Editing Help America Vote Act (section)

{{Short description|2002 election law}}
{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| shorttitle        = Help America Vote Act of 2002
| othershorttitles  =
| longtitle         = 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.
| colloquialacronym = HAVA
| nickname          = Help America Vote Act of 2002 
| enacted by        = 107th
| effective date    = October 29, 2002
| public law url    = http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-107publ252/pdf/PLAW-107publ252.pdf
| cite public law   = 107-252
| cite statutes at large = {{usstat|116|1666}}
| acts amended    = 
| acts repealed   = 
| title amended   = [[Title 42 of the United States Code|42 U.S.C.: Public Health and Social Welfare]] ''transferred to'' [[Title 52 of the United States Code|52 U.S.C.: Voting and Elections]]
| sections created = {{Usc-title-chap|42|146}} § 15301 et seq. ''transferred to'' {{USC|52|20901|21145}}
| sections amended = 
| leghisturl      = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:HR03295:@@@R
| introducedin    = House
| introducedbill  = {{USBill|107|H.R.|3295}}
| introducedby    = [[Robert Ney]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]–[[Ohio|OH]])
| introduceddate  = November 14, 2001
| committees      = [[United States House Committee on House Administration|House Administration]], [[United States House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary]], [[United States House Committee on Science, Space and Technology|House Science]], [[United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Government Reform]], [[United States House Committee on Armed Services|House Armed Services]], [[United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration|Senate Rules and Administration]]
| passedbody1     = House
| passeddate1     = December 12, 2001
| passedvote1     = 362-63 {{US House Vote|2001|489}}
| passedbody2     = Senate
| passedas2       = <!-- used if the second body changes the name of the legislation -->
| passeddate2     = April 11, 2002
| passedvote2     = unanimous consent
| conferencedate  = October 8, 2002
| passedbody3     = House
| passeddate3     = October 10, 2002
| passedvote3     = 357-48 {{US House Vote|2002|462}}
| passedbody4     = Senate
| passeddate4     = October 16, 2002
| passedvote4     = 92-2 {{US Senate Vote|107|2|238}}
| signedpresident = [[George W. Bush]]
| signeddate      = October 29, 2002
| amendments      =
| SCOTUS cases    = {{ubl|''[[Crawford v. Marion County Election Board]]'', {{ussc|553|181|2008}}|''[[Brunner v. Ohio Republican Party]]'', {{ussc|555|5|2008}}|''[[Husted v. Randolph Institute]]'', {{ussc|docket=16-980|volume=584|year=2018}}}}
}}The '''Help America Vote Act of 2002''' ([[Public Law (United States)|<abbr>Pub. L.</abbr>]]Tooltip Public Law (United States)107–252 (text) (PDF)), or '''HAVA''', is a [[United States federal law]], which was authored by Christopher Dodd,<ref>{{Cite web |title=HAVA Help America Vote Act |url=https://portal.ct.gov/sots/election-services/hava/hava-help-america-vote-act |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=CT.gov - Connecticut's Official State Website |language=en}}</ref> and passed in the [[United States House of Representatives|House]] 357-48 and 92–2 in the [[United States Senate|Senate]] and was signed into law by President [[George W. Bush]] on October 29, 2002. The bill was drafted (at least in part) in reaction to the controversy surrounding the [[2000 United States presidential election|2000 U.S. presidential election]], when the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] narrowly ruled that Bush had won the election. The impetus for the Supreme Court case stemmed from controversies surrounding the administration of the election in [[2000 United States presidential election in Florida|Florida]] and whether votes were cast and counted in a fair and equitable manner. The main point of contention surrounding the perceived unfairness regarded the millions of votes that were not represented due to mechanical errors or errors due to the manner in which the ballots were cast.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chapter 9: Findings and Recommendations |url=https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/vote2000/report/ch9.htm |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=www.usccr.gov}}</ref>

The goals of HAVA are to:<ref name="HAVA">{{cite web
 | author = 107th U.S. Congress
 | date = October 29, 2002
 | url = http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ252.107
 | title = Help America Vote Act of 2002 (Pub.L. 107-252)
 | publisher = [[United States Government Printing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]
 | access-date = 2008-10-10
 | author-link = 107th United States Congress
}}</ref>

* replace punchcard and lever-based [[voting machines|voting systems]];
* create the [[Election Assistance Commission]] to assist in the administration of federal elections; and
* establish minimum [[election administration]] standards.

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.

{| class="wikitable"
|Date:
|Action:
|Venue:
|-
|3/14/2001
|Hearing
|Committee on Rules and Administration. Senate
|-
|3/19/2001
|Introduced
|Senate
|-
|5/3/2001
|Hearing
|Committee on Governmental Affairs. Senate
|-
|5/8/2001
|Hearing
|Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Senate
|-
|5/9/2001
|Hearing
|Subcom on Military Personnel, Committee on Armed Services. House
|-
|5/22/2001
|Hearing
|Committee on Science. House
|-
|6/21/2001
|Introduced
|House
|-
|10/31/2001
|Committee Report
|Committee on Science. House
|-
|11/14/2001
|Introduced
|House
|-
|11/15/2001
|Hearing
|Committee on House Administration. House
|-
|12/5/2001
|Hearing 
|Committee on Judiciary. House
|-
|12/10/2001
|Committee Report
|Committee on House Administration. House
|-
|12/11/2001
|Rules Committee Report
|Committee on Rules. House
|-
|12/12/2001
|Debate & passage of rule; debate & passage of bill
|House Floor
|-
|2/13/2001
|Debate
|Senate Floor
|-
|2/14/2001
|Debate
|Senate Floor
|-
|2/15/2001
|Debate
|Senate Floor
|-
|2/25/2001
|Debate
|Senate Floor
|-
|2/26/2001
|Debate
|Senate Floor
|-
|2/27/2002
|Debate
|Senate Floor
|-
|3/1/2002
|Debate
|Senate Floor
|-
|3/4/2002
|Debate
|Senate Floor
|-
|4/10/2002
|Debate
|Senate Floor
|-
|4/11/2002
|Debate & passage; request conference
|Senate Floor
|-
|5/16/2002
|Request Conference
|House Floor
|-
|7/26/2002
|Report 
|Senate 
|-
|10/8/2002
|Conference Report
|Committee on House Administration. House
|-
|10/10/2002
|Conference Report passed
|House Floor
|-
|10/15/2002
|Conference Report debated
|Senate Floor
|-
|10/16/2002
|Conference Report passed
|Senate Floor
|-
|10/29/2002
|Signed
|President
|}

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