Chairman Lott: The hearing will come to order. Good morning and thank you for being here. The purpose of today’s hearing is to hear from a panel of experts on the issue of voter verification in the federal election process. Specifically, I’d like to hear more about the issue of Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) as well as some of the new voting machine technology that exists today. Since the passage of the Help America Vote Act in 2002, there has been a lot of discussion about the accuracy and efficiency of the voting systems used in the United States. The debate probably dates a little farther back to the 2000 election when the infamous punch-cards and “hanging chads” garnered so much national media attention.

Since the passage of HAVA, the federal government has already distributed approximately $3 billion dollars to the states to purchase new voting equipment and to improve their election processes. And according to the Election Assistance Commission, we still have about $800 million more to distribute. As a result of this federal support, many states have already purchased (or are in the process of purchasing) new voting machines. And dozens more are poised to do so in the next several months. Many states are shifting to new voting machine technology – specifically direct recording electronic (DRE) technology and touch screen voting machines.

I’m told that there have been some problems reported with DRE machines and other electronic voting systems. And it seems to me that there is quite a bit of conflicting information out there on the subject of voting machines and what the best technology is in order to ensure a fair and honest outcome. I know, for example, that in my home state of Mississippi, we use a hodge-podge of machines -- some touch-screen, some optical scan, some lever machines. Recently in fact, Hinds county Mississippi rolled out some fancy new electronic voting machines for its November 2003 election. By the time it was all over, the machines had overheated and failed to work properly. I’m told that the problem was ultimately corrected but not before there were some long lines and frustrated voters.

I want to hear from our experts what they think about the latest voting machine technology. I’d also like to hear what the experts think is the best solution to ensuring that every vote is counted in an accurate, fair and honest manner.

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