Election Reform Bill Before the House of Representatives

10 October 2002

HR 3295, now called the "Help America Vote Act of 2002", has been submitted together with the Conference report (HR 107-730) to the House which was scheduled to begin to debate it at 2 a.m. EST on Thursday, October 10. The entire text (165 pages) can be downloaded from the House website (www.house.gov) - click on "currently on the House floor" and scroll down until you find HR 3295.

Without doing that, you may also read here a summary of the provisions of {ln:Title VII on Voting Rights 'Title VII}, that applies to overseas voters.

You will see that it provides not only for:

• the creation of a single state office responsible for overseas voters, but also for
• statistics on ballot applications and ballots received and sent
• and: extension of the period covered by a single absentee ballot application to two regularly scheduled federal election cycles, in other words 4 years!

Once passed in the House, and Speaker Hastert has come out in support of it, it goes to the Senate, where Majority Leader Daschle also promises passage.

For effective implementation (not before the 2002 elections, of course) all that will remain is the president's signature and the biggest battle - funding...

Another step forward!