NOTICE: COMMISION RECOMMENDS ELECTION DAY BE A HOLIDAY.
A BIPARTISAN COMMISSION HEADED BY FORMER PRESIDENTS
JIMMY CARTER AND GEARLD FORD PRESENT RECOMMENDATIONS ON ELECTION REFORM

A bipartisan commission headed by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford has recommended the creation of uniform statewide standards for counting ballots in an effort to avoid the kind of polling-place controversies that marred last November's presidential election in Florida.

Congress should offer states about $150 million or $200 million a year to upgrade voting equipment and operations, with states adding an equal amount, but not mandate a specific set of equipment or procedures, the commission said.

The report, to be delivered today to President Bush at the White House, urges broadcasters to withhold airing the presidential election results from any state until all 48 continental states have closed their polls. It also suggests that Election Day be made a national holiday.

White House officials said yesterday the president may endorse many of its recommendations, if not the entire report.

The recommendations of the privately financed National Commission on Federal Election Reform are timed with a view to influencing Congress, which may take up the issue this autumn. Hearings have been held in Senate and House committees, but no legislation has reached the floor. The commission's 19 members included a wide spectrum of political views and most of the recommendations were unanimous.

While outlining a supportive role for the federal government, the commission said key decisions should be made by the states, which traditionally have been responsible for running elections.

In Florida last November, many voters who thought they were registered were denied ballots. The commission said this problem could be solved if each state set up a statewide registration system, in which a citizen could get on the list anywhere and have the information relayed to his or her precinct.

If a dispute arises about a prospective voter's eligibility, a provisional ballot should be allowed -- with a later determination of whether it will count.

The commission cautioned Congress not to attempt to solve the problems that appeared in Florida simply by paying states to discard the punch-card voting machines that were involved in many jurisdictions with large numbers of discarded ballots. Replacing them with modern optical-scan equipment might create other problems, especially for visually handicapped people, the commission said.

Instead of mandating specific kinds of equipment, the commission said each state should set performance standards and measure how well jurisdictions meet those standards. The federal government could usefully test and certify high-quality voting equipment, which allows voters to correct errors before leaving the polling place.

Each state should set uniform standards for what constitutes a valid vote and spell out its recount and certification procedures, the commission said. Such standards and procedures varied from county to county in Florida -- confusing the 36-day recount of its crucial presidential vote.

The commission criticized the television and cable networks, decrying the use of exit polls to project results and calling for a voluntary embargo on airing the vote until the West Coast has completed its balloting. It urged the broadcasters to do this voluntarily but said that if necessary, Congress might legislate a ban on disclosure of official results until 11 p.m. Eastern time -- after polls close on the West Coast -- or set a uniform national poll closing time.

The recommendation that Election Day be made a national holiday is one that has come from a variety of congressional and private sources. But some state election officials have cautioned that it might make it harder to recruit volunteers to work at the polls if people were on vacation that day.

In other recommendations, the commission suggested ways to simplify absentee voting by members of the armed forces and urged the states to speed the return of voting rights to former prisoners, once they have completed their sentences and are no longer on probation.

The commission was selected and sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia and the Century Foundation. It held four public hearings around the country. The final recommendations were reached at a 9 1/2-hour session in early July at the Miller Center.

The co-chairs with Carter and Ford were former House minority leader Robert H. Michel (R) and Washington attorney Lloyd N. Cutler, a onetime White House counsel to President Bill Clinton.

Carter and Michel are to present the report to Bush at the White House.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company