Lizard People FTW!

As the Franken-Coleman recount continues apace in Minnesota, our friends at Minnesota Public Radio provide a few illustrative contested ballots for your viewing pleasure.

-- Evie Stone

3:29 PM ET | 11-20-2008 | permalink

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Turn This Mutha Out

A report by Curtis Gans and the American University Center for the Study of the American Electorate (CSAE) says that despite predictions of huge voter turnout at at the polls this year, the numbers for this election won't break any records -- and in fact were akin to 2004 levels. Gans blames "a downturn in the number and percentage of Republican voters going to the polls" for the lower-than-expected turnout.

Big money spent on ads, leaflets, canvassing and registering 10 million new voters, along with the sour economic climate, opposition to the war in Iraq and displeasure with the current administration drove up expectations for high voter turnout. Gans says he and many others "were fooled" by those indicators to think that voting levels would make turnout in recent elections seem nothing short of apathetic. Long lines at the polls and large numbers of early voters did little to sway that expectation.

CSAE estimates that between 126.5 million and 128.5 million Americans voted in this year's election. That projection places turnout at or slightly higher than 2004 levels, which CSAE reported as 60.7% of eligible voters. Using the CSAE model, anything over 61.0% would exceed turnout in 1964.

George Mason University Prof. Michael McDonald disagrees with CSAE's numbers. His estimate is 133.3 million ballots cast. And he says even that number is conservative and doesn't include many absentee and provisional ballots. Using McDonald's model this election's turnout rate "would be the largest since the 62.8% of 1964. If we top that number, which we might, the next highest turnout rate would be 63.8% in 1960."

-- Michael Olson

6:33 PM ET | 11- 6-2008 | permalink

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Shaking Hands, Scratching Backs

Election day isn't the end of the political process -- it involves retail politicking in its most basic form.

I watched Congressman Lacy Clay drive around Missouri's first district, which covers a big chunk of the city of St. Louis and the outlying suburbs. Clay makes a big point of driving the van that goes around the district, picking up senior citizens who need a ride to the polls. And as he performs this public service, Clay grabs every opportunity to shake hands.

This afternoon he went up and down the four hour long line outside Jennings city hall. Nearly everyone recognizes him, and they remember his father Bill Clay, who represented the district for 32 years, until he retired in 2000. They thank Clay for favors he's done for them over the years -- getting them jobs, whatever. If the line is too long, Clay shouts to his helpers to "get some more bottles of water over here". He doesn't want anyone losing patience and going home before voting.

Clay is the local Obama co-chair, and he wants his numbers in St. Louis to more than balance out the heavy McCain showing expected in nearby St. Charles County. Clay knows he has to deliver the votes he's promised to Obama, just as he has to use this opportunity to grab the voters themselves, right before they enter the booth and decide whether to give him another term.

-- Larry Abramson

6:26 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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No, You Cannot Vote Tomorrow

Voter deception efforts came into full bloom today, after some weeks of scattered evidence appearing around the country.

Election Protection says minority voters seem to be a prime target, which hardly news in this seamy corner of American politics. New voters are apparently targeted as well.

The most common trick is one we've already heard about: a message that Republicans should vote today, and Democrats (or Obama supporters) should vote tomorrow. That disinformation turned up in handbills in minority neighborhoods in several states. In the Tidewater area of Virginia, authorities found one fake notice bearing the Board of Election seal, but concluded it was an "office prank" and didn't investigate further.

This being the Internet age, a don't-vote-today email went out early this morning to 30,000 students at George Mason University in Northern Virginia: "Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you." A hacker sent the email from the account of University Provost Peter Stearns, who then scrambled to send out not one but two corrections.

Directives for Democrats to vote tomorrow also cropped up on FaceBook and in text messages. Rock The Vote, a group that's part of the Election Protection alliance, says it found messages circulating at Florida State University, Middle Georgia College and Missouri State, among others.

EP also says students at Drexel University in Philadelphia got notices that they could be arrested if they had outstanding parking tickets when they tried to vote.

