Steny Hoyer: “I am introducing the Voting Improvement Act. This bill provides a short-term and a long-term solution to a crisis we…”

“I am introducing the Voting Improvement Act. This bill provides a short-term and a long-term solution to a crisis we face in the wake of the 2000 elections. One of the reactions that I have heard repeatedly from my constituents in the months since the election, was shock at the sheer number of votes that were cast but were not counted--19,000 discarded ballots in Palm Beach County alone. Those numbers are shocking--and they have the potential to drive voters away from the polls permanently unless we can act quickly to repair our voting system and repair the voters' confidence in that system. In 615 days we will be having a federal election. That election will be subjected to the greatest amount of media scrutiny that has ever befallen an election in this country. And that is why I believe that it is imperative that we devise a way to bring about the most dramatic reduction possible in the number of votes that are cast but not counted.”