Traditionally, Americans have voted in person at neighborhood polling places. Beginning in the 1980s, though, many states began to ease rules on how and when absentee ballots were issued — thus allowing voters to cast ballots in person before Election Day — or even mailing ballots directly to all voters.

Efforts to expand the right to vote or access to the polls have focused on making voter registration available to more Americans. Agreeing on what those efforts should look like, though, has proved difficult. Should registration opportunities be expanded or limited? How vigorously should states purge voter rolls of “deadwood” — that is, people who have died or moved out of state?

If you’ve been reading our publication here on Medium, or follow us on Twitter, you probably already know who we are — but indulge us for a moment, and allow us to re-introduce ourselves.

Voting uses technologies that range from old-fashioned hand-counted paper ballots to new(er)-fangled electronic voting machines that resemble ATMs. Until the disputed 2000 presidential election, most voters didn’t give a second thought to how they cast their ballots — but since then, voting technology has become much more controversial.