House effort to create bipartisan election panel fails

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An effort to create a bipartisan Select Committee on Election Reform in the House has failed, Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri announced in a rare joint statement Wednesday.

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The Florida vote

The special committee was expected to look into voting problems stemming from the 2000 presidential election as highlighted by the protracted vote count in Florida.

Hastert and Gephardt, who rarely speak to each other, did speak several times in recent months as they tried to hammer out an agreement forming the committee. In the end, according to aides, the leaders could not settle on the makeup of the committee.

"Our members feel very strongly and deeply that it could not be effective unless it was a committee of equal representation," said Sue Harvey, a spokeswomen for Gephardt.

Republicans, who hold a slim majority in the House, wanted control of the committee.

A separate ad hoc committee, made up of just Democrats, has already begun a review of the 2000 election.

Hastert and Gephardt will now ask standing committees to formally take up the issue.

"Having failed to reach agreement on the establishment of such a committee, we are now asking the committees of jurisdiction to conduct a thorough and complete study of the federal election process and make the necessary changes which would increase public confidence in the conduct of such elections and to report appropriate legislation to the House," the joint statement said.

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