8-02-2001: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans, charging partisan politics, boycotted on Thursday a push by Democrats to upgrade the nation's election system.

All nine Republicans on the Senate Rules Committee refused to attend a meeting of the panel that gave preliminary approval to a Democratic-backed bill that would require states to fix or replace faulty voting machines and make other improvements.

``This bill is open for debate, open for discussion, open for amendment -- and not even show up,'' said Chairman Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, flanked by nine fellow Democrats and nine empty Republican chairs.

Dodd and the other Democrats then sent the bill to the full Democratic-led Senate, which is expected to consider it before the end of the year.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the committee' ranking Republican, led the boycott. He said he did so to protest Dodd's refusal to also consider on Thursday a bipartisan bill that would financially help states make election upgrades but impose no federal mandates on them.

``The refusal ... is an ominous sign that the majority intends to manipulate this debate in a divisive, partisan manner that dooms election reform efforts to failure,'' McConnell wrote Dodd in a letter on Wednesday.

Dodd rejected McConnell's charge and noted the Kentucky Republican could have offered the competing bill as an alternative or as an amendment to the Democratic measure.

Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat and a member of Dodd's committee, said, ``On a bill that would allow more people to vote, our Republican colleagues choose not to vote. It doesn't set the right tone. It sends a poor message.''

HOPE TO WORK TOGETHER LATER

Regardless, Democrats expressed hope they would work with Republicans when the bill reaches the Senate floor where it can again be amended.

Dodd is chief backer of the Democratic bill. Co-sponsors include all of the Senate's 50 Democrats, plus its only independent, Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont. McConnell is a chief backer of the bipartisan bill. It has 38 Republican and 31 Democratic co-sponsors.

But two of those co-sponsors, Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Robert Torricelli of New Jersey -- both voted on Thursday to send Dodd's bill to the full Senate.

``I would want a bill with mandates,'' Schumer said, though adding changes may be needed to win Republican support and the signature of President Bush. ``I don't want to end this session with having done nothing on election reform.''

Dozens of bills have been introduced in Congress to revamp the nation's election system after last year's contested presidential election. Dodd's bill is the first to be reported out of a Senate or House of Representatives committee.

Studies have estimated that up to 6 million Americans were denied their right to vote or did not have their votes counted in last year's presidential election because of a variety of problems, ranging from faulty ballots and machines to inaccurate registration rolls.

Bush, who was declared the winner of the White House after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to permit a hand count of thousands of disputed Florida ballots, has endorsed a blueprint for election reform offered by a panel chaired by two former presidents, Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican Gerald Ford.

Recommendations included giving federal funds to states to upgrade voting equipment, setting uniform statewide standards to count ballots and asking broadcasters not to project winners until polls close in all 48 contiguous states. Carter and Ford said Congress should decide whether to impose mandates.

Dodd's bill would impose mandates, new federal election requirements. It would also provide up to $6 billion over the next three years to help states and localities meet them.