In Virginia, the registrar in Blacksburg, where Virginia Tech is located, announced that students could lose financial aid eligibility if they registered to vote in Virginia. That's not what the law says. Since then, the main polling place for Virginia Tech students has been abruptly moved 6-1/2 miles away from the campus.

And in another tech twist, Barbara Arnwine of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (also in Election Protection) said robo-calls are telling voters that they can vote by touch-tone phone, either because they're established voters or because it's a way to avoid the long lines at polling places.

Election Protection lawyers said they've seen deceptive fliers and robo-calls in roughly a dozen states -- a big upswing from 2004.

Jonah Goldman of the Lawyers Committee said the deceptive practices seem mainly to be aimed at likely Obama voters. "That's a big part of what we're seeing," he said.

-- Peter Overby

6:10 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Phoenix Voting Snapshot

Less than three miles from the tony Biltmore Hotel and Spa where Senator John McCain will be giving his acceptance or concession speech this evening, we met Kathleen O'Leary working at a polling place.

This Phoenix neighborhood is primarily Caucasian, and O'Leary said the voters were quite chatty. She said that by 1pm Arizona time there were about 300 ballots cast in the precinct, and the voters she spoke to were divided about 50 -- 50 between McCain and Obama. Originally from the South Side of Chicago and an Obama supporter, she was happy the first voters to arrive at 5:30 this morning were African-American.

According to O'Leary, another young black man came in later with his mother and sister to vote. They were turned back for not having the correct identification. In Arizona voters are required to present either a photo ID or two pieces of identification without a picture. They returned a short time later with the proper identification and cast their ballots.

-- Amy Walters

5:53 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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New Hampshire Monitoring Issues

A New Hampshire judge has ruled in favor of GOP lawyers who filed a lawsuit against the New Hampshire Secretary of State, William Gardner, claiming that Republican election officials are illegally being kept away from new registration tables. New Hampshire allows same-day voter registration, and officials are expecting a record turnout of 750,000 voters, including 40,000 new registrants.

Monitors had been allowed at the check-in area, but not in the registration area. The Secretary of State's office says New Hampshire law doesn't require that -- but the court has sided with the GOP, and is instructing election officials to allow poll watchers to monitor voter registration. New Hampshire's Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlan says voting officials are now being told to allow the access. But he says he has concerns for voter privacy as they fill out forms containing confidential information. He is instructing poll workers to be sensitive to privacy issues.

The state Republican party has not alleged any fraudulent registration activity; they are just requesting access.

-- Tovia Smith

5:19 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Pennsylvania -- Problems Becoming Clearer

Here's a composite of what's being reported from Pennsylvania this afternoon:

Election Protection says it's recorded voting machine breakdowns in at least a dozen places, mainly in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. EP says it's hearing that in Pittsburgh, campaign materials are being distributed at the polls. That's illegal. And voters around the state say they never got the absentee ballots they'd applied for, so those voters are showing up to vote in person.

EP calls these major obstacles that could thwart thousands of voters.

We've also learned more specifics about Philadelphia's problems. Among them: Both machines down in one polling place at opening time, half the machines non-functional at another precinct, two-thirds of the machines out at yet another, and an absence or near-absence of paper ballots. In all, the list we saw included 15 Philadelphia polling places with defective machines.

And at another voting location, two would-be voters reported that 300 people in line were sent away this morning and told they could return when the doors opened at noon.

Overall, EP says "the situation has gotten a little bit better" since the morning. But the evening voting rush is just beginning.

-- Peter Overby

4:59 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Florida: No Hanging, Dimpled or Pregnant Chads This Year

Florida's top elections official says there have been very few voting problems in the state today. The presidential race in Florida (with its valuable 27 electoral votes) has tightened in the last week and is considered a toss-up. Secretary of State Kurt Browning says unlike eight years ago, he's heard of no major issues plaguing voters:

It's been a good day and I'm almost hesitant to say this: but it's been somewhat eerily quiet and that's a good thing. We're pleased. But we still have a 4 1/2 more hours to go and we'll see what the rest of our day holds.

