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A Resolution of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, urging the General Assembly, the Governor, Congress, and the United States Department of Justice to examine the possibility and potential means of adjusting the schedule by which compliance with Section 301 of the Help America Vote Act will be enforced.
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WHEREAS, the Help America Vote Act (“the Act”) was signed into law in 2002; and
WHEREAS, the Act establishes that federal funding will be made available to counties which replace lever voting machines with machines that meet certain requirments, among which is handicapped accessibility; and
WHEREAS, the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division has been vested with enforcement responsibility for Title III of the Act, which governs uniform and nondiscriminatory election technology and administration requirements placed upon the 55 States and Territories; and
WHEREAS, under the terms of Section 102 of the Act, all of Allegheny County's lever voting machines must be replaced “in time for the first election for Federal Office held after January 1, 2006,” 42 U.S.C. Sec. 15302(a)(3); and
WHEREAS, although the Act is not clear with regard to whether a Primary Election qualifies as an “election for Federal Office” under the terms of Section 102, the earliest that such an election may even arguably take place in Allegheny County is May of 2006; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Justice has indicated that the various counties must be in compliance with the provisions of Section 301 of the Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 15481, which pertain to audit capacity, handicapped accessibility, and other general requirements for all paper ballot, lever, electronic, and other voting systems, by having the mandated systems ready for use by January 1, 2006; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Justice has indicated that the earlier deadline for Section 301 compliance is necessary in order to allow time “to train poll workers, ...
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