Election gives early-balloting initiatives a boost
— -- For voters who encountered problems at the polls Tuesday, ranging from hours-long lines to missing registrations to deceptive fliers and phone calls, help could be on the way.
State and federal officials are poised to consider a number of changes designed to make it easier for millions of Americans to get registered, stay registered and vote without problems.
Democrats, including President-elect Barack Obama, have long been in favor of reducing impediments to vote. Now that they have seized the White House and increased their majorities in Congress, they are hoping to advance some stalled initiatives.
"We're expecting that they're going to be fairly activist in 2009," says Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center, which represents state and local election officials.
The most likely change in the next few years, experts say, is the expansion of early voting. Lines were shorter on Election Day in battleground states that allowed any voter to cast a ballot ahead of time. In states where excuses are required, such as Pennsylvania and Virginia, lines were longer.
Thirty-four states allow some form of no-excuse early voting, including Oregon and most of Washington, where elections are conducted by mail. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia require an excuse or don't allow early voting. Voters in one of them, Maryland, approved a measure Tuesday that could lead to early voting there.
Other changes under consideration in Washington or the states:
•Universal registration. The top priority of voting-rights groups, such as the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law, is to give the government responsibility for registering citizens. Everyone eligible to vote would automatically be registered and would remain registered if they move.
•Making it easier to register. Proposals range from pre-registering 16- and 17-year-olds when they get driver's licenses to registering new citizens at naturalization ceremonies. Voting rights groups such as Common Cause want to add to the nine states that now allow Election Day registration.
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