Voters in Florida have to get used to a new way to vote this year -- they're using optical scan paper ballots. They replace the touchscreen machines used four years ago, which in turn replaced those problematic punch cards complete with all the hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads we remember from the 2000 election.

-- Russell Lewis and Greg Allen

4:26 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Michigan Dems Prepare For 'Knock And Drag' Phase

A little less than an hour before the polls close tonight, the Obama campaign will send its final shift of door-knockers out to the streets. In Michigan, the final mission of the day is called "knock and drag": if volunteers find a Democrat who hasn't voted, the volunteer is not to leave the doorstep until that person is off to the polling site.

The Obama campaign will also be sending volunteers out to busy precincts to keep voters from giving up. Some will be bringing water and snacks for waiting-weary voters.

-- Rick Pluta, MPRN

4:23 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Ohio Double Bubble Problem

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner says they've found that, with so many new voters in the state who aren't used to paper ballots, some are filling in the bubble next to their candidate AND ALSO writing their candidate's name in the section that says "Write In Candidates" (taking that as a command).

Elections officials here in Ohio are calling this a "double bubble." And it's dealt with in two different ways. Some machines count a ballot like this as an "overvote" and just spit the ballot back out. In that case the election official can look at the ballot and determine voter intent. In the other, more complicated case, the machine counts it as an "overvote" and therefore null, but KEEPS the ballot. Secretary of State Brunner issued a directive today that, after the unofficial results are announced tonight, the local Boards of Election in each of Ohio's 88 counties should go back through all the votes in every machine and find these double-bubble ballots, and then try to determine voter intent and count the votes.

-- Andrea Seabrook

3:49 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Hours Extended At One NC Precinct

The Raleigh News & Observer reports that one North Carolina precinct will keep the polls open an extra hour tonight:

Voters at the Barwell Road Community Center in Raleigh will get an extra hour to vote -- until 8:30 p.m. -- because of a delay in balloting this morning. An election official who was dropped off there this morning left the ballots in her grandson's truck, and she had to track him down, Poucher said. That delayed voting by just over half an hour and kept about 300 people waiting.

-- Evie Stone

h/t Adam Hochberg

3:48 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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St. Louis -- The Wait

NPR's Larry Abramson reports lines up to five -- count 'em 5 -- hours long in St. Louis County, MO. That's as of 1 p.m. Said to be the fault of high turnout, low preparation.

-- Peter Overby

1:56 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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As You Vote

Today's voting day and so maybe you're taking the afternoon off from work. In case you'd like to make new friends in your (potentially) long wait at the polls, here are some conversation-starters:

Make 'em laugh: an end to canvassing.
Make 'em cry: her vote will count.
Make 'em go whoa: horse-racing.
Make 'em go vote: freebies.

-- Thomas Pierce

12:21 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Two Problem Spots?

Election Protection -- the alliance of legal and issue groups monitoring election problems -- just held its first of three press briefings today, and two problem spots emerged.

They're both significant.

Election Protection says more than 1,000 complaints have come in from Virginia, and EP lawyers are talking with the Virginia Elections Board. Virginia finds itself a battleground state for the first time since 1964.

Hillsborough County, FL, is the other area that kept coming up in the EP discussion, apparently due to major problems with voting machines. Hillsborough includes Tampa and sits at the western end of I-4. The I-4 corridor across Florida is the most hard-fought turf in the swing state.

This isn't to say everything's smooth as glass elsewhere. EP reports machine breakdowns in New Jersey, especially in minority areas; "massive" problems with old-fashioned lever machines in New York; and a shortage of paper ballots in Pennsylvania, another state that's registered more than 1,000 complaints already today.

-- Peter Overby

12:07 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Vote Suppression Allegations

Two of them.

From Orlando, FL, a police officer is allegedly asking voters for ID at precinct 735, Woodbridge. This from the Advancement Project, a civil-rights legal group.

