On January 22nd a bipartisan presidential commission unanimously recommended many changes to U.S. election laws and procedures to reduce lines and wait times, speed counting, and end confusion that can lead to delays and disenfranchisement.
Here are some of the recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration:
1. Expand online voter registration.
2. Expand states’ sharing of voter rolls to prevent registration in more than one state.
3. Plan resources to cut voter wait time.
4. Expand early voting.
5. Hold elections in schools.
6. Adopt uniform guidelines for voting machine technology.
7. Conduct comprehensive, public audits of voting machines after every election.
8. Improve transfer of personal data from departments of motor vehicles to election officials.
9. Develop professional, nonpartisan teams of election officials.
10. Recruit new and more diverse poll workers, including those with foreign language abilities.
11. Train the poll workers.
12. Provide waiting voters with information to ensure they have the proper identification and are at the correct polling place.
13. Use electronic poll books with search function.
14. Provide online absentee ballots.
These recommendations echo some of the suggestions previously made in this blog.
Comment: Washington Post Endorses Presidential Commission’s Recommendations for Reforming U.S. Voting Laws and Procedures
A Washington Post editorial endorses the recommendations for reforming U.S. voting laws and procedures that are summarized in the above blog post.
The editorial starts by saying U.S. voting “registration and turnout would be a lot higher across the board if voting in the United States weren’t a Kafkaesque exercise. Government has got to make voting easier . . . . [and] stop trying to make it harder.”
The recent report from the Presidential Commission, the Post says, “offered a set of serious changes that could, if state and local election officials took them up, make a big difference.”
The Post, however, regrets that the Commission was not in a position to address the “root cause of so many [election problems:] . . . the bizarre way elections are run in the United States, with 8,000 jurisdictions administering their own voting systems, relying on polling place volunteers and obtaining too little guidance from the federal government.”
Editorial, Making Voting Easier, Wash. Post (Feb. 3, 2014), http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/government-has-to-make-voting-easier/2014/02/02/ae99345a-8875-11e3-916e-e01534b1e132_print.html