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Count Every Vote
Free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy. In the last year, millions more Americans registered and went to the polls than ever before and millions in Iraq and Afghanistan voted for the first time in their lives. Yet, thousands upon thousands of Americans still fear that when they walk into the polls to vote, there is a very real chance that their vote will not be counted or they will lose the opportunity to vote at all because they are forced to stand in line for hours due to a shortage of machines.
Recently the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute presented their report on the conduct of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio with findings that the election was plagued by serious problems. As a result of negligence and incompetence, flawed voting machinery and deliberate voter suppression, more than a quarter of Ohio voters had difficulty at the polls. And nearly a quarter of Ohio voters report that their experience in 2004 has made them less confident about the reliability of elections in Ohio.
Senator John Kerry is committed to making sure that all Americans have faith in future elections that the votes they stand in line to cast are counted. On February 17th Kerry, Senators Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg introduced S 450 the “Count Every Vote Act of 2005” to fully fund the Help America Vote Act, fund the activities of the Election Assistance Commission, and help states invest in better voting machines with paper trails.
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