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This article was originally posted on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's website and can be found here. Article Begins: Legislation and information technology spur innovation, resulting in more transparent, efficient and accessible voting procedures WASHINGTON- Legislative reforms brought on by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) along with advances in information technology have led to marked changes over the past 10 years in the way elections are administered in the United States, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Ten years ago, early voting was rare. Absentee ballot tracking and vote centers were unheard of. And live webcasts of the vote tabulation process weren’t available. Yet innovations such as these have become increasingly commonplace. HAVA was a catalyst for many such election reforms by providing funds to states to modernize their voting systems and voter registration databases. For instance, the HAVA-mandated move to statewide voter registration databases facilitated the migration from paper poll books to digital poll books, which makes the voter check-in process faster and more accurate. Some of the biggest innovations have taken place on the web, where voters in a majority of states can verify their voter registration, get directions to their polling place, and download a sample ballot from the Web site of their elections office. Several states also offer online voter registration, which can reduce administrative costs while producing more accurate voter lists. Numerous counties have embraced social media to communicate with