2000, when voting snafus left the presidential election result in dispute.

Now, it’s control of Congress that hangs in the balance, and the worry is that despite (or worse, because of) provisions of the 2002 Help America Vote Act, Florida-style confusion may reign all over the country. As USA Today summarized, “problems range from delayed delivery of new equipment to an insufficient supply of trained technicians to fix anticipated problems.” It noted that glitches have occurred this year in primary elections in Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia.

HAVA mandated new voting technology, updated statewide voter registries, provisional ballots for those not on voter lists and identification requirements for certain new registrants. Most of its provisions take effect this year. Unfortunately, as a Congressional Research Service study reported, Congress authorized $600 million to help states meet its requirements, then failed to provide the funding in fiscal 2005 or 2006.

The CRS added that, according to the Election Assistance Commission, national elections require about 2 million poll workers nationwide. Most tend to be retirees — with an average age of 72 — and they often have to be on duty for 14 hours. They needed substantial training to be ready for the new equipment and rules mandated by HAVA. They didn’t get it.

Ever since 2003, Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) has offered legislation to require that electronic machines be equipped with a backup paper trail to make it possible to resolve disputes. His bill, now boasting 212 co-sponsors, will not receive its first hearing in the House Administration Committee until Sept. 28 — just days before Congress is ready to adjourn and 38 days before the elections. There’s no way around it: If Nov. 7 is a mess, Congress will be to blame.