By Karen Shanton and Wendy Underhill
Two weeks ago, we highlighted some of the work state and local officials are doing to evaluate and improve elections procedures. State lawmakers also play a crucial role in improving election administration by proposing and passing elections-related legislation.
NCSL produces an annual wrap-up of election legislation enactments and the 2012 edition is now complete. Some of the key trends for 2012 include:
• Continued increase in overall number of election laws: 195 elections-related bills were enacted in 2012, compared to 185 in 2010 and 171 in 2008.
• Heightened interest in some topics: Ballot access for parties and candidates, online voter registration, polling place requirements and voter registration list maintenance all received more attention in 2012 than 2011.
• Declining enthusiasm for others: Some of the topics that were most prominent in 2011, such as all-mail elections, the National Popular Vote Compact, primaries, pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, Internet voting pilot programs and vote centers, saw little legislative activity in 2012.
For complete details on 2012’s election legislation enactments, please see our full 2012 wrap-up. Wrap-ups for 2011 and 2010 are also available. To obtain enactment data for previous years, please contact NCSL’s elections team.
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