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State Election Legislation: 2007 RecapState legislatures continued to tackle key election reform issues in 2007 -- considering nearly 2000 pieces of legislation according to the NCSL election legislation tracking database. Since the voting controversy in 2000, legislatures have continued to work on reforming state election laws in light of a growing body of research and experience on how to make voting work for all involved -- especially the voter. Since 2000, states have considered well over 10,000 election reform related bills and enacted over 1,400. NCSL maintains a searchable database of pending legislation available to anyone on the NCSL website. The specific web address to access the database is: As you can see from the table below, there is usually a spike of election legislation in the legislative session immediately following the general elections.
*2006 is excluded because NCSL's bill data is incomplete for that year. Several elections topics received attention across the country in 2007. Below is a list of highlights from some of the most popular issues that states worked on last year. New 2007 Election Laws Presidential Primaries Seventeen states changed their presidential primary laws during 2007 legislative sessions. Many of these laws moved the primary to the first Tuesday in February setting up the so-called Super-Tuesday. Others moved the date even earlier (Florida and Michigan), or permitted the political parties to choose an earlier date (Colorado). Arkansas now permits early voting in the presidential primary. Washington eliminated the requirement that parties provide primary ballots to unaffiliated voters. Electoral College Maryland and New Jersey passed National Popular Vote (NPV) bills. Bills in Hawaii and California were vetoed by the governor. NPV bills enter a state into an interstate compact and pledge that all of that state's electoral votes will go to the national popular vote winner. These bills take effect only when states with a majority of the electoral votes (270) have passed similar legislation. 2008 Update: Illinois recently became the third state to enact NPV. The states that have adopted NPV thus far represent a total of 46 electoral votes -- one-sixth of the 270 votes necessary for the law to take effect. Making Voting More Convenient One of the most popular areas of reform addressed by legislatures in 2007 was making voting more convenient. Arizona and Colorado established permanent early voting lists. Louisiana extended the dates during which early voting is available and established a committee to study the idea of no-excuse absentee voting. Maryland voters will decide in a statewide ballot referendum this November whether to adopt early voting. Tennessee extended the deadline by which absentee ballot applications can be filed. California voter registration applications will now contain a box applicants may check to permanently change their status to vote-by-mail, and certain overseas military voters will be able to return absentee ballots by fax. In West Virginia, overseas voters may now receive and return absentee ballot applications electronically. Colorado law now provides for emergency registration for overseas voters who return home after the deadline for voter registration and also permits cooperation between military commanders and the secretary of state to facilitate voter registration and absentee voting by soldiers. Texas will pilot a program to e-mail ballots to overseas military voters. Arkansas will now provide all overseas voters with instant run-off ballots. North Dakota will now permit counties to hold any election by mail. Oregon passed a law providing a way for homeless voters to register and vote by using the county clerk's office for a mailing address. Voters in Iowa will now be able to register and vote on election day -- making Iowa the 8th state to implement election-day registration. North Carolina now permits voters to register and vote at any one-stop voting location -- effectively providing for election day registration during the early voting period. Illinois established a commission to study the idea of election day registration. Texas re-established an earlier pilot program providing for county-wide vote centers. Washington voters will now be able to submit voter registration applications electronically. Post-Election Audits Continued concerns about election integrity led six states to pass new requirements for random, manual post-election audits of paper ballots, and Colorado increased the percentage of voting machines that are subject to such audits. Voting Equipment Most Florida voters will now vote on mark-sense (optical scan) ballots. Electronic voting machines will be available only for disabled voters, as required by the Help America Vote Act. Iowa also took steps to move toward using only optical scan voting machines and passed a law requiring a supply of emergency ballots in each polling place in case of voting machine failure. Virginia and Montana are phasing out DREs as well. Election Crimes California, Hawaii and Virginia increased the penalties for voter intimidation, voter fraud and providing false information to a voter. New Mexico made it a fourth-degree felony to collect absentee ballots but fail to turn them in. Robo-Calls Idaho passed a new requirement that automated political telephone calls must start out by stating the name of the person on whose behalf the call is made, the purpose of the call and the contact information for the caller. At least 22 other states considered restrictions on robo-calls in 2007. Proof of Citizenship 15 states considered legislation requiring individuals to present proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote as is the law in Arizona. None of the bills passed, but this issue remains a hot topic in 2008. N.B. - The next issue of The Canvass will include 2008 session legislative updates for these important reform issues.
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