JACKSON - Remember the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida, the national outrage over hanging chads, dimpled ballots and primitive punch-card voting devices that made us look like a Third World country?
And remember that the new Congress in 2001 vowed to quickly fix the broken system and give states the wherewithal to junk antiquated voting equipment and computerize their statewide voter record base?
Well, more than two years later HAVA (Help America Vote Act) has passed, and finally in recent weeks money was appropriated by Congress to send some down to the states.
More importantly - from a Mississippi standpoint - $34 million has been promised to modernize voting down here in Magnolia-land.
But before we can get the cash, there's one hitch: Our esteemed state legislators must pass a necessary compliance act containing provisions required in the federal act.
If you would think this is a slam dunk, you would be wrong. Just as with the federal Motor Voter Law of a few years ago, some funny things have happened along the way to detour getting a compliance act on the books.
There's been no legislative controversy over the language to install the necessary compliance machinery, however once again, as in the Motor Voter stalemate back in the 1990s, Republicans' insistence that it also require voters to present one of a specified type of ID at the polls has reared its head and become a sticking point.
Unless the necessary HAVA compliance bill is passed, we stand virtually no chance of getting the $34 million from the feds to give us state-of-the-art voting machines and finally get a uniform statewide computerized voter registration database.
Here's the real kicker in the HAVA: Even if we don't get the $34 million from the feds, we are still mandated by the law to get rid of obsolete voting equipment and establish a uniform statewide computerized voter base in the Secretary of State's Office
One compliance bill (SB 2821) had gotten halfway through the Legislature. The Senate passed it, but with a string of amendments relating to a voter ID provision in it.
The House Elections Committee stripped this week most of the voter ID provisions from SB 2821.
Earlier in the 2003 session, the House's own bill on HAVA compliance became impaled on a parliamentary ruling by House Speaker Tim Ford involving a voter ID amendment by Republican Rep. Bill Denny of Jackson that resulted in the death of the whole measure.
If the full House passes the stripped-down bill, the stage will be set for a joint House-Senate conference showdown.
Why does putting into the law a requirement for voters to show some specified type of identification raise such hackles in the Mississippi Legislature?
It's because in Mississippi any new voting encumbrance reignites memories among black legislators of the bad old days when the "black code" - the poll tax, the "read and understand" constitutional clause and other barriers - kept blacks from voting.
Secretary of State Eric Clark, who administers state voting laws and will be charged with implementing HAVA, is the prime mover behind getting the compliance bill enacted. Last week he was desperately working behind the scenes to iron out a legislative voter ID compromise so the measure can pass.
Clark knows it is absolutely essential that the state get the $34 million federal money for him to purchase the necessary computer hardware and software to uniformly link all 82 county voter rolls to a central register in his office. That's a basic requirement of HAVA.
"Without the federal funds, I don't know when we could install a centralized system," Clark said, "something that will help us clean up voter rolls, which is the most important thing we can do."
In recent years, on his own, Clark has identified from various death and postal records that as many as 141,000 names were still carried on county voter rolls that should have been removed. But he lacked the power to remove them, having to rely on county election officials to do it.
A chunk of the anticipated HAVA funds to be administered by the secretary of state will provide matching money for counties to replace obsolete voting machines, most of all the punch card and mechanical lever types, which are still in use in more than half of Mississippi's counties.
Some counties have already bought federally accepted machines, primarily the electronic touch screen devices. They stand to be reimbursed for a large part of the cost.
Hinds County, which has bought some 500 touch screen machines at a cost of $1.4 million, is slated to get back $480,000 under HAVA.
But Clark's immediate problem is getting the compliance bill through the Legislature, and that involves a tough sell on a voter ID compromise.
"Instead of folks calling each other names, we need all sides, in a biracial and bipartisan manner, to sit down and work out differences on the ID issue," Clark declared.
"We need to get this compliance act passed now, in order to get in line for the federal money before other states beat us to it," he added.
Clark had already put Mississippi in good shape by having lawmakers pass enabling legislation in 2002 to set up a centralized computer voter base, but the new compliance measure, he said, is necessary to "fine tune" the system.
State Sen. Mike Cheney, R-Vicksburg, concurs on the urgency of reaching a compromise on the touchy ID issue and clearing the HAVA compliance bill.
"This state is in terrible shape financially, and we absolutely can't afford to lose this $34 million," he said.
