In March 2013, President Obama issued an executive order to establish the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, which was charged with identifying best practices in election administration and making recommendations to improve the voting experience.
The commission recently released its recommendations in a
112-page report. These recommendations include expanding:
- online voter registration,
- interstate exchange of voter lists,
- voting before Election Day,
- the use of schools as polling places to the extent possible, and
- the use of resource allocation tools to reduce the potential for long lines at polling places.
The report and its
appendices cover several other topics, including voting by members of the military, poll worker training, and the impending need to replace voting machines. The commission also weighed in on the question of what constitutes an unreasonable amount of time to wait in line to vote, stating that, absent unforeseen circumstances, nobody should have to wait in line to vote for more than 30 minutes.
