Voting Reform Isn't So Easy
Posted at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2012
President Obama’s promise to address the long lines at the polls on Election Day has sparked the most significant discussion in years on how to fix the system, but Deborah Charles notes that “state governments are fiercely protective of their control over election law and are resistant to any sort of national system.”
“Republicans and Democrats have also balked at a national voter registration system. A backlash against new election laws like strict voter IDs passed by dozens of states this year may offer a possibility for change… Early voting was the subject of several lawsuits this year after the Republican-led legislatures of states like Florida and Ohio passed laws cutting back on the number of early voting days in order to cut back on fraudulent voting… The result of reduced early voting was long lines that stretched around blocks and lasted for hours. Lines stretched to six and seven hours in Florida even during early voting. Lengthy waits were also reported in the swing states of Ohio and Virginia as well as New Jersey and New York, which had been hit hard by superstorm Sandy.”
