President OKs election reforms

WASHINGTON -- One week before Election Day, President Bush signed legislation Tuesday revamping the nation's voting system and guarding against the kinds of errors that threw his own election into dispute two years ago.\n"When problems arise in the administration of elections, we have a responsibility to fix them," Bush said as he gathered several Democratic and Republican lawmakers behind him at a signing desk.\n"Every registered voter deserves to have confidence that the system is fair and elections are honest, that every vote is recorded and that the rules are consistently applied. The legislation that I sign today will add to the nation's confidence," Bush said.\nThe ceremony, staged in a White House office-building auditorium, began Bush's two-day respite from campaigning for GOP House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates in next Tuesday's elections.\nUnder the "Help America Vote Act," states will receive $3.9 billion in federal money over the next three years to replace outdated punch-card and lever voting machines or improve voter education and poll-worker training.\nThe new law's protections against voting error will not affect next week's balloting but are scheduled to be mostly implemented in time for the 2004 congressional and presidential vote, which will most likely include Bush's re-election bid.\nIt was Bush's bitter 2000 Florida recount battle with Democrat Al Gore--with its confusing "butterfly ballots," half-perforated punch ballots and allegations of voter intimidation--that gave rise to the legislation. Bush's election was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court.\nThe president made no mention of that Florida debacle in his brief speech. The state, governed by the president's younger brother Jeb, more recently had a rocky Sept. 10 primary. Various problems delayed some vote tallies for a week and polling places did not open on time. The federal government will post civil rights monitors at the polls in several Florida counties next Tuesday.