Southern Politics: Dust settles in Southern legislatures, what happened?

Legislatures across the South and country are wrapping up their 2007 sessions. Lots of hot-button issues were in play this, like immigration, health care, civil unions and living wages. But as the dust settles, what actually went down?

Stateline.org has a nice and quick summary of the bills that survived; here are some Southern highlights:

* "Social issues also dominated statehouses. Virginia, home of the former Confederate Capitol, became the first state to express remorse for its past support of slavery. Alabama, Maryland and North Carolina followed suit."

* "The year started out with a flurry of legislatures debating whether schoolgirls should be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer. When the dust settled, however, only Virginia acted to require middle school girls to be inoculated against human papillomaviruses, or HPV, but gave parents the OK to opt out."

* "Georgia became the 13th state to allow the use of public funds to send students to private schools when it approved state-funded scholarships for disabled children."

* "Texas legislators placed a two-year moratorium on privately run toll roads, a key initiative of Republican Gov. Rick Perry."

* "Florida, which played such a pivotal role in the 2000 elections, scrapped its touch-screen voting machines for a paper-based voting system at the behest of its freshman GOP governor, Charlie Crist (R)."

Important bills still hang in the balance. A great example: a measure for Same Day Registration at early voting sites in North Carolina. The Fayetteville (NC) Observer, not known as a fount of dangerous ideas, argues that the bill would strike a blow for democracy in the Tar Heel state:

North Carolina is the 15th worst state in the country for voter registration because scores of young adults are opting out of the process.

Of the million North Carolinians who aren't registered, about 400,000 are between 18 and 25, according to Democracy North Carolina. [...]

A bill that cleared a Senate committee on Monday could change that. The committee aproved a measure to allow voters to register up to three days before an election. The bill, which the House passed in March, would allow voters to register and cast their ballots at one-stop sites up to the Saturday before an election.

The measure is a practical change that could gradually boost registration rates. It is working in other states. As a matter of fact, the three states with the best records for voter turnout over the past 20 years - Minnesota, Maine and Wisconsin - allow residents to register and vote on Election Day.

The NC Senate will take up the bill next week.