Rep. Hoyer Asks for Clear Guidelines For Contested Elections
By U.S. Representive Steny Hoyer
October 14, 2006
With Many Tight House Elections Looming,Whip Concerned that Statutes Are Too AmbiguousHouse Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) sent the attached letter today to Committee on House Administration Chairman Vernon Ehlers and Ranking Democrat Juanita Millender-McDonald asking the Committee to "develop a set of clear protocols for managing any contest or contests that the Committee faces in November" because "ith the direction of the House likely to turn on a handful of seats, ensuring that contested elections are adjudicated in a fair, transparent, and swift manner is essential."
The full text of the letter is below.Dear Chairman Ehlers and Ranking Democratic Member Millender-McDonald:
With many House races expected to be very close this November, there is the real possibility that recounts will occur in several congressional districts, with some outcomes being challenged under the Federal Contested Election Act (P.L. 91-138, 83 Stat. 284). I am deeply concerned that ambiguities and deficiencies in this statute may prolong rather than facilitate the resolution of contested elections by the Committee on House Administration unless the Committee acts now, in a non-partisan and collaborative manner, to develop a set of clear protocols for managing any contest or contests that the Committee faces in November.
As Chairman Ehlers will recall from our service on the House Administration Committee (then the House Oversight Committee) during the last contested House election in 1997-98, FCEA provides for a process for resolving contested elections, starting with the filing of a notice of contest by the loser of the election, the taking of testimony from witnesses, and the holding of hearings on the depositions and papers filed with the Clerk of the House related to the dispute. The statute also places the burden of proof on the challenger to show that sufficient evidence exists to change the outcome of the election.
Until 1997, FCEA had successfully adjudicated 29 contests. However, when we served together on the 1997 contested election task force, FCEA was tested as never before. It quickly became apparent to both Republicans and Democrats serving on the Committee at the time that FCEA, rather than providing the House with clear rules and procedures for resolving a contest, is in two critical respects so ambiguous that it can actually exacerbate an inherently partisan process rather than tame it:
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