TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Two U.S. Senators are pushing for a measure that aims to shorten the time Americans spend waiting to vote.
The LINE act, or the Lines Interfere with National Elections Act, is a piece of election reform legislation that's sponsored by U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL). would require the Attorney General, in consultation with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), to issue new national standards by January 1, 2014 regarding the minimum number of voting machines, election workers, and other election resources that are necessary to conduct Federal elections on Election Day and during early voting periods. The bill explicitly states that the goal of minimum standards is to prevent a waiting time of more than one hour at any polling place.
The measure comes in response to long delays voters experienced across the country before casting their ballots. A study by Ohio State University and the Orlando Sentinel found that more than 200,000 Florida voters were denied the chance to vote because of long lines. In some parts of Florida, voters faced waits of up to seven hours, and some voters were still casting ballots at 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday after the election.
“I am pleased that Senator Nelson, whose Florida constituents faced the longest lines in the nation on Election Day, will help lead our effort to address this problem,” Senator Boxer said. “I also want to commend First Lady Michelle Obama, for inviting Desiline Victor, a 102-year-old Florida woman who waited in line for three hours to cast her ballot last year, to join her for tonight’s State of the Union Address. Ms. Victor’s inspiring resolve to cast her ballot despite this outrageous delay is a reminder of why every American must have an equal chance to vote."
The bill also would require states where voters endured long lines to implement remedial plans to fix the problems before the next federal election. Under the legislation, the Attorney General working with the EAC would identify states that had a substantial number of voters who waited more than 90 minutes to vote in the 2012 election. Those states would have to comply with a remedial plan to ensure voters would not face similar delays in the future.
“In the interest of fairness and to avoid undermining the credibility of our elections, we should be making voting more convenient, not more difficult,” Senator Nelson said. “People should not have to stand in line for hours to exercise a basic right, not in a Democracy like ours.”
