The simple act of registering to vote was complicated in two Lake counties this election cycle -- the one in Illinois and the one in Indiana. After independent voter registrations organizations turned in allegedly fraudulent registrations, the each county clerk -- both of them Republicans -- raised the specter of widespread "voter fraud," following the lead of their party's presidential nominee. What followed was a stream of misleading news reports, court battles, and threats of countywide voter ID laws and excessive provisional balloting.

How could this mess have been avoided? Certainly, the third-party groups like ACORN should have increased the training and oversight of their canvassers. But the incentives for the low-paid employees to game the system -- not to steal the election -- would still exist. Taking the incentives out of the equation is key, and it's something the federal government can do fairly easily. Writing at Slate's Election Law Blog, Richard Hasen explains:

The solution is to take the job of voter registration for federal elections out of the hands of third parties (and out of the hands of the counties and states) and give it to the federal government. The Constitution grants Congress wide authority over congressional elections. The next president should propose legislation to have the Census Bureau, when it conducts the 2010 census, also register all eligible voters who wish to be registered for future federal elections. High-school seniors could be signed up as well so that they would be registered to vote on their 18^th birthday. When people submit change-of-address cards to the post office, election officials would also change their registration information.

This is a no-brainer solution. Not only could the federal government dramatically increase the franchise, it could take community groups out of the equation, assuaging those Republicans who are truly concerns about ballot integrity. Of course, few really are, and many might oppose such reforms, providing the unintended benefit of discrediting the conservatives' moralizing on the issue.

It's something the Democratic Congress should take up immediatly following the election, before the controversies of the past few weeks fade from the public memory.

(H/T Matt Ygleaisas)