WASHINGTON — When Congress enacted legislation designed to avoid a repeat of the Florida voting debacle of 2000, one of the bill's chief sponsors predicted the dreaded punch-card machines soon would be found only "in the Smithsonian."
But less than 14 months away from the next presidential contest, more than half the states still use the machinery that produced the notorious dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads.
And the vast majority scarcely have begun to upgrade their balloting systems, unable to get access to most of the $3.9 billion Congress allotted for the effort a year ago amid great fanfare and a promise that Florida would "never, never happen again."
"This is the cruelest of all jokes," said R. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center, a nonpartisan group in Houston that works with the nation's election administrators. "We promised the voters we would do something about this. They passed legislation to fix it. But because they have not yet funded what they promised, we have high expectations and low ability to deliver."
California gave the issue a shove earlier this week when a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the postponement of the Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election because voters in six counties would be using punch-card ballots that the secretary of state has declared obsolete and prone to error.
All that was supposed to end with the Help America Vote Act, which President Bush signed in October. The act was designed to force states to examine their voting machinery, replace antiquated equipment and create databases of registered voters that would ensure accurate, secure elections.
The act created an Election Assistance Commission, to be made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, to guide states through the process and -- most importantly -- hand out the money to help pay for it. But the commission, which was supposed to be up and running seven months ago, has yet to see a single member nominated by Bush, much less confirmed by the Senate.
Meanwhile, all 50 states have drawn up their plans for reform but have nowhere to submit them. And hundreds of millions of dollars sit idle in the Treasury as states from Nevada to Massachusetts struggle to meet a 2006 federal deadline, unable to front the money because of their own paralyzing deficits.
