Bill to Require Paper Ballots Headed to House of Representatives

The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007 (H.R. 811) has been amended by the Committee on House Administration and will now proceed to the full House for consideration.

The main purpose of the bill is to "amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent paper ballot." Also included are provisions to reduce the security risks associated with electronic voting, such as software and hardware bugs, mandate random manual audits, and other such steps in creating a secure yet transparent electronic voting system.

Barbara Simons, of the Association for Computing Machinery's U.S. Public Policy Committee, said that the legislation "acknowledges the standards set by USACM to protect the accuracy and impartiality of the electoral process," and that each voter should be able to "inspect a physical record to verify that his or her vote has been accurately cast." The "receipt," if you will, would also "serve as an independent check on the result produced and stored by the system."

A similar bill, the Vote Integrity and Verification Act of 2007 (S.559), was introduced to the Senate in February. It was referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration but has not made discernible progress since then.