And from Los Angeles, there's a rumor that robocalls are targeting Hispanic voters, telling them they can only vote between 2 and 4 pm.

More about these as details emerge.

-- Peter Overby

11:46 AM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Help NPR Identify Voting Problems

On election day, NPR is participating in Vote Report, a national network of volunteer programmers and bloggers interested in using the Internet to identify potential voting problems across the country. If you experience any problems such as unusual delays, voting machine breakdowns, etc. you can share your experience using your mobile phone and help us identify trends as they happen.

There are several ways you can participate in the project:

Texting: Send us a text message at 66937 and begin it with the phrase #votereport. (Be sure you don't forget the pound sign.) Include your ZIP code and a very brief description of the problem. You can include other keywords to help pinpoint the problem; see npr.org/votereport for more info.

Voicemail: Call (567) 258-VOTE (8683) from any phone and record a message.

Twitter: Send a tweet with the phrase #votereport, then include your ZIP code and description. There are other keywords you can include as well.

iPhone and Google Phone: We've create an iPhone app you can download from the Education section of the iPhone app store on your phone. There is a Google Phone/Android version as well.

YouTube: In conjunction with PBS and YouTube's Video Your Vote project, you can upload a video and report any problems you experience.

This map will display a continuously updating snapshot of the most recent reports, and you can check out state-by-state maps as well.

Of course, you should also alert local election officials if you'd like to file a complaint. Also, please be mindful of any local restrictions on using your mobile phone at the polling place; you may have to file your report after you leave the premises.

For more information, please visit NPR's Vote Report home page.

-- Andy Carvin

4:28 PM ET | 11- 3-2008 | permalink

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Voting Early

I voted yesterday. But it took a little bit of effort. I live in Alabama which is one of about 20 states that doesn't allow early voting. My southern neighbors have turned out in droves: at last count, 1.8 million people have voted in North Carolina. One-quarter of Georgia's voters have already cast ballots. Florida's Governor, Charlie Crist, extended early voting hours because so many people have jammed polling places.

Alabama residents aren't so lucky. You can vote absentee if you'll be out of town on Election Day or qualify for a few narrow exemptions. In an era when we try to encourage people to vote, some question why we don't do more to help them do their democratic duty. Four years ago, 22% of voters cast early ballots. This election, the experts predict that number may be as high as 35%. And it seems anything that can be done to lessen lines or problems on election day would be a good thing.

Still, when I voted yesterday at the county courthouse in downtown Birmingham, there were about 100 people in line. White, black, Latino. Old, middle-aged and first-time voters. Even in a state like Alabama, where John McCain enjoys a comfortable 20-point lead in the polls, people seemed excited to cast ballots in this election -- even if they had to jump over some voting hurdles.

-- Russell Lewis

3:31 PM ET | 10-30-2008 | permalink

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ACORN: Awash In Legal Filings

The battle over ACORN -- the Obama-friendly grassroots group that's registered 1.3 million voters -- hasn't let up since Wednesday night. That was when McCain said the group may be "destroying the fabric of democracy."

Today the Obama campaign called for an investigation by special prosecutor Nora Dannehy. She's already looking into the 2007 dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, some of whom were ousted after they declined to prosecute voter fraud cases.

Obama lawyer Bob Bauer said the Justice Department, McCain campaign and Republican National Committee have formed "an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics," to wage "a war on voters." He's asking for an investigation, and in the process links McCain with one of the Bush administration's bigger scandals.

More about this and other ACORN news is at the Secret Money Project blog. C'mon over.

-- Peter Overby

5:51 PM ET | 10-17-2008 | permalink

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SCOTUS Backs OH Secretary Of State In Registration Dispute

The Supreme Court has issued a decision backing Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in her dispute with the state GOP over voter registrations. The Court's ruling overturns a Tuesday decision by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that would have required the Secretary of State's office to provide local officials with a list of recently registered voters whose registration information doesn't match their drivers' license numbers or Social Security cards. That list apparently includes about 200,000 of the 666,000 Ohioans who have registered this year.

