Sen. Clinton pushes voting holiday, allowing ex-cons to vote

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. John Kerry, would designate Election Day as a federal holiday. According to the USA Today article, it would also:

• Require paper receipts for votes.
  
• Authorize $500 million to help states make the changes in voting systems and equipment.
  
• Allow ex-felons to vote. Currently an estimated 4.7 million Americans are barred from voting because of their criminal records.
  
• Require adoption of the changes in time for the 2006 election.

A couple years back, I went on record endorsing making Election Day a federal holiday, and I still think it would be a good idea. A better idea would be to move federal elections to the weekend, but that's a much tougher sell since Article I of the Constitution designates that elections be held on "the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November."

As for allowing ex-felons to vote, I don't see any reason why someone shouldn't be allowed to vote again if they've completed their sentence.

Requiring paper receipts is obviously a provision included, because of these new electronic voting machines in use around the country that have no paper trail, and therefore no sound method of verifying the machine's accuracy in tabulating the votes cast.