Steny Hoyer: “of course the Voting Rights Act, obviously, and the Motor Voter Act provides for the removal of people who have died or…”

“of course the Voting Rights Act, obviously, and the Motor Voter Act provides for the removal of people who have died or are not otherwise eligible. On the other hand, the gentlewoman raises an absolutely critical issue. The committee and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney) and I were very concerned about that. There are a number of provisions in this bill that deal with that issue. First of all, while we provide under Motor Voter removal of voters who are ineligible under State law, we have a provision that says that the States must take care not to remove persons who are in fact eligible. Number two, there is a provision in the bill which provides for the adoption of a state-wide registration system so that we have a uniform system of keeping people on the roll and/or removing them. Obviously, some smaller jurisdictions have great difficulty having the technological capability to keep current, and they make mistakes. We hope to move them in that direction. The third critical provision included in our bill and the Senate bill is the providing of an opportunity for a provisional balloting.”