Washington ? A year and a half after the nation took a crash course in hanging chads, butterfly ballots and other voting peculiarities, the Senate voted 99-1 Thursday to repair voting systems and crack down on election fraud.

The legislation is designed to avoid a repeat of the 2000 election debacle that produced a 36-day Florida recount drama to determine the presidency.

Lawmakers called their legislation historic, saying it was the first time Congress had broadly addressed voting since the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination in voting practices based on race and eliminated literacy tests and poll taxes.

A conference committee with the House, which passed election reform legislation in December, is expected to move quickly, and President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law. The House measure provides $2.6 billion during five years to help states and localities upgrade their polling equipment. Unlike the Senate bill, the House measure would require states to match some of the federal dollars, and it does not include provisions to fight election fraud.

The Senate measure would provide $3.5 billion during the next five years for voting equipment upgrades; neither version would take effect in time to prevent more problems from occurring in the midterm elections this year.

The Senate bill would set minimum standards requiring states to keep statewide voter registration lists, allow “provisional voting” so that registered voters will not be turned away from the polls and allow people to verify their votes before casting their ballot.

The measure would establish an independent four-person commission to provide election assistance to the states and serve as a clearinghouse for information about new voting technology.

To prevent voting fraud, the bill would require first-time voters who register by mail to verify their identity before casting a ballot.