Over 32 states are considering voter ID legislation and many of them now realize they have no idea how to pay for these measures.  As we concluded in The Cost of Voter ID Laws: What the Courts Say, legislators who still wish to pursue photo ID requirements for voting must ensure that the laws provide for free photo IDs, ensure that IDs are reasonably accessible to all eligible voters, and include sufficient voter education and outreach programs and poll worker training.  Fulfilling these constitutional requirements will involve a lot of money that states simply do not have.

Voting is our most sacred civic ritual. Polling places are its temples. They should be oases of calm and reason, where voters can register their choices privately, free from the heat of election campaigns. But because of widespread mobilization around efforts to stop voter fraud this year, our "temples of democracy" are under threat of being converted into partisan battlegrounds.

Data obtained by the Brennan Center indicates that voter registration in 2010 is down considerably from registration prior to the 2006 midterm election.

As long as Ohio remains a politically important and closely divided state, there will continue to be hotly-contested election-related disputes. But changes to election law in Ohio can minimize these controversies: by creating clearer and fairer laws that improve election administration, decrease burdens and costs on county election offices and put the voters first. Read more...