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[Page: S9684]  GPO's PDF
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   Mr. BOND. Madam President, I was interested to read in today's Washington Post an editorial urging us to move forward on the election reform bill. This bill has been championed by Senator Dodd, the chairman of the committee, and Senator McConnell, the ranking member. I have had a role in some antifraud provisions.

   The Florida elections of this year seem to have brought more attention to the need for election law reform. The conclusion of the Washington Post is that:

   At a time when voter turnout is at an all-time low, bolstering public confidence in the machinery of democracy is especially urgent.

   I agree with that. That is why I worked so hard to see if we could get a bill passed that would do that. We need to make it easier to vote and tougher to cheat. Unfortunately, what we saw in Florida this year was the old truth: No matter how much appropriations in or what kind of legislation you have, if you have incompetence in local election officials, incompetence trumps everything. We know there were tremendous problems this year in an area where there were problems in 2000, even though they had new machines.

   Nevertheless, we have worked on a bill that has many compromises and has a good structure for getting the kind of equipment we need to improve elections, providing additional safeguards, voting machines for those with disabilities and, in my view, the very important role of preventing dead people, nonexistent people, and dogs from voting.

   Many of my colleagues don't want to hear me talk anymore about Ritzy Mekler, the dog that was registered in Missouri. Unfortunately, Ritzy joins a very distinguished group of dogs registered to vote around the country because motor voter does not have protection against phony registration.

   We spent more than 7 months last year negotiating a bill. We brought it to the floor. There was some backsliding. We got it passed late this winter. It has been stalled in trying to work out the final details.

   I have been discouraged because I have worked with the leaders from the other side on the bill to offer some compromises. We want to get the bill passed. I believe, along with Senator McConnell, that we have proposed reasonable means of dealing with the problems they have. Unfortunately, the negotiations at the staff level have been stymied. Every time we get the wheelbarrow full of frogs, we find, as we try to wrap up the final details and get the final frogs in, some of the frogs have jumped out of the wheelbarrow.

   Election reform is another bill that is long overdue for passage. I see my colleague from Kentucky in the Chamber who has been a champion in this area. I appreciate working with him and Senator Dodd. I hope we can work with our colleagues on the House side, if we will just move forward and deal with some very important protections against more fraud in voting.

   Since I see the manager of the bill is ready to go, I yield the floor.

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