A Paper Trail Toward Chaos?

When HAVA was passed, after the disputed 2000 election, it was the product of almost two years of consultation with state and local officials and prolonged negotiations between the parties. There were only two dissenting votes in the Senate and 48 in the House.

By contrast, this new bill was reported from committee on a 6 to 3 party-line vote. While Democrats claim that several of the Republicans' early objections were met, Rep. Vern Ehlers of Michigan, the ranking GOP member -- and like Holt a physicist familiar with electronic voting systems -- said "its costly requirements would be impossible to meet."

As a non-expert, I turned to the man who knows more about the conduct of elections than anyone else in the country, the director of the Houston-based Election Center, Doug Lewis.

"I have no problem with the objective of creating paper receipts," Lewis said, "But they have rejected every idea we've offered them to show what might work. I've been at this 40-some years, and I have not seen a piece of legislation worse than this. It is overly prescriptive, overly detailed, a cumbersome monstrosity to deal with."

But it is a high priority for the House Democratic leadership -- so watch out.

davidbroder@washpost.com