Election Reform: Historic Election Energizes Supporters, but Challenges Remain

By Lauren Foster

Biko Baker, executive director of the League of Young Voters, had not waved an American flag in his adulthood—until last year.

"It wasn't because of Barack Obama," he says. "It was from my seeing people who were disenfranchised and disengaged claiming their space in this country, and to me that is exciting."

While the 2008 U.S. presidential election was hailed largely because it put an African American in the White House for the first time, what heartened Mr. Baker and many others was the explosion in civic participation: thousands of new voters registered for the first time, volunteered, and turned up at the polls to cast their ballots.

"There is no denying the impact of young voters in last year’s election," says Mr. Baker.

Miles Rapoport, a former Connecticut secretary of state who is now president of Dēmos, a public policy and advocacy organization, says the election "was a surge of democratic enthusiasm that was historic in many respects."

But as Daniel P. Tokaji noted in a recent Harvard Law & Policy Review article, "Voter Registration and Institutional Reform: Lessons from a Historic Election," "A closer look reveals that serious problems with the infrastructure of American democracy remain."

Mr. Rapoport agrees. "The number of voters and margin of victory obscured the fact that there are many, many aspects of our election processes that really still need a tremendous amount of improvement."

One of the biggest issues is the voter registration system, an area where Dēmos has done a lot of work.

"Almost all of the states, save nine, have arbitrary election registration deadlines so that people need to get registered as many as 31 days in advance of the elections, and for many, many people who move, or young people, that’s a real barrier, so promoting the idea of Election Day voter registration, which allows people to register and vote up to and on Election Day, is one way of really facilitating people getting involved," Mr. Rapoport says.

The League of Young Voters, which encourages young people—especially noncollege youth and youth from low-income communities and communities of color—to participate in the democratic process, is also pushing for reform in this area. Mr. Baker says embracing same-day registration would be the biggest step states could take to make the electoral process more engaging, "particularly with a group of folks who aren’t used to using the mail system or who may not have the cultural or institutional practice of voting."

Mr. Rapoport notes there have been both progress and setbacks on same-day registration. "The progress being that three new states have adopted Election Day registration: Iowa, Montana, and North Carolina; some states have opened up more access to voter registration by young people; and some states have improved their implementation of the National Voter Registration Act. So there have been improvements, but still, a fully facilitating system would have those things happening in all 50 states and maybe even by federal legislation."

On the downside, he says, some states have adopted "overly stringent voter identification laws that prevent people not only from registering but also from voting even if they are registered. In many cases, registered voters have to bring a photo ID to the polls or they are not allowed to vote even if their names are on the polling list, so it’s both a voter registration and a voting issue."

Indiana is one such state. In one of the most-awaited election-law cases in years, the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2008 upheld Indiana’s voter-identification law and rejected arguments that it imposed unjustified burdens on people who are old, poor, or members of minority groups and less likely to have driver’s licenses or other acceptable forms of identification.

Also on the reform agenda is making voting more convenient. "By having voting historically only in person and only on a non- holiday Tuesday, it does make it difficult for some people to vote who are working, have to travel to the polling places, or have a job where they can’t get off work. Now on this front there has been significant progress in two ways: more states are allowing increased use of mail-in voting. In addition, 33 states allow some form of early voting."

Another step is eliminating exclusions that many deem unfair—in particular, reforming laws that bar citizens from voting because of prior felony convictions. Some 5.3 million Americans are disenfranchised because of felony convictions. Many of them work in their communities and have paid their debt to society but are still denied the right to vote because of a conviction.

Mr. Rapoport says comprehensive federal election reform legislation is needed. "We are beyond amending the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). And now, as a result of the election of Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress, I think there is a real possibility that election reform that genuinely opens up the process can be passed that goes far beyond HAVA’s fixes to the election machinery."

While reform is still needed on many fronts, important steps have been taken to reclaim democracy. "Last year was an important first or second step," says Mr. Baker. "It’s not going to change overnight, as people are still just as skeptical and disconnected from the process. But there is a window of opportunity in this country for us to have a conversation about what it really means for young people or people of color to truly be involved because they are excited about it."

He says the league is working "super hard to not lose any of the momentum" from the 2008 elections.

As for Mr. Rapoport, he is "much more optimistic" about the democratic process than he was seven or eight years ago, when Dēmos started this work. "I think the biggest improvement in the health of democracy has been a surge in the desire of people to participate," he says. But he cautions now is not a time to sit back and reflect. Rather, it’s a time “to raise our sights even further.

"There have been major strides in making our democracy lively," he adds. "But I think it would be a mistake to take that as a reason for complacency and to say the systems no longer need reform. They do need reform to give Americans the democracy they deserve and are asking for."

This is one of three features from the Democracy in Action cover story in the  2008 Annual Review.