Political Quotes

“I would have amended H.R. 2989, the Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 2004, to address concerns about an unfunded mandate and ensure integrity in our voting system. However, this amendment was not in order. My amendment would have given States a waiver from compliance with the Help America Vote Act until it is fully funded at the authorized level. States should not have to comply with an unfunded mandate in 2006. Many of our states are facing serious budget crises, and worry that if they are not first in line to receive the federal matching funds the money will run out. If this happens, the local taxpayers will be left holding the bill for compliance with the unfunded HAVA mandate in 2006. My amendment would not require states to comply with the HAVA mandate until it is fully funded at the level authorized. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires, among other things, that each precinct have at least one Direct Recording Electronic voting system, or DRE. However, currently these machines do not have a permanent, auditable and individually verifiable trail. Questions remain about whether electronic voting system software could be hacked into and election results tampered with. Until DRE machines have a verifiable audit trail, we should not spend federal tax dollars on unreliable machines.”