From ThinkProgress:

Virginia Republicans took the first step to move a GOP plan to rig the Electoral College forward in that state. Similar plans are under consideration in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

The Republican election rigging plan targets blue states that President Obama won in 2008 and 2012, and changes the way they allocate electoral votes to give many of these votes away for free to the Republican candidate for president. Under the Republican Plan, most electoral votes will be allocated to the winner of individual Congressional districts, rather than to the winner of the state as a whole. Because the Republican Plan would be implemented in states that are heavily gerrymandered to favor Republicans, the resulting maps would all but guarantee that the Republican would win a majority of each state’s electoral votes, even if the Democratic candidate wins the state as a whole.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund released a white paper detailing how this Republican election-rigging plan works — including this rather striking visual demonstration of just how effectively Republicans gerrymandered six states that are likely targets of their plan:

From NYT:

A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday delayed full implementation of a highly contested state law requiring strict photographic identification to vote in next month’s election, saying that the authorities had not done enough to ensure that potential voters had access to the new documents.

The judge, Robert Simpson, who upheld the law in August when it was challenged by liberal and civil rights groups, was instructed by the state’s Supreme Court two weeks ago to hold further hearings. He was told to focus on the question of whether enough had been done to ensure “liberal access” to the picture ID cards or alternatives.

Judge Simpson said in his Tuesday ruling that for the presidential election of Nov. 6, voters in Pennsylvania could be asked to produce the newly required photo IDs, but if they did not have them could still go ahead and vote. The decision could still be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

“While we’re happy that voters in Pennsylvania will not be turned away if they do not have an ID, we are concerned that the ruling will allow election workers to ask for ID at the polls and this could cause confusion,” said Penda D. Hair, co-director of Advancement Project, one of the groups that challenged the law. “This injunction serves as a mere Band-Aid for the law’s inherent problems, not an effective remedy.”

From NBC:

The Republican National Committee has fired a controversial consulting firm it was paying millions of dollars to conduct voter registration in five battleground states, NBC News has learned.

The move came after the Palm Beach County, Fla., elections supervisor discovered 108 potentially fraudulent registration forms submitted by the GOP consulting firm, including suspected phony signatures and home addresses that matched those of a gas station, a medical building, and a Land Rover automotive dealership.

NBC News has learned that four other Florida counties have also reported hundreds of possible fraudulent registration forms submitted by the firm, including apparent dead people being registered as new voters.

Prosecutors in two counties are investigating possible voter fraud by the GOP consulting firm, officials said.

Wow. There just isn’t much to say here. Mitt Romney went brown face last night addressing a town hall meeting hosted by Univision in an attempt to court Latino voters. He was darker than the two Latino hosts of the event. Dios mio.

And cowardly Repugs with massive inferiority complexes lynch empty chairs:

From ThinkProgress:

A federal three-judge panel has struck down Texas’ restrictive voter ID law, finding it would suppress minority voting. The Department of Justice blocked the measure after it failed to get the pre-clearance required under the Voting Rights Act for states with a history of discrimination. The DOJ concluded that Latino voters would be disproportionately affected by the ID law.

Now, Judges Rosemary Collyer (a George W. Bush appointee), David Tatel, and Robert Wilkins have agreed, finding that the law “imposes strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor” and that “a disproportionately high percentage of African Americans and Hispanics in Texas live in poverty.”

Texas’ law is one of the most extreme of the voter ID laws that have become the new fad among Republican lawmakers in the past 2 years. Under its provisions, Texan voters who show up at the polls without ID would not even fill out a provisional ballot ; they would simply be turned away. The law also has a very specific list of allowed IDs. For instance, expired gun licenses from other states are considered valid, but student IDs and Social Security cards are not.

From Colorlines:

Bill Ouren (Truth the Votes coordinator) and Americans for Prosperity [Koch Brothers] gathered these recruits in Boca Raton in July to instruct them on how they could become “empowered” vessels for True the Vote’s poll watcher program. True the Vote is most widely known for its advocacy of restrictive photo voter ID laws. But while that might garner headlines, the group’s real focus is on policing the act of voting itself. As Ouren declared during the group’s national summit in April, and repeated again in Boca Raton, his recruits’ job is chiefly to make voters feel like they’re “driving and seeing the police following you.” He aims to recruit one million poll watchers around the country.

That’s an ambitious goal, and it’s easy to conclude Ouren’s eyes are bigger than his organizing stomach. But when you consider all of the eyes in True the Vote’s rapidly growing network, the goal may not be so far-fetched.

