The Pew Charitable Trusts

Three incoming governors have the bread-and-butter issues of schools, taxes and health care atop their agendas, but their state's role in making the United States more energy independent also ranks as a high priority. Stateline.org talks to the governors-elect of Colorado, Florida and Maryland about their legislative goals. 

Just when it seemed the pre-election fears of widespread voter machine malfunctions were as overblown as Y2K concerns, Florida has emerged, once again, to shake the electorate with another voting snafu. In 2000, the state made headlines for its botched presidential election; now, it has a closely contested congressional race that could spur election reform by requiring paper trails for the touch-screen voting machines that at least 34 states use.

States hope giving Medicaid recipients a bigger stake in their health care will help keep taxpayers' costs down. Florida is one of four states - along with Idaho, Kentucky and West Virginia - moving toward putting Medicaid recipients in charge of their health care, much like policyholders with private insurance. South Carolina hopes to follow suit as soon as federal regulators sign off on its plans.

Alarmed by revelations that personal cell phone records are being pilfered and sold on the Internet, state and federal officials are rushing to update laws to protect consumer privacy and punish Web sites peddling the data.