Warner, Coons introduce bill to make voting quicker, easier

By Ramsey Cox - 11/15/12 01:27 PM ET

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Thursday that he and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) introduced a bill to make the voting process in the United States easier and quicker by, among other things, offering help to non-English speakers.

The Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely (FAST) Voting Act would create a federal grant program to encourage states to speed up election suggested reforms.

Warner said some people in his home state had to wait in three-hour-long lines to vote last week.

“It is remarkable that people had to wait for hours to vote,” Warner said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Voting shouldn’t be this much of a burden ... it’s a 21st century poll tax.”

Warner said there were nine suggestions the bill would make to states, but only listed three: no-excuse absentee voting; assistance to voters who don’t speak English as primary language; and auditing and reducing waiting time at polling stations.

Earlier in the day Coons released a statement saying voters waited too long to cast their ballots in several states and that Congress should do something about it.

“Long lines are a form of voter disenfranchisement, a polling place running out of ballots is a form of voter suppression, and making it harder for citizens to vote is a violation of voters’ civil rights,” Coons said. “This is the United States of America and the right to vote is in our DNA: we have to get this right. The FAST Voting Act is a creative way to jumpstart states’ election reform efforts and ensure that what happened last week doesn’t happen again.”

The bill would also encourage states to offer same-day registration, provide early voting for at least 10 days and assist voters with disabilities, among other things.