True the Vote’s emergence wasn’t an isolated event. Its rapid rise occurred in harmony with hundreds of other Tea Party groups across the nation, dozens of which exist in Texas alone and many of which have been “empowered” by True the Vote for “election integrity” kibitzing. It has plugged itself into an existing infrastructure of influential far right organizations hellbent on criminalizing abortion, banishing gun control, repealing the Affordable Care Act—and now, on intimidating would-be voters.

From USAToday:

They could turn a too-close-to-call race into a landslide for President Obama— but by definition they probably won’t.

Call them the unlikely voters.

A nationwide USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll of people who are eligible to vote but aren’t likely to do so finds that these stay-at-home Americans back Obama’s re-election over Republican Mitt Romney by more than 2-1. Two-thirds of them say they are registered to vote. Eight in 10 say the government plays an important role in their lives.

Even so, they cite a range of reasons for declaring they won’t vote or saying the odds are no better than 50-50 that they will: They’re too busy. They aren’t excited about either candidate. Their vote doesn’t really matter. And nothing ever gets done, anyway.

…

Many of these unlikely voters are suspicious of and disconnected from politics. In the survey, six in 10 say they don’t pay attention to politics because “nothing ever gets done”; 54% call politics “corrupt.” Only 39% could correctly name the vice president, Joe Biden. (By contrast, a Pew Research Center poll in 2010 found 59% of American adults could name the vice president.)

On the other hand, they do see a difference between the two major parties: 53% disagree with the statement that “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans.” Obama scores a huge advantage among all the unlikely voters. By 43%-18%, they support the Democratic incumbent over his Republican challenger.

“There’s this pool of people that Barack Obama doesn’t even need to persuade,” says David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, which took the survey. “All he needs to do is find them and identify them and get them to the polls. It’s like a treasure chest. But the bad news is that the treasure chest is locked. …

With [officially less than] 100 days to go until election day, Michelle Obama asks each of us to register to vote and get out the vote:

And with GOP voter suppression efforts and the recent passage of Voter ID laws in several states in high gear, educate yourself, friends, and family members on what documentation you need to obtain before going to the polls this year. If you don’t have proper ID, you can be turned away from the polls. The very point of these ID laws is to suppress votes by black, people of color, and the elderly. The republicans aren’t even hiding this anymore. A Florida Republican has straight up said the purpose of voter ID laws is to suppress the black vote. Here are a few resources you will need:

• Everything you ever wanted to know about voter ID laws
• GOT ID? Helping Americans Get Voter Identification
• 2012 Voter Education Materials
• Pennsylvania Fact Sheet on What You Will Need at the Polls
  Although the constitutionality of the recent Pennsylvania voter ID law is on trial and the DOJ is investigating, be prepared before election day with the necessary documents. In Pennsylvania you will need one of the following:
  • A U.S. Passport (or any ID issued by the United States government)
  • A PA driver’s license or a PA photo ID (or any ID issued by the Commonwealth of PA) NOTE: an ID issued by the Department of Transportation must not be more than 12 months past the expiration date
  • An ID issued to municipal employees by a PA city, county, borough, or town
  • An in-state college student ID card. The student ID card must show an expiration date.
  • An ID issued by a PA care facility, such as a nursing home, assisted-living home, or personal-care home
  • An ID issued to a veteran or current member of the U.S. Armed Forces branches or their reserves

Have you registered to vote? Register now, if you haven’t.

Barack Obama released a great ad last week called “The Choice.”

Mitt Romney made an ass of himself, embarrassed America, and shamed Anglo-saxon heritage this past week as well:

Did you also know that the guy in the You Didn’t Build That Romney Ad received millions in government money and also agrees with Obama? Check it out here.

Trying to reinvent the boogeyman while disregarding history and geography, the Romney campaign also warned about threats from the Soviet Union this week.

And finally, did you know that private jobs increase more when Democrats are in the White House?

Democrats hold the edge though they occupied the Oval Office for 23 years since Kennedy’s inauguration, compared with 28 for the Republicans. Through April, Democratic presidents accounted for an average of 150,000 additional private-sector paychecks per month over that period, more than double the 71,000 average for Republicans.

The debate over jobs intensified last week, when the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added a total of 115,000 private and government jobs in April, fewer than forecast and the smallest number in six months.

Private payrolls grew by 130,000 and, for the first time under President Barack Obama, surpassed the total in January 2009, when he took office.

And now Newsweek is asking if Romney is too insecure to be President.

Can you afford to make a $5 donation to Barack Obama? Click here. Can you afford to donate time to register voters, phone bank, or knock on doors? Get involved here.

Si se puede,
Seeta