Count Every Vote Act of 2005 (S-450) Americans believe that voting counts and that all votes should be counted. Yet, in the past several years, many have come to question whether all votes actually get counted. While technology can bring us almost instant vote counts, we also have to ask whether that technology can be tampered with, changing election outcomes. To address this critical issue, I have joined Senator Hillary Clinton in introducing the Count Every Vote Act of 2005 (S.450) in the Senate. Our bill would establish a voter-verified paper trail for use by all individuals, including language minority voters, illiterate voters, and voters with disabilities. It would also mandate national standards in a variety of areas, including the registration of voters and the counting of provision ballots. All provisions of this legislation would take effect no later than the November 2006 Federal election. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) took important steps towards electoral reform. Since the enactment of HAVA, however, concerns have been raised about the security of voting machines and about the inability of voters who use these machines to verify their vote and ensure that the vote they intended was both cast and counted. In addition, many other problems in our election system remain, including long wait lines to vote, the erroneous purging of voters, voter suppression and intimidation, and unequal access to the voting process. The integrity of our nation’s elections is the most fundamental necessity for the functioning of our democracy. The strength and success of America’s democracy depends on fair and accurate elections. When I stood with Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones to protest the Ohio vote count, our goal was to reiterate this point -- that every vote counts and should be counted. The Count Every Vote Act of 2005 is an important step in our continuing effort to create a more perfect union. Senator Barbara Boxer
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