Charles Stewart III is a co-director of the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project. As such, he has followed elections closely for more than a dozen years. 

At NCSL's fall forum, we asked him to discuss how the 2012 election went, and to offer suggestions to state legislators for ways to improve the voting experience.

He noted that elections have improved greatly since 2000, largely from the advent of centralized voter registration systems at the state level and improved polling place procedures.

For the future, Stewart says that new voting equipment will need to be bought at a price of roughly $10 per voter. 

He recommends that states create partnerships with land grant universities to support elections, and that states do more to measure elections and then make decisions based on those metrics.

Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT, where he has taught since 1985. His research and teaching areas include congressional politics, elections and American political development.