PRINTER'S NO. 4208
No. 816 Session of 2004
INTRODUCED BY WASHINGTON, THOMAS, PISTELLA, KIRKLAND, JAMES AND
HORSEY, JUNE 29, 2004
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, JUNE 29, 2004
A RESOLUTION
1 Urging state chief election officials and Congress to develop
2 standards and enact legislation to be used in future
3 elections.
4 WHEREAS, The current law in each of the 50 states permits
5 local election officials to determine whether and how contested
6 ballots are counted without being guided by any criteria or
7 standards; and
8 WHEREAS, Standardless discretion allows partisan and
9 subjective decision-making and deprivation of voting rights of
10 African-American poor and elderly persons; and
11 WHEREAS, There is a need for Congress and state legislatures
12 to establish some specific standards and criteria that need to
13 be required in determining vote counting; therefore be it
14 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives urge the states'
15 chief election officials, the United States Senate and the
16 United States House of Representatives to create a task force to
17 develop such standards and enact appropriate legislation and
18 standards to be used in future elections.
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