• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
The University of Mississippi

Are You Ready ... to Vote?

University of Mississippi

  • Home
  • Absentee Ballot
  • Events
  • UM Votes Blog
  • Contact Us

Help America Vote Act Anniversary

November 30, 2021 by

On October 29, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Help America Vote Act into law. It was a widely supported bill, passing the Senate 92-2 and the House 362-63. With its nineteenth anniversary passing us by, it is a good time to look back and reflect upon the law’s provisions and how they matter today.

The first provision of the law was a fund dedicated to every state for the purpose of replacing their punch card voting or lever voting machines. This change fundamentally altered the way we vote. Punch cards were at the heart of the contentious 2000 presidential election, and their contribution to the uncertainty meant immediate replacement. Lever voting machines were being phased out by the companies that made them, leaving few replacements for an aging set of crucial machines. The provisions in this law hastened our transition to electronic voting machines, which have become ubiquitous today. Three hundred twenty-five million dollars were set aside for this purpose.

Another three hundred twenty-five million dollars were set aside for additional purposes, including:

  • improving the administration of elections for Federal office
  • educating voters concerning voting procedures, voting rights, and voting technology
  • training election officials, poll workers, and election volunteers
  • improving the accessibility and quantity of polling places, including providing physical access for individuals with disabilities, providing nonvisual access for individuals with visual impairments, and providing assistance to Native Americans, Alaska Native citizens, and to individuals with limited proficiency in the English language
  • establishing toll-free telephone hotlines that voters may use to report possible voting fraud and voting rights violations, to obtain general election information, and to access information on their own voter registration status; among others.

While these matters were more intangible to our actual system, they were no less important in ensuring the smoothest possible elections. Of those provisions, a specific few deserve attention. The Act set basic requirements for voting machines, such as having alternate language settings and an option to correct the ballot before it is submitted. It also set aside millions of dollars to give those with disabilities greater access to voting. It introduced guidelines to provisional voting and a requirement to post election information, such as a sample ballot and instructions on how to vote, at every polling place. 

The Act also created the Election Assistance Commission. The Commission, which still exists today, is responsible for the testing and certification of voting hardware and software. It also disburses federal funding for voting and produces training materials, along with news bulletins. 

There are certainly more exciting pieces of voting legislation than the Help America Vote Act. The bipartisan Act serves more to make minor changes than sweeping ones, and perhaps that explains its relative anonymity. Anonymity, however, is not relevance. Nearly two decades on, the Help America Vote Act has branches that have spread across America’s voting system. How we vote today would not be the same without it.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/voting-machines-types-photos-2016-10#mechanical-lever-machines-7

https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/document_library/files/EAC_2020_Annual_Report-508c.pdf

https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/eac_assets/1/6/HAVA41.PDF

https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/3295/actions

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Marshall Pentes

  • About UM
  • Academics
  • Campus Life
  • News & Events
  • Support Ole Miss
  • Research
  • Libraries
  • International
  • Athletics
  • Community & Service
  • Ole Miss
  • The University of Mississippi
  • P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677 USA
  • (662) 915-7211
  • Mobile Apps
  • Map
  • Directories
  • Library Search
  • Box
  • Blackboard
  • myOleMiss
  • Email
  • Go!
  • IT Helpdesk
EEO Statement Give Us Your Feedback Accessibility Ethics Line UM Creed
Copyright © 2016 The University of Mississippi. All Rights Reserved.
Live on campus? Here’s how to find your address.

 

  1. Visit map.olemiss.edu;
  2. Click on “Buildings” on the left side of the menu bar;
  3. Select “Residential;”
  4. From the drop down menu, select your respective residence hall;
  5. Find your building’s address below the image provided.
Committee Members


Valeria Beasley Ross, Chair
Associate Dean of Students

Will Hamilton
University Communications

Ryan Whittington
University Communications

Danielle Watson
President, Black Graduate Professional Student Association

Alexandria White
Assistant Director, Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement

Jonathan Scott
Director of Public Relations

Jordan Robbins
Sergeant at Arms, Ole Miss College Republicans

Scott A. Oliver
Assistant Director for Residential Learning

Jordan Malone
Board Member, ASB External Affair

Allen Coon
Vice President, UM Votes

Arin Kemp
Vice President, College Democrats
Adam Flaherty
President, College Democrats

Meredith Sobus
Representative, Residential Housing Association

Terrius Harris
President, Black Student Union

Shawnboda Mead
Director, Center for Inclusion & Cross Cultural Engagement

Bradley Baker
Director, Ole Miss Student Union

Sue Ann Skipworth
Faculty Advisor, Pi Sigma Alpha

Maddy Baldwin
Vice President, FEMISS

Marvin King
Associate Professor of American Politics, Department of Political Science

Michael Barnett
Chair of Theatre Department and Associate Professor of Lighting Design

William Frierson
Intern, Andrew Goodman Foundation

Cody Austin
President, UM Bipartisan Coalition
Letter

Dear Rebel Family,

2016 marks a monumental year. This year we have the ability to exercise our right to vote and to participate in the political process that affects our nation, our university, and student body. As an institution that follows the model of shared governance at the University of Mississippi, the Associated Student Body understands how powerful and influential votes can be. For that reason, we encourage you, as students, to engage in your civic duty to hold public officials and their policies accountable through this process. At the same time as part of the broader campus community, we encourage you to engage in personal responsibility and hold yourself and your fellow students accountable throughout this election season.

From the beginning, the University of Mississippi’s Creed has been an integral part of your Ole Miss experience and is a set of beliefs that our Ole Miss community values. As an Ole Miss family, we have a wide array of students with different perspectives, beliefs, and experiences, and this diversity is one of the characteristics that transforms this special place into our home. Respectfully listening and engaging in civil discourse with those who have different, opinions, and ideas lays the foundation for continuing the tenets of the Creed and the family-centric atmosphere at this university.

This election year, on behalf of the Associated Student Body and the University of Mississippi, I encourage you to study the candidates and issues carefully, and then to participate in the political process by voting. To that end, I urge you to remember the University of Mississippi’s Creed in preparing for an exciting elections season.

Hotty Toddy!

Austin Powell, ASB president