The Help America Vote Act (Pub.L. 107-252), or HAVA, is a United States federal law which passed in the House 357-48 and 92-2 in the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002. Drafted (at least in part) in reaction to the controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election, the goals of HAVA are:
- replace punchcard and lever-based voting systems;
- create the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections; and
- establish minimum election administration standards.
Almost two million ballots were disqualified in the 2000 election because they registered multiple votes or none when run through vote-counting machines.
HAVA mandates that all states and localities upgrade many aspects of their election procedures, including their voting machines, registration processes and poll worker training. The specifics of implementation have been left up to each state, which allows for varying interpretations of the Federal law.
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