The Ohio GOP says they are trying to prevent fraud in a state that could be crucial on November 4th. The Democrats say most of the discrepancies are due to clerical errors, and the Republicans' case is merely an effort to disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters. It's worth noting that the GOP has not provided any specific evidence of voter fraud, and proven cases of fraud are historically very rare -- despite being the subject of spirited debate every election season.

The Court's decision today was not based on the merit's of the Ohio GOP complaint. Rather, it says the party was not eligible to file the suit in the first place.

-- Evie Stone

1:56 PM ET | 10-17-2008 | permalink

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Things Heat Up in Ohio

The battle over Ohio's newly registered voters is intensifying. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, is now appealing yesterday's ruling by the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal was filed directly with Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens who oversees the 6th Circuit Court. As NPR's Libby Lewis reported this morning, the language in the appeal is dramatic. An excerpt: "Ohio Secretary of state Jennifer Brunner urgently asks this court to restore order to Ohio's election."

Yesterday's 9-6 decision required the Secretary of State's office to provide each of Ohio's 88 election boards access to a database that contains names of new voters whose registration information doesn't jive with state or federal databases. The ruling is considered a victory for the Ohio Republican Party. As I noted in yesterday's post, it's unclear how -- and when -- the counties will proceed.

-- Sean Bowditch

UPDATE: The SCOTUSblog weighs in: "Justice Stevens may act without asking state GOP officials to respond, or wait until there is a response. He also has the option of sharing a decision with his Court colleagues, or acting alone."

1:32 PM ET | 10-16-2008 | permalink

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Gettin' Messy in Ohio

Ohio is proving to be a battleground state in more ways than one. The Ohio Republican Party and the Secretary of State's office continue to feud over thousands of newly registered voters -- 600,000 since January, according to the AP. In the most recent development, the Ohio GOP is requesting from the state's 88 county election boards the registration records of thousands of voters who registered and cast ballots in the state during a seven-day window earlier this month.

This move comes on the heels of yesterday's court ruling. The full 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals said Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must provide each election board access to a database listing those new voters whose registration information does not jive with other state or federal databases. That number is estimated to be around 200,000. This decision reverses the finding of a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court issued last week. Brunner must comply with the order by Friday.

Complicated, I know. But the central question remains: what now? There's no easy answer. It's unclear what county election officials will do with the information once they get it and, perhaps more to the point, what Brunner will advise them to do. And the clock is ticking. Loudly.

h/t NPR's Pam Fessler

-- Sean Bowditch

7:44 PM ET | 10-15-2008 | permalink

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For Republicans, It's the Nut of the Problem

The RNC is holding not 1, not 2, not 3 but... wait for it... 4 different conference calls today on the ACORN voter fraud allegations. NPR's Pam Fessler says they've been holding at least one conference call a day on the issue. But with four different calls focusing on four different states (North Carolina, Minnesota, Florida, and Missouri), our media-meter registers that as a "lather."

As Loyola Law School's Rick Hasen said in Pam's story last night, the Republicans might use the issue as an "insurance policy" if election results in certain states are very close. If today's press conferences are any indication, RNC lawyers might already be looking at flights to the "Show-Me", "Sunshine", "Tar-Heel", and "North Star" states, respectively.

As NPR's Peter Overby reminded us this morning, the latest attacks on ACORN are nothing new. Conflicts over the group forced Countrywide Financial to help cash-strapped homeowners out of subprime loans and fought to stop the use of state funds to build a sports arena in Philadelphia. They even got an assist at a 2006 rally from their current critic John McCain, who joined the group to push an immigration reform bill.

-- Kyle Gassiott

1:07 PM ET | 10-15-2008 | permalink

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Potato, Po-tah-to...Terrorist

Not helping the confusion about Obama's "bloodlines"...via AP:

TROY, N.Y. - Osama, Obama? What's the difference? Not much, in an upstate New York county where hundreds of voters were sent absentee ballots in which they could vote for "Barack Osama."

