electionlineWeekly--April 28, 2011

I. In Focus This Week

2011 Legislative Update
State legislative sessions begin to wrap-up

With summer on the way, many state legislative sessions are beginning to wrap-up for the year with some already finished. It’s been a busy year for election administration legislation across the country with many pieces of legislation inspired by party changes in state houses.

 The following is a snapshot of what states have done so far and what is still on the books and needs to be approved before sessions end.

Early voting
The South Carolina Senate approved a second reading of legislation that would allow the state to offer 11 days of early voting. The Georgia legislature approved and Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill that reduced the number of early voting days in the Peach State from 45 to 21.

Florida election reform
A sweeping piece of election reform legislation is quickly making its way through the Florida legislature and would bring many changes to the way Floridians register and vote in the Sunshine state. In particular, the legislation would cut early voting from 14 to seven days. Other provisions include limiting a voters’ ability to change their address at the polls, change third-party voter registration rules and make it more difficult for citizen groups to put amendments on the ballot.

Municipal elections
NevadaAssembly Bill 132 would move all municipal elections to coincide with the federal, state and county elections held in November of even years.  Currently many municipalities in the state conduct elections in odd years, with the primary in April and the general in June.

MOVE compliance
The Oklahoma legislature is considering two bills that would help the state comply with the federal Military and Overseas Voter Act. On piece of legislation would move the primary to June and maintain a runoff system and another would eliminate the runoff system.

Paper ballots
In Tennessee, the state’s GOP is on the verge of repealing much of a 2008 law that would have required the state to move to all paper ballots. Many Republicans that supported the legislation in 2008 have since soured on the law. They say paper ballots can easily be manipulated after a vote and argued that it would be too costly for counties to implement. The state election coordinator estimates the start-up cost for paper-ballot voting to be $7.6 million and the ongoing cost to be nearly $4.2 million every two years. In Vermont, legislation is pending that would require towns with more than 2,000 residents to use optical-scan voting machines to count ballots instead of the traditional way of counting them by hand.

Primary election
The Washington legislature voted to eliminate the state’s primary for 2012. Instead Democrats and Republicans will choose their nominee via a caucus and the state will save approximately $10 million by not having to conduct an election.

Proof-of-citizenship
The Colorado House has given initial approval to a piece of legislation that would require potential voters to show some form of proof-of-citizenship in order to register to vote.

Secretary of state succession
After a judge ruled that the state’s recount panel must consider whether or not current Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White was eligible to run for the seat he eventually won, the state’s GOP introduced legislation in the Senate that would have the governor appoint the next secretary of state should White prove ineligible. The House is resisting the change.

Voter ID
In 2011, voter ID legislation was on the agenda in more state’s than it was not. In Colorado, Senate Democrats were successfully able to defeat a proposed voter photo ID law. In Kansas, the legislature approved a voter photo ID law that was signed into law by Gov. Sam Brownback. The Minnesota legislature is considering putting voter ID on the ballot in 2012. The North Carolina legislature continues to debate a proposed voter ID law with many advocacy and student groups speaking out against it. This week, a Rhode Island Senate committee delayed taking action on the Ocean State’s voter ID proposal for another week. Despite constitutional questions raised by the state’s attorney general, the Tennessee House approved photo voter ID legislation. In South Carolina, the House approved a compromise on a proposed voter ID bill. The bill moves next to the Senate where it is expected to be approved. After hundreds of residents attended and testified at a public hearing on Wisconsin’s proposed voter ID bill, the lawmakers announced that they plan to vote on the legislation in May.

Voter intent
In the wake of the 2010 write-in campaign for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska legislature has approved a bill that makes it clear a voter’s intent takes precedent when casting a write-in ballot.

Voter registration
Although elections are not under the purview of the Illinois secretary of state, for years people have been able to register to vote at their local secretary of state offices. Current state law lists the secretary of state offices’ as “temporary” voter registration offices, but Senate Bill 90 would make them permanent places to register. The Maryland General Assembly approved legislation allowing the state to offer online voter registration. Currently in Hawaii both the House and Senate have approved their own versions of legislation for online voter registration. The legislation is before a House committee and could be approved by the whole legislature at press time.