In Thursday’s marathon session of discussions about the budget and our national priorities, the Senate Budget Committee approved an amendment authored by Senator Coons to create a deficit-neutral reserve fund to make voting faster and more accessible for all Americans.
Passage of this amendment by the Budget Committee signals new momentum for the Louis L. Redding Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely (FAST) Voting Act – legislation Chris introduced to address the extraordinarily long lines and myriad of other voting issues that came up last Election Day in more than a dozen states.
“Making it harder for citizens to vote is a violation of their civil rights,” Chris said when he re-introduced the bill this January. “The 2012 elections were a wakeup call. All over the country, in red states and blue states, Americans saw their fundamental right to vote eroded by exceptionally long lines, confusing rules and voting machine malfunctions. We have to do better than this. The FAST Voting Act is a creative way to jumpstart states’ election reform efforts.”
The amendment passed on Thursday calls for a non-mandate approach that is consistent with the FAST Voting Act, which would create a competitive grant program in the model of Race to the Top, encouraging states to aggressively pursue election reform. The states that demonstrate the most comprehensive and promising reform plans will earn a greater portion of the grant funding.
Click here to read more about the FAST Voting Act. This legislation was endorsed by the New York Times and the Washington Post.