Same-day voting under scrutiny

Inter Lake editorial

There's a move afoot to amend Montana's same-day voting system (the system that allows people to register to vote right up until the time polls close on election day).

Montana legislators are considering a measure to end late registration on the Friday before a general election. One supporter said the same-day registration creates administrative headaches for election officials.

Late-registration fans, however, point to the 7,419 voters who registered on election day in 2008 and say the process gives more people the chance to vote.

One wonders if it's really that wonderful a service that the state provides if it caters to procrastinators.

Surely people can decide whether they want to register - and vote - before the day when ballots actually are cast.

Election officials have more important things to worry about, such as conducting efficient elections. Allowing throngs of people to register on election day seems like an unnecessary impediment.

Montana lawmakers are putting their calendar on the Internet for everyone to see. Good for them. It is an efficient and wise use of taxpayer money to help increase transparency of government.

Anyone can visit the Legislature's Web site at leg.mt.gov and click on the eCalendar to see that today, for instance, the Montana Nonprofit Association is sponsoring a luncheon at the Capitol Rotunda from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Other states have had this kind of transparency for a while and found it to be helpful. As one Nevada legislative aide said, "One of the concerns people have is who's talking to legislators." That won't be entirely known now, but the calendar certainly helps.

Another push for increased legislative transparency comes from the Montana Policy Institute, which is asking for the state to provide a Website where state spending will be detailed for the citizenry.

"A free searchable budget transparency Website will not cure all budget problems, but it would go a long way toward preventing waste and improving government performance," the fledgling think tank wrote in a policy note last year.

Eighteen states already have similar Websites, and the Montana Policy Institute plans to start its own site to monitor school spending sometime this winter. We applaud the effort, and hope it will take off. Technology has made it possible for citizens to keep an eye on government like never before. We should take advantage of the opportunity.