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The following states have recently adjourned their 2010 legislative sessions.
Delaware – Adjourned June 30
Delaware may be joining Florida, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and, most recently, Maryland in allowing 16- and 17-year-old citizens to preregister to vote if Governor Jack Markell signs House Bill 381. Preregistration policies have been found to increase voter participation among young people in states that allow it.
Read more about the bill here.
Read more about preregistration here.
Louisiana – Adjourned June 21
Although the state failed to pass Election Day Registration (HB 1115 and HCR 54), the Louisiana legislature passed a measure to improve voter registration, at least among the state’s youth.
House Concurrent Resolution 158 requests the secretary of state to develop and implement an annual educational and instructional presentation concerning voting and voter registration targeted at high school seniors. It was adopted on May 11.
North Carolina – Adjourned July 10
No election bills of note passed the legislature.
New Hampshire – June 2
Although the state introduced a number of bills relating to key election issues, including a bill by Rep. Carolyn M. Gargasz (R-Hillsborough) to permit preregistration of 17-year-old citizens, no bills of note were enacted.
Rhode Island – June 11
No 2010 bills of note passed the legislature this session. However, a troubling voter ID bill was held for further study and is likely to return in the next legislative session.
South Carolina – June 3
The much debated South Carolina voter ID bill, HB 3418 ultimately failed in the legislature after the House and the Senate could not concur on the bill’s early voting provisions.
Opponents argued that the bill would disenfranchise more than a hundred thousand South Carolinians who lacked the ID necessary to vote. However, the biggest controversy came from the debate on whether to allow a one-week early voting period, an amendment to the bill that many voter ID supporters opposed.
Read more entries on the South Carolina voter ID bill here.
Tennessee – June 10
Two troubling Tennessee bills gained traction this session, one having been signed by the governor.
Following the passage of Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law, the Tennessee Senate re-amended a bill to require all voter applicants to prove citizenship before getting on the state voter rolls. The bill’s sponsor used anti-immigrant rhetoric to gain support for the bill, but it ultimately failed after the House refused to concur with all the Senate amendments.
The state–which also has one of the nation’s strictest felon voting restrictions in place–attempted to pass laws to further hinder access to the ballot for released felons, including restrictions for those who are late on child support. Of these bills, Senate Bill 440 ultimately made it to the governor’s desk.
This bill amends election law to require convicted felons to only regain voting rights after the person has paid all restitution to the victim or victims of the offense ordered by the court as part of the sentence and has paid all court costs assessed against the person following the conviction, except where the court has made a finding at an evidentiary hearing that the applicant is indigent at the time of application.