After years of expansion when and how people can vote, legislatures now under the new Republican control you are moving to cut off the first day of voting, the identification requirements of beef and put new restrictions on how voters are informed about absentee ballots.
Democrats claim their GOP counterparts uses mid-term election victories to force changes favorable to Republicans ahead of the presidential election of 2012. They criticised the legislation, saying it could lead to longer lines in urban areas, Democratic-leaning and discourage people from voting.
Supporters say strengthening the rules ID helps prevent fraud. And at a time in which counties faced difficult budgets, support local election officials don't have the money to keep the early voting staff positions open.
The process of changing the voting rules can be non-partisan on the surface, but it is seething with politics just below the surface.
"We had nothing short of a firefight a rhetorical device for years among people who are concerned about fraud and the people who are worried disenfranchisement-a gunfight that is neatly divided between the two major parties," said Doug Chapin, election expert at the University of Minnesota.
While the States generally regulate the voting rules before presidential elections this year provides an opportunity for new Governors Republicans and GOP majorities to legislate on matters of election.
In layman's terms, Chapin said: "what is happening in 2011 is as well as on what happened in 2010".
New voting rules recently cancelled legislatures in what have traditionally been presidential battlegrounds, the creation of partisan rancor.
Plans to reduce the number of days to express a vote first cleared the Republican-controlled swing States of Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin. Georgialegislatures in Tennessee, and West Virginia also severed off time advanced to vote. North Carolina has a pending proposal. And Maine made out with a policy that allows people to register at the polls on election day before casting ballots.
Each of the parties, when in control, try to rewrite the rules to his advantage.
Although the reality might not be so cut and dried, both sides believe a loser regime benefits vote democratic because it increases opportunities for Hispanic, black, immigrants and the poor-more difficult to achieve for turnout-election day to vote.
Democratic voters held an edge in early voting during elections of 2010, despite the unfavourable climate for the party at national level and possible Republican gains.
Voters in 32 States and the District of Columbia may vote in person before election day without having to give a reason.
Georgia and Ohio had some periods of time longer than the beginning of the vote. Georgia had 45 days, while Ohio had 35. The new laws bring the two States closer to the typical timeframe, which is about two weeks before the election.
The passage to shrink the window early voting in some States is as others have pushed to require voters to show photo ID at the polls.
Five States-Kansas, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas--recently passed stringent photo ID laws. At the beginning of the year, only two States-Georgia and Indiana-required that voters must show a photo ID to have their votes counted.
Other legislatures are rewriting election laws of their State in other ways.
Florida laminated back his first votes a week two to a review that also makes it more difficult for groups such as the League of women voters and Boy Scouts of America to conduct voter registration drives.
Ohio's top elections Chief, a Republican, acknowledged that changes to the voting rules have invited an overreaction from each party.
"Both sides of the political spectrum have found beneficial from a fundraising standpoint, from a motivation of their point of view, to call into question the confidence in the electoral system," State Secretary Jon Husted said in an interview.
While the Ohio review bans local boards of elections by unwanted absentee ballot mailing to voters, Husted has agreed to have the State sends requests to the voters in all counties in 2012.
Ohio's law is not yet in force, and opponents are working to obtain a repeal question on the ballot fall 2012. The legislation debate earlier this summer in the plans of the General Assembly of the GOP-controlled state.
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