Almost 10 years ago, in the aftermath of the 2000 election debacle in Florida, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act. The bill helped states modernize their voting systems, and mandated the use of "provisional ballots," which was established to make sure that every voter whose eligibility was in question at the polls could still vote (though often those votes are not counted).
In Florida that meant getting touch screen voting machines to overcome some of the problems from 2000, such as the infamous "Butterfly Ballot" in Palm Beach County. But touch screen voting fell out of favor after Democrat Christine Jennings lost a controversial race to Republican Vern Buchanan in 2006 — a race where Jennings and others claimed thousands of votes were lost due to the machinery. Gov. Charlie Crist moved the state back to paper balloting by 2008.
After the 2012 elections, calls for voting reform have returned, especially after some people in Florida had to wait anywhere from four to six hours to vote. Last week, St. Pete House Democrat Darryl Rouson introduced electoral reform legislation; now there is new federal legislation being proposed in the form of two different bills (incidentally the Associated Press has a detailed story on why voters in some Florida counties endured longer waits than in other counties).
This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2012.