Oops.

Hundreds of absentee ballots sent to voters in Rensselaer County identified the two presidential candidates as "Barack Osama" and "John McCain."

Commissioners for the Rensselaer County Board of Elections say they "regret the error," but do not acknowledge in a statement what the error was.

The botched ballots were first reported by the Times-Union of Albany.

-- Evie Stone

h/t Margot Adler

3:56 PM ET | 10-10-2008 | permalink

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Montana GOP Drops Voter Challenges

The Montana Republican Party has dropped a controversial effort to challenge thousands of state voters, after Democrats and some challenged voters filed suit on Monday. The challenges were filed against almost six thousand voters last week after the GOP said it had compared registrations in seven counties against a national change-of-address-form database. Republican officials said it appeared that the individuals had moved and should have their registrations questioned to insure against fraud. But most of the challenged voters lived in Democratic-leaning areas, such as Missoula, leading the Democratic Party to cry foul. The Republicans said those areas were just where they found the most problems, and they also planned to check the rest of the state for more challenges.

But last night, Jacob Eaton, the executive director of the Montana GOP, sent a letter to county election officials saying they would drop the challenges. Eaton cited the perception that the action was meant to intimidate voters, though he maintained that the challenges were filed in good faith.

It didn't help, though, that some of those challenged had perfectly good reasons for filing a change of address form, including one Army reservist on his way to Iraq who said he was having his mail forwarded to his parents' house while he was deployed.

-- Pam Fessler

12:25 PM ET | 10- 8-2008 | permalink

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Voter Challenges From Montana GOP

Montana Republicans are challenging the eligibility of thousands of voters in the state, only weeks before the November election. The state GOP says it compared the names of voters in seven counties against a national change of address database, and found that six thousand of them had filed forms with the U.S. Postal Service indicating that they'd moved somewhere else. Bridger Pierce, communications director for the state party, says Republicans are just trying to protect against voter fraud, and if the challenged voters can show they're still registered in the right place, they'll have no problem on Election Day.

But The Missoulian, a local newspaper, notes that most of the challenged voters are in Democratic strongholds. Pierce says that's because that's where most of the problems are, but voting rights advocates say it's an effort by Republicans to suppress the vote and cause confusion on Election Day. Teresa James, an attorney with the national group Project Vote called the challenges "baseless" and said they're "just the latest in a long series of voter caging operations designed to intimidate voters and winnow voting lists to the challengers' liking."

Meanwhile, county election officials are busy trying to notify the challenged voters so they have a chance to straighten things out by Election Day. This could be the beginning of similar challenges around the country.

-- Pam Fessler

3:43 PM ET | 10- 3-2008 | permalink

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License Plates Monitored at OH Early Voting Site

NPR's Robert Smith is in Columbus, Ohio reporting on the early voting there. He contacted our voting issues expert Pam Fessler after he saw some fishy behavior...Pam explains:

Robert told me he saw two older women taking down the license plate numbers of cars going to the early vote site (Veterans Memorial) in Columbus, Ohio today. They refused to tell him who they were or why they were doing it. I just checked with the Election Protection people who are covering Ohio. They said they got a handful of calls today from Franklin County voters complaining (or reporting) that people with clipboards were taking down license plate numbers. The lawyer at Election Protection (Ami Sanchez of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights) said they've contacted the Franklin County Board of Elections to alert them. The BOE responded that they were keeping an eye on it. But Ami noted that there's nothing to prevent someone from doing this if they stay outside the zone where electioneering is prohibited. Sanchez said it can be "disconcerting" for voters to have someone writing down information about you.

No kidding!

Apparently AP reporters saw similar activity (people photographing license plates) at Veterans Memorial. Their story says the operatives are Republican lawyers. But on a conference call today, Ohio GOP Deputy Chair Kevin DeWine said he didn't know who was behind the license plate tracking -- though he did say the party would be "keeping an eye" on early polling places to guard against fraud.

