Federal Election Reform
This site comprehensively catalogs and tracks election reform activity at the federal level.
Please use the sidebar to navigate the following sections:
- Legislation: This page provides detailed information about all election reform legislation in the 109th, 110th, 111th and 112th Congresses. It includes detailed bill summaries, information about co-sponsors and related bills, and links to the relevant pages on Thomas, the official source of federal legislative information. Bills are also organized into easy-to-read tables by issue. There are also links to more detailed pages about select bills.
- Hearings: This page contains information about past and upcoming Congressional hearings on election reform issues in the 110th, 111th, and 112th Congresses, listed in reverse chronological order with links to the testimony provided at each hearing.
- Research & Publications: Learn more about election reform issues here. This page links to Brennan Center publications on federal election reform, as well as additional webpages dedicated to specific election reform issues.
- Federal Laws & Government Agencies: This page contains links to all federal voting laws, federal agencies that focus on election issues, and organizations of state and local election officials.
- Congressional Committees: Learn more about the Congressional committees that have jurisdiction over election reform and voting issues at the federal level.
- Voter Registration Modernization: This page includes information about Voter Registration Modernization, a proposal to improve our nation's voter registration system and bring it into the 21st century.
- Democracy Restoration Act: Learn more about the Democracy Restoration Act, which would restore voting rights to 4 million disenfranchised Americans.
- Congressional Response to Wave of Voting Restrictions: As individual states have been introducing and passing new laws that restrict access to the ballot box, members of Congress are responding at the federal level. They have introduced legislation, announced Congressional hearings, drafted letters, and given passionate floor speeches to stand up for the right to vote. This page will be updated as new Congressional actions are initiated.
Agenda for the 112th Congress: Voter Registration Modernization
Voter registration modernization, a proposal that has received widespread bipartisan support in the states, requires the government to take responsibility to ensure that every eligible voter is on the rolls, using existing computerized lists. It would cost less (because computerized records are far easier to keep than today’s chaotic piles of paper). And it would also curb the potential for fraud.
Under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, states put in place computerized voter rolls. But citizens still must fill out paperwork to get onto those lists, and they fall off the rolls when there are errors, or when they move or change their address. Instead, voter registration modernization uses digital technology to pass names of eligible voters from state agencies on to election officials. Citizens are able to register or update their registration online or at the polls.
In recent years, at least 21 states have moved forward to automate voter registration at DMVs, a step supported by officials from both parties. Experiences in the states demonstrate that this increases accuracy and registration rates, minimizes the potential for fraud, and saves money.
In May of 2012, House leadership introduced the Voter Empowerment Act, the first federal bill to include a proposal for voter registration modernization.
Learn more about Voter Registration Modernization.