Voters clamored for reform after the fiasco in Florida four years ago. But when they return to vote again for president on Nov. 2, many may be surprised to discover how little has changed.
Instead of brand-new equipment, computerized voter-registration lists and other improvements, most voters will find the same machines they used last time, few changes for poll workers, and little sign of the overhaul Americans were promised after the 2000 election.
"Everybody was saying, `Oh, we'll have everything new in 2004,'" said Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services Inc., a consulting firm. "We're in a situation of catch-up now, not being able to implement everything that people thought was going to take place."
Money shortages and delays have stymied the goals of the Help America Vote Act that Congress passed in 2002. The act was never fully funded, the new federal agency it created was appointed nine months late, and most states asked for two-year waivers of key requirements, pushing off the creation of voter-registration databases and the replacement of punchcard and lever machines to 2006.
Come November, three-quarters of the voters will use the same machines as they did in 2000. Nearly 30 percent will vote on the punch card and lever machines now widely regarded as unreliable.
A growing number of critics contend that with only weeks to go before another election that promises to be extremely close, there is a high risk of the kind of vote-counting delays and disputes that tied the country in knots four years ago, when the presidential race was decided by 537 votes in Florida.
Some lawmakers and election officials are more optimistic, noting that the major reforms were never designed to kick in before 2006. They also point to some important changes in November - most notably, the availability of provisional ballots nationwide for the first time. These ballots will allow people to vote even when there are questions about their registration - a problem that disenfranchised 1.5 million or more voters in 2000, according to estimates from civil rights groups.
However, unforeseen questions about the reliability of electronic voting machines have forced county and state officials to rethink purchases of touch-screen machines once viewed as the solution to their problems.
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