Make votes count, commission says

Staff Report

The National Commission on Federal Election Reform, sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs and the Century Foundation, released its final report, with 13 recommendations, this summer.

The commission, chaired by Lloyd Cutler, former White House counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton and Robert Michel, U.S. Representative of Illinois from 1956 to 1994, was charged with recommending improvements in the system of electing federal officials. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford served as the commission’s honorary active co-chairs.

Among the recommendations are:

• establish statewide voter registration

• allow provisional voting by people who claim they are registered

• make election day a holiday (possibly shifting Veterans Day)

• simplify overseas absentee balloting

• restore felons’ voting rights

• set standards for voting equipment and set benchmarks for voting systems performance

• set statewide standards of what counts as a vote

• bar news media projections while polls are still open

• create a new federal agency — the Election Administration Commission — and put more federal money into elections.

The commission held a series of public hearings around the country and compiled its list of recommendations in a meeting at the Miller Center. A report of the commission’s findings was presented to President George W. Bush by Carter and Michel in a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. The report was then released to the public at large during a press conference at the National Press Club. It is also available, along with archived video of the public hearings, on the Miller Center Web site at http://millercenter.virginia.edu/