April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Voting advocates called today for new government initiatives to reduce long lines at polls and eliminate other glitches that arose in last year's presidential election. Some proposed a national holiday to increase turnout and cut waiting time.

In 2004,``there were not enough machines in place or enough poll workers to go around,'' Kay Maxwell, president of the U.S. League of Women Voters, said at the first hearing of a commission led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

Maxwell and other witnesses said the U.S. government, which financed election improvements for the first time in history after the 2000 election, must provide more funding. A U.S. government commission, separate from the Carter-Baker panel, is overseeing efforts to fix problems exposed in 2000, including the ``hanging chads'' on punch-card ballots in Florida.

``The lack of money is the single most compelling explanation for the incompetence that might exist in election administration,'' said Colleen McAndrews, an election law attorney from Santa Monica, California.

Witnesses at the hearing at American University in Washington said the Help America Vote Act of 2002, enacted after the disputed 2000 election, should be just a first step in seeking ways to increase voter turnout and to reduce opportunities for election fraud.

$300 Million

Under the 2002 law, the U.S. sent $300 million to 30 states to replace their old punch-card and mechanical-lever machines. It also distributed $1.7 billion among all states to meet other requirements, including that each polling place have at least one machine that lets disabled voters cast ballots independently and privately.

The law also created the four-person U.S. Election Assistance Commission to develop guidelines and test procedures for voting systems while administering the federal grants.

Among the thorniest topics the Carter-Baker commission tackled was whether paperless electronic voting machines are prone to fraud, or whether the public at least perceives them that way. Some counties and states have purchased electronic voting machines with their federal grants to replace outdated technologies.

`Almost Totally Opaque'

Electronic voting ``is almost totally opaque,'' David Dill, a professor of computer science at Stanford University, told the commission. ``Voters have no means to confirm that the machines have recorded their votes correctly, nor will they have any assurance that their votes won't be changed at some later time.''

Dill is a leader of a group of voting-rights advocates and computer scientists who have persuaded a growing number of U.S. lawmakers and election officials either to reject paperless voting machines or to require fitting them with costly add-on printers. The printout can be verified by the voter and can serve as the official ballot in case of a dispute or recount.

So far 12 states require a vote-by-vote paper trail, half of them as a result of laws passed in the last year, and similar bills are pending in about 20 other state legislatures.

Advocates of the paperless electronic machines say they are superior because they automatically detect ``over-votes'' -- when a voter mistakenly chooses too many candidates for an office -- and are easily adapted for disabled voters or those who don't understand English. Georgia and Maryland have made statewide purchases of paperless machines made by Diebold Inc., an industry leader.

Jim Dickson, director of the Disability Vote Project at the Washington-based American Association of People with Disabilities, told the commission that electronic touch-screen machines are the only ``certified, tested and proven equipment'' that provide full access to voters with disabilities.

Election Reform

Carter, a Democrat, and former President Gerald Ford, a Republican, convened a commission after the disputed 2000 presidential election. Its recommendations helped lead to passage of the 2002 law.

Last month Carter and Baker, who represented President George W. Bush in the contested Florida voting in 2000, said they had formed the current commission to continue the reform effort. The 21 members include former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, and Robert Mosbacher, former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The panel plans to hold a second hearing June 30 at the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, and to submit a report to Congress in September.

National Holiday

At today's hearing, the panel weighed ideas that weren't included in the 2002 law, including making Election Day a national holiday.

That step would likely increase turnout, provide a deeper pool of volunteer poll workers and reduce the morning and evening lines at polling places, said McAndrews, who served on the 2001 Carter-Ford commission. That commission recommended making Election Day a holiday.

John Fund, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board and author of ``Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy,'' said all states should require voters to produce photo identification when they show up at the polls. Eighteen states require all voters to have photo ID, according to electionline.org, a non-partisan Washington-based clearinghouse on election reform.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Arnold in Washington larnold4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 18, 2005 14:51 EDT