Help America Vote Act

Help America Vote Act

Long title	An Act to establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for States and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of federal elections, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	HAVA
Nicknames	Help America Vote Act of 2002
Enacted by	the 107th United States Congress
Effective	October 29, 2002
Citations
Public law	107-252
Statutes at Large	116 Stat. 1666
Codification
Titles amended	42 U.S.C.: Public Health and Social Welfare transferred to 52 U.S.C.: Voting and Elections
U.S.C. sections created	42 U.S.C. ch. 146 § 15301 et seq. transferred to 52 U.S.C. §§ 20901–21145
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 3295 by Robert Ney (R–OH) on November 14, 2001 Committee consideration by House Administration, House Judiciary, House Science, House Government Reform, House Armed Services, Senate Rules and Administration Passed the House on December 12, 2001 (362-63 Roll call vote 489, via Clerk.House.gov) Passed the Senate on April 11, 2002 (unanimous consent) Reported by the joint conference committee on October 8, 2002; agreed to by the House on October 10, 2002 (357-48 Roll call vote 462, via Clerk.House.gov) and by the Senate on October 16, 2002 (92-2 Roll call vote 238, via Senate.gov) Signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 29, 2002

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (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, when almost two million ballots were disqualified because they registered multiple votes or none when run through vote-counting machines.

The goals of HAVA are:

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.

To be eligible for federal funding, states must submit a plan describing how payments will be used and distributed, provisions for voter education and poll worker training, how to adopt voting system guidelines, performance measures to determine success (including goals, timetables, responsibilities, and criteria), administrative complaint procedures, and the committee who helped develop the state plan.

Each year the state receives federal funding they must submit a report to the EAC detailing a list of expenditures, the number of and types of voting equipment obtained with the funds, and an analysis and description of the activities funded.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized to make payments to state and local governments for making polling places, including the path of travel, entrances, exits, and voting areas of each polling facility, accessible to individuals with disabilities, including the blind and visually impaired, in a manner that provides the same opportunity for access and participation (including privacy and independence) as for other voters; and providing individuals with disabilities and others with information about the accessibility of polling places, including outreach programs to inform the individuals about the availability of accessible polling places and training election officials, poll workers, and election volunteers on how best to promote the access and participation of individuals with disabilities in elections for Federal office.

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