HAVA requires each polling location have at least one voting system accessible to individuals with disabilities, including nonvisual accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, in a manner that provides the same opportunity for access and participation ( including privacy and independence ) as for other voters.

HAVA requires states develop a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list defined, maintained, and administered at the State level.

) HAVA requires the statewide list be coordinated with other agency databases within the state.

HAVA also requires regular " maintenance " of the statewide list including removing ineligible voters and duplicate names are eliminated in accordance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 ( NVRA ).

HAVA requires voters identified as ineligible ( such as voters not found on the registered list ), but who believe themselves to be eligible, to be able to cast a provisional ballot.

HAVA requires all commissioners have experience with or expertise in election administration or the study of elections.

HAVA requires states use funding to replace punched card voting systems or lever voting systems with new systems in accordance with HAVA's voting system standards.

HAVA further requires that any required notification preserve the privacy of the voter and the secrecy of the ballot ; and that alternative-language accessibility be available pursuant to the requirements of section 203 of the Voting Rights Act.

HAVA requires all voting systems be auditable and produce a permanent paper record with a manual audit capacity available as an official record for any recount conducted.

HAVA requires the National Institute of Standards and Technology annually recommend areas for research.

Where HAVA requires voting systems to include a " permanent paper record " available as " an official record " for any recount that might occur and to allow voters an " opportunity to change the ballot or correct any error before the permanent paper record is produced ", VCIAA is specific that systems must include an " individual paper record " that is " the official record ", " made available for inspection and verification by the voter at the time the vote is cast " and preserved for " later use in any manual recount ".

In 2003, the league worked to incorporate key voter protection and civil rights provisions into Help America Vote Act ( HAVA ).

HAVA establishes three programs for students, one to recruit college students as pollworkers, one to recruit high school students, and one to provide grants for the National Student and Parent Mock Election, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to promote voter participation in American elections to enable it to carry out voter education activities for students and their parents.

Criticisms of HAVA center around mandated changes in voting technology, voter identification, confusion and voter intimidation, misappropriation of federal funds, and unnecessarily complicating the voter registration process.

It was claimed that HAVA was meant to strengthen the electoral process, and address the irregularities and voter purges which occurred during the 2000 presidential election in Florida, that were of concern.

For example, Section 303 ( a )( 5 ) of HAVA provides that no state may accept or process a voter registration form for an election for Federal office unless the application includes " in the case of an applicant who has been issued a current and valid driver's license, the applicant's driver's license number ".

HAVA required that each state compile an official state voter database by January 2006.

Most states complied with HAVA by gathering the voter files available from each individual county.

The Help America Vote Act (), or HAVA, is a United States federal law which passed in the House 357-48 and 92-2 in the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002.

Not later than January 31 of each year, the EAC is required to submit an annual report to Congress detailing activities related to HAVA programs including grants or other payments and all votes taken by commissioners.

Some electronic voting machines sold through 2005, including those by Diebold Election Systems, have not met the requirements of HAVA and were not required to be in compliance until January 1, 2006.

Critics of HAVA argue it imprudently attempts to solve one problem of punched-card voting machine errors seen in Florida in the 2000 election, by replacing them with electronic voting machines.

The Election Assistance Commission ( EAC ) is an independent agency of the United States government created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 ( HAVA ).

The executive director position was created by HAVA § 204 ( a ).

Disabled voters are also given the option of using an " interim paper system " with help from an aide as well as the " direct recording electronic voting system " outlined by HAVA.

After the Help America Vote Act ( HAVA ) was passed by Congress in 2002, Miller was appointed by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to lead the implementation of HAVA in California.

On September 20, 2007 SFLC filed a lawsuit against Monsoon Multimedia, Inc. alleging that Monsoon had violated GPLv2 by including BusyBox code in their Monsoon Multimedia HAVA line of products without releasing BusyBox source code.

The bill has also been come under fire for the fact that the majority of the billions of dollars allocated to the states for HAVA has been for increased access for disabled voters, while the main goal of HAVA, avoiding the problems that plagued the 2000 elections in Florida, may have not been adequately served.

* Administering federal funds to States for HAVA requirements

The Democratic party promptly filed a lawsuit claiming that the policy was " intended to disenfranchise minority voters " and in violation of federal election law, specifically section 302 of the Help America Vote Act ( HAVA ).

In 2004, Miller served as special counsel to Shelley when Shelley was accused of misappropriating federal HAVA funds for his own purposes.

Drafted ( at least in part ) in reaction to the controversy surrounding the 2000 U. S. presidential election, the goals of HAVA are:

HAVA mandates that all states and localities upgrade many aspects of their election procedures, including their voting machines, registration processes and poll worker training.

The EAC is responsible for holding hearings, functioning as a clearinghouse for election administration information, creating a testing and certification program for voting systems, providing voluntary guidance to states, and administering HAVA grant programs.

The HAVA dictates the EAC will create voluntary guidelines for voting systems, maintaining a clearinghouse of information regarding election administration procedures including testing and certification of election equipment, and administering the Election Assistance and Help America Vote Programs.

HAVA created the Election Assistance Commission ( EAC ), an independent agency of the United States government.

Responsibility for maintaining the canals was given to the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority ( HAVA ), a semi-independent government agency whose authority ( in its heyday ) rivaled that of the provincial governors.

Section 4 is titled " Promoting Accuracy, Integrity, And Security Through Voter-Verified Permanent Record Or Hard Copy " and amends the " Voting Systems Standards " section of HAVA to allow voters to not only check their electronic vote but to also check the permanent paper record.

Unless vendors offered a specific guarantee of HAVA compliance, equipment may have required scrapping or retrofitting at taxpayers ' expense after January 1, 2006.

Compliance with HAVA provisions and timelines was not met in every state, both because of the difficulty of identifying and certifying reliable HAVA compliant voting machines and due to political and bureaucratic delays.

Some believe that HAVA may represent an effort to help large electronic voting systems vendors such as Premier Election Solutions ( formerly Diebold Election Systems ), Election Systems & Software, and Sequoia Voting Systems make millions of dollars throughout the country in selling electronic voting devices.