For some years, the National Conference of State Legislatures has been keeping a very useful database of bills in state legislatures that amend election laws. Here is a link to that database. One can choose to look at all the election law bills introduced in any single state, in any recent year. Or one can choose to see bills in all states on particular election law subjects, or any combination.

The hard work of finding these bills is mostly handled by Jennie Drage Bowser, with help from Tom Intorcio and Tim Storey, all members of the staff of NCSL. The headquarters of NCSL is in Denver.

The database does not include pre-filed bills. Bills don’t appear on the database until any particular state legislature has convened. Almost all state legislatures will meet in regular session during 2010. Most of them convene the second week of January.

On December 22, Parker Griffith, a Democratic member of the U.S. House from Alabama, said that he is changing parties, and is now a Republican. He had been elected in 2008 for the first time, receiving 158,324 votes. His only opponent in 2008, a Republican, received 147,314 votes. His district, the 5th, is in the north end of Alabama, and includes Huntsville and Florence.

If Parker Griffith lived in California, his party switch would mean that he could not run for re-election. California law, unique among the 50 states, says that no one can get on a primary ballot if he or she had been a registered member of some other party at any time in the year before filing. Filing for the California primary opens in March 2010.

On October 29, Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-Florida) introduced HR 3972, which would set up a commission to study alternatives to the current system by which voters choose members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill suggests that the Commission would study proportional representation and cumulative voting. The Commission would also study whether the size of the U.S. House should be increased, and it would study how U.S. citizens who live in the District of Columbia and U.S. territories may obtain voting representation in the U.S. House.

The bill only has five co-sponsors so far, and they happen to all be from the District of Columbia or from one of the U.S. territories. Thanks to Dave Kadlecek for this news.