FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, March 12, 2014
CONTACT: Ian Koski at 202-224-5042

Senator Coons testifies about his election-reform legislation

“Voting is the ultimate civil right in our free society, and we should treat it accordingly.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) testified before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration on Wednesday about his bill to make substantial improvements to the administration of elections and to make voting faster and more accessible to all voters. The Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely (FAST) Voting Act would create a competitive grant program to encourage states to aggressively pursue election reform. The states that demonstrate the most comprehensive and promising reform plans would earn a greater portion of the grant funding.

“Voting is the ultimate civil right in our free society, and we should treat it accordingly,” Senator Coons testified. “The November 2012 elections were a wake-up call. Tens of thousands of Americans, including Republicans and Democrats in both ‘red states’ and ‘blue states,’ saw their fundamental right to vote for the candidate of their choice eroded by exceptionally long lines and confusing procedures in well over a dozen states. It does not have to be this way. We can pass the FAST Voting Act to accelerate the adoption of efficient and effective practices for administering elections.” 

“This bill creates incentives for a ‘Race to the Top’ structure to encourage states to adopt many of the best practices, and I think that’s a great idea too,” Rules Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer said. “To have the states compete to do better and give them a reward for doing better worked very well in Race to the Top, and I think it will work very well in elections too, where you have the same idea: federal interest, but basically state laws governing.” Watch the Chairman’s opening remarks here: http://bit.ly/1g9NKRK

The bill was originally introduced in November 2012, just over a week after an Election Day that saw extraordinarily long lines and a myriad of voting issues in more than a dozen states, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Virginia, South Carolina, Montana, Tennessee, Hawaii, Arizona, Rhode Island, and more. 

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.

The program also requires an assessment of steps the state has taken to eliminate statutory, regulatory, procedural and other barriers to expedited voting and accessible voter registration.

The New York Times offered its support for the FAST Voting Act in November 2012: http://nyti.ms/T5DvnK, as did the Washington Post in December 2012: http://bit.ly/TmwS6b

Senator Coons’ full testimony is below:

- As Delivered on March 12, 2014 -

Thank you, Chairman Schumer, and thank you Ranking Member Senator Roberts for inviting me to testify. Thank you especially Senator Warner, for his leadership and advocacy for the legislation I am here to present on – the Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely – (FAST) – Voting Act.

I also thank Senator Warner, for his leadership and advocacy for the legislation I am here to discuss – the Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely – (FAST) – Voting Act.

The FAST Voting Act draws on the framework of the successful Race to the Top education reform program to reward states that make substantial improvements in the administration of their elections to make voting faster and more accessible to all citizens.

The legislation incentivizes states to put forward their best efforts to improve elections.  As a competitive grant program, the best proposals with the greatest impact are rewarded with the seed money to make it happen. 

The critical metrics of this evaluation are clear – Indeed, the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration (PCEA) report highlights the need for all states to improve in the following areas, which are also enumerated in the FAST Voting Act:

Online voter registration to enhance both accuracy of the voter rolls and efficiency; Early Voting – either by mail or in-person voting so that all people who work can also vote; Improving the ability of military and overseas voters to access ballots and other voting materials; Electronic pollbooks – for greater accuracy and efficiency; Enhancing training of poll workers; and Addressing the needs of voters with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency.

We know what needs to be done. Now it’s time to get moving. The November 2012 elections were a wake-up call.

Tens of thousands of Americans, including Republicans and Democrats in both “red states” and “blue states,” saw their fundamental right to vote for the candidate of their choice eroded by exceptionally long lines and confusing procedures in well over a dozen states.

We saw errors on voter rolls in Ohio and delays in counting ballots in Arizona.

We saw voters waiting in line five hours in Virginia and eight hours in Florida. 

In Colorado, voters said they checked the box on the touchscreen panel to vote for Mitt Romney, but that the machine kept switching their pick to President Obama, while in Pennsylvania, voters reported the same problem in reverse – that their selection of President Obama was registered as a vote for Governor Romney.

This is unacceptable.  Voting is the ultimate civil right in our free society, and we should treat it accordingly. 

When a polling station runs out of ballots, our friends and our neighbors are effectively disenfranchised.  Likewise, when the lines at a polling station are too long, our fellow citizens are forced to choose between losing their job and forfeiting their right to vote.

It does not have to be this way.  We can pass the FAST Voting Act to accelerate the adoption of efficient and effective practices for administering elections.  

While many states are struggling, there are also good examples for others to follow.

In my home state of Delaware, we have an exceptional State Election Commissioner, Elaine Manlove, who has helped lead the way through her tireless efforts to improve the voting experience in Delaware. An instructive example is her leadership on e-Signature, or electronic signature. eSignature is a voter registration method that can be implemented at registration sites – including Departments of Motor Vehicles – to streamline the process through which many Americans register to vote.

In the old system, the need for a signature was accomplished on a paper application, which would then be collected from DMV locations, transferred to the Election Commission, reviewed, entered by another person, and then archived. Now, with an electronic signature available on the same interface as DMV transactions, the data is transmitted directly and error-free to the voter rolls. 

Because of Elaine Manlove’s leadership, Delaware voters will experience fewer errors, less wait time, and lower costs.

We owe it to our fellow citizens to help spread the technology, the policies, and the lessons learned in states like Delaware to make elections run better everywhere.

Our Democracy is the oldest in the world, and currently it is showing its age. We cannot stand idly by as our elections become a ritual in embarrassment.

Let’s continue to be a leader in the free world, and help our states conduct the elections our constituents deserve. 

I look forward to working with this committee to pass the FAST Voting Act.