The Republicans held the call to object to a "Barack the Vote" registration drive planned for a Columbus bar. A flyer advertising the event promised a waived cover and open bar for registered voters and new registrants, courtesy of the host establishment -- but it's illegal in Ohio to offer anything of value in return for voter registration. The Franklin County prosecutor contacted the bar about the legal issue after the state GOP forwarded them the flyer, and the event's Facebook page has deleted any reference to the free drinks.

-- Evie Stone

4:54 PM ET | 09-30-2008 | permalink

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ACORN's Registration Practices Draw RNC Criticism

The Republican National Committee is ratcheting up its attacks on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN, as the group is known, is a nonprofit -- representing low-income and minority communities -- that's been registering hundreds of thousands of new voters this year. But ACORN keeps getting into trouble because some of its registrations turn out to be fraudulent -- with fake names or addresses.

In a conference call with reporters this morning (Wednesday), RNC chief counsel Sean Cairncross didn't mince words. He called ACORN a "quasi-criminal" organization that's trying to create chaos at polling sites in November. He said it was especially "disturbing" that the group has links to the Obama campaign (the Democratic nominee did some work with ACORN in the 1990s). This is the second time in a week that the RNC has held a conference call blasting the group, which focuses on communities that are more likely to vote Democratic.

Mike Slater is the executive director of Project Vote, which helps ACORN with its voter registration drives. He says it's the Republicans who are causing confusion and misleading voters. He says the RNC has distorted the group's record, and that actually ACORN is the one pointing out registration problems to local election officials. Slater says ACORN is the victim of a few bad workers (it hires people at $8.00 an hour) who are trying to defraud them. He adds: "It's like the RNC having a news conference every time a Wal-Mart employee is fired for theft."

In fact, several local election officials contacted by NPR say that ACORN is trying to clean up its act -- there still are problems with false registrations, but they make up a small percentage of those turned in by the group. At the very least, there's a lot of sloppiness with the registration forms. And sorting through them eats up election officials' time as they try to prepare for what's expected to be an extraordinarily busy election.

-- Pam Fessler

2:03 PM ET | 09-24-2008 | permalink

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A House Of Cards?

The Obama campaign has filed a complaint in federal court to halt an alleged GOP plan to challenge Michigan voters whose registration is linked to a foreclosed home, or a home in the process of foreclosure.

A member of the Macomb County Republican Party tells the Detroit Free Press that last week's report alleging the tactic, which appeared on the political news website the Michigan Messenger, was unfounded. He says the Michigan GOP does plan to send thousands of challengers to polling places on Election Day, but they won't base their challenges on foreclosure lists.

Obama attorney Bob Bauer dismisses the Republican denials. He told Michigan Radio:

"It is not only in Michigan we're seeing this, because this is consistent with a pattern and practice of the Republican Party across the country, as it has been their pattern and practice for decades. And, we have seen the same indication of the use of foreclosure lists in the state of Ohio."

Michigan Radio also reports that a Macomb County GOP official is threatening a libel suit against the Michigan Messenger.

-- Michael Olson

4:46 PM ET | 09-16-2008 | permalink

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New Mexico Voting Rights Challenge

Voting rights advocates filed suit today in Albuquerque to challenge a state law they call "one of the most chilling and restrictive voter registration laws in the country."

The 2005 law requires volunteers who want to participate in registration drives to pre-register and submit an affidavit to the state; register no more than 50 voters at a time (unless they get special permission to take more registration forms); and turn in completed forms within 48 hours of picking them up at local election offices. Volunteers who knowingly break the rules can be slapped with fines or jailtime.

The plaintiffs say there is little or no evidence of voter fraud in New Mexico, and that the restrictions will severely limit the registration efforts of independent groups and disproportionately reduce voter participation in the communities they focus on: minorities, low-income voters, and the disabled.

New Mexico promises to be hotly contested this November. Bush narrowly carried the state in 2004; Gore won it by a tiny margin in 2000. A few thousand more registered voters could tip the balance.

-- Evie Stone

2:10 PM ET | 07-24-2008 | permalink

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