Meg Murphy-Sweeney

Would you want your son or daughter to go to a college where it is legal to possess a loaded gun in a dorm room? If not, you may want to think twice about sending your child to school in Texas. A bill under consideration in the state Senate, S. B. 182, would require all public colleges and universities to allow holders of a concealed handgun license to carry loaded weapons on campus.

Politicians and activists were making sweeping accusations about voter fraud during the 2008 election season, warning that thousands of illegitimate registrations had been submitted and that election theft was immiment. Is the registration system vulnerable to fraud? How can it be improved? Tova Wang, a nationally recognized expert on election reform and vice president for research at Common Cause, a citizens’ lobbying group, answers questions about the voter registration controversies of 2008 and discusses proposals for improving the voting process.

In Wisconsin, voter fraud is rampant—or so thought U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, who began a hunt for fraudulent voters after John Kerry won Wisconsin by just 11,000 votes over George W. Bush in 2004. But by the time he completed his work, Biskupic reported that he had uncovered only 14 illegal votes—and no conspiracy.Lawmakers in many states are saying that there's only one way to stop this epidemic of fraud: have every voter show a state-issued photo ID at the polls. But experts on elections say that voter fraud of the kind that can be countered by ID requirements is rare; what’s more, requiring photo IDs would disenfranchise millions of voters.

The Justice Department has made stamping out fraud by individual voters a priority....