Recent efforts to reform and modernize the voter system have received bipartisan support. The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, which would allow overseas troops and American citizens to access voter information online, passed Congress last week with bipartisan support from legislators who "decried an antiquated voting system that left as many as one out of four overseas ballots uncounted," according to Roll Call.

In August, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would enable individuals who voted by absentee ballot to track the status of their ballots online. Also, a bill that would expand no-excuse absentee voting has passed in the House Administration Committee.

Another bill currently before Congress would "require all states to offer online voter registration by 2012," according to Roll Call. This would be a major challenge for the vast majority of the country and would require most states to significantly upgrade their procedures. Currently, "only six states offer some form of online voter registration, while half allow voters to verify their registration online. For most states, the voting system is a hodgepodge of snail mail, voter registration drives and polling places," according to Roll Call.

The online voter registration bill would bring the voter registration process in line with the convenience of other aspects of daily living. "Many voters expect to be able to register to vote online as part of their normal routine," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), the sponsor of the bill, told Roll Call. "They are used to the convenience of online tools in their daily life and registering to vote should be just as easy and accessible as banking and bill paying," Lofgren said.

Brian Fallon, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee spokesman, told Roll Call that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the committee, is "working on a bill to ‘modernize’ the voting system."

Republicans have some concerns about voter fraud, but agree that the system should be modernized.

Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, a U.S. Supreme Court case where Texas is challenging Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, is scheduled for oral arguments on April 29. Section 5, which was reauthorized in 2006, applies to all or part of 16 states and it applies to nine states in their entirety. It requires those states to get federal approval before changing election rules or procedures, as a result of past laws and practices that discriminated against and disenfranchised racial minorities. This provision is referred to as the "preclearance" provision.

There is a debate about whether President Barack Obama's election means that the preclearance provision is no longer needed.

Ellen Katz, a University of Michigan law professor, wrote an article for the National Law Journal, as well as a blog posting, arguing that the Supreme Court should not decide whether the Obama presidency impacts the decision of whether preclearance is still needed. "To consider Obama's election now would fundamentally alter the legal inquiry and amount to an ill-advised power grab by the court," she said. She believes that if the Court uses the Obama presidency to impact its decision, then it would be deciding whether reauthorization of Section 5 was a good idea instead of deciding "whether Congress had good reason to think Section 5 is still needed."

Katz does not believe that the Court can ignore Obama's presidency. She argues that the parties should brief and argue the question. She also says that "Congress should be allowed to evaluate the significance of Obama's election in the first instance.

Edward Blum, director of the Project on Fair Representation at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, refuted some of the assertions that Katz made in her article in a separate blog posting. He refuted the assertion that no state wholly covered by Section 5 voted for Obama and he refuted the assertion that Obama received less white votes than John Kerry did in 2004.

An Alabama House Committee approved a measure that would allow no-excuse absentee voting for Alabama voters.  The bill would allow anyone to cast an absentee ballot as long as 40 days before the election.  The House Constitution and Elections Committee approved the bill 9-2.

According to the Birmingham News, "Alabama voters now can vote by absentee ballot only if they attest that they will be out of town on election day, are too ill to go to the polls or give another accepted reason."  If the current legislation passes, they will no longer have to provide an excuse for not voting in person on Election Day.

Furthermore, if this bill becomes law, it should cut down on Election Day crowds.  There were massive lines for the 2008 presidential election in Alabama and proponents of this bill are hoping that early voting will drastically decrease the lines on Election Day.

House Rules Chairman Ken Guin told the Birmingham News that "he thought the House would consider the early voting bill within a few weeks."