Help America Vote Act of 2002

The text of the "Help America Vote Act of 2002" can be found at http://www.fec.gov/hava/law_ext.txt .

HAVA creates the EAC and the EAC TGDC (Technical Guidelines Development Committee).

For more information, see the National Institute of Standards and Technology's NIST and Help America Vote Act (HAVA). web site.

The Act is over 60 pages long. Below is a selective overview of parts likely to be important to election protection activists. Alternately, you may want to read one of the summaries on the web, such as http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/HAVA/Summary.pdf

Disclaimer: Prepared by a non-lawyer, no guarantees, use at your own risk.

Title I - Payments to States for Election Administration Improvements and Replacement of Punch Card and Lever Voing Machines

Sections 101 and 104:
Up to $325 million is authorized to the states which may be used for almost any election related improvements, e.g.:

Replacing voting systems,
Improving accessibility of polling sites and of voting machines,
Educating voters,
Training election workers,
Establishing toll-free hotlines for voters to report problems and to access their registration status,
Establishing state wide voter registration database,
...

Sections 102 and 104:
$325 million is authorized for replacing voting lever machines and punch card machines.

Title II - Commission

This Title establishes the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), http://eac.gov, It includes a Standards Board, Board of Advisory, and Technical Guidelines Committee. The EAC develops voluntary voting system guidelines.

Section 210:
Budget is up to $10 million/year.

Section 257:
Authorizes $3 billion in 2003-2005, in addition to the $650 million of Section 104:

Section 264:
Authorizes $100 million to improve disabled access.

Section 273:
Authorizes $20 million for research in voting technology

Section 283:
Authorizes $10 million for pilot projects.

Section 292:
Authorizes $40 million via Department of Health and Human Services for state disabled protection and advocacy agencies.

Title III - Uniform and Nondiscriminatory Election Technology and Administration Requirements

Section 301 (a)(1):
This section begins with:

(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the voting system (including any lever voting system, optical scanning voting system, or direct recording electronic system) shall--

notify the voter if the voter voted for too many candidates for an office, and allow them to change their ballot before the ballot is cast and counted.

The exceptions are listing in (B):

(B) A State or jurisdiction that uses a paper ballot voting system, ..., or a central count voting system (including mail-in absentee ballots and mail-in ballots), ...

These can use education and instructions rather than notification.

When or how is paper (exempt) different from optical scan (not exempt)? Does this mean optical scan in the precinct must notify, but central optical scan does not have to?

Section 301(a)(4):
The voting system shall provide alternative language accessibility pursuant to the requirements of section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Section 302:
Provisional Ballots must be given to individuals who declare that they are a registered voter eligible to vote in this jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is not defined. In Ohio, previously provisional ballots had been acceptable as long as the voter was in the correct county, but in 2004, they had to submit them in the proper precinct, causing confusion and disenfranchisement. Upon voting provisionally, the voter must be given written instructions on a cost free access system to find out if the vote was counted, and, if not, why not.

Section 303:
States must set up a statewide voter registration database by Jan. 1, 2006, which must be accessible by any state or local election officials and which is the official list of registered voters in the state. Each registered voter is assigned a unique number in the database.

Section 303 (a)(5)(A):
When registering to vote, applicants must supply their driver's license number. If they don't have a driver's license, they must supply the last four digits of their social security number. If you don't have either, the state will assign you a unique number. [I have heard that if an applicant has a driver's license, but supplies the last four digits of their social security number instead, the application will be rejected.]

Section 303 (a)(5)(B): The application information is supplied to DMV for validation. If the information is the last four digits of a social security number, DMV validates it against Social Security records.

Section 303 (b):
This section gives specifics on when HAVA requires additional identification when an individual who registered by mail votes.