AP:

Many Americans endured long lines to vote. Tim Robbins had to get a court order before he was allowed to cast his vote for president.

The 50-year-old actor's voting woes began Tuesday morning when he ran into trouble at his polling station: His name was missing from the registration rolls. He said his name was nowhere to be found on the books at a YMCA in downtown Manhattan, where he'd previously voted in presidential elections.

"I had been voting there for years," he said in a telephone interview. "I have not moved, I have not changed party affiliations. There's no reason why it shouldn't be in the rolls. So I was given a paper ballot and filled it out, but I wanted my vote to be registered there — and I don't trust paper ballots."

Robbins, who lives with partner Susan Sarandon and has been registered to vote in New York since 1988, said he doesn't trust paper or affidavit ballots because "oftentimes those things get lost or thrown away." So he did not submit his and asked to speak to a supervisor.

"I stayed in the voting place