The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Voter registrations have increased substantially between the 2006 congressional mid-term election and the 2008 presidential election, according to a report from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

The report, released last week, is the eighth in a series of regular reports the commission has submitted to Congress since passage of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) in 1993. The EAC is required to report every two years on the impact of the NVRA on voter registration.  This year's report revealed that the number of registered voters rose by 17.5 million from 2006 to 2008, reaching a total of 189 million.

The report also found a increase in same-day registration, in which voters are permitted to register when they arrive at the polls on election day, with 17 states adding 3.6 million new registrants on Election Day. Thirteen million inactive voters were removed from voter rolls from 2006 to 2008, for reasons including death, felony conviction, failure to vote in two consecutive federal elections, moving, or at the voter’s request.

The commission's recommendations for future improvements include creating a "coordinated data collection effort" between local and state election offices to better manage voter registration and removal of inactive voters, and the increasing the use of new technology to "ease the workload" on election officials.