Proposed election changes unveiled

Bipartisan panel recommends federal government give nondrivers free photo IDs and that machines leave paper trails.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Electronic voting machines should leave a paper trail of ballots cast and the government should provide free photo IDs to nondrivers to help check voting eligibility, a commission on election reform recommends.

The private commission, created to suggest ways to improve the electoral process, also favors four regional primaries to be held after the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.

Also, states should develop registration systems that allow easy checks of voters from one state to another, according to the report by the bipartisan panel led by former President Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the Commission on Federal Election Reform's report, which makes 87 recommendations, ahead of its presentation today to President George W. Bush.

"Americans are losing confidence in elections," Carter and Baker wrote. Voter confidence dropped after the 2000 presidential election. The outcome was delayed for weeks because of problems with ballots in Florida.

Congress responded with the Help America Vote Act, signed into law in 2002, that allowed spending several billion dollars to help states update voting systems, streamline voter registration, and provide voter and poll worker education.

Yet in the 2004 race between Bush and Democrat John Kerry, there were claims of voting problems, especially in Ohio.

Complaints included limited access to voting machines, difficulties finding assigned precincts and questions on the accuracy of vote totals in precincts using electronic machines.

Among the commission's recommendations are:

Congress should pass a law to require voter-verifiable paper audit trails on all electronic voting machines.

The presidential primary system should be reorganized into four regional primaries, held after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. A regional primary would take place each month from March to June.

All "legitimate domestic and international election observers" should be granted unrestricted access to the election process, within the rules of the election.

News organizations should voluntarily refrain from projecting any presidential election results in any state until all polls have closed in 48 states, with Alaska and Hawaii excluded.

States should prohibit senior election officials from serving or assisting others' political campaigns in a partisan way.

States should establish uniform procedures for the counting of provisional ballots, which voters can use when there are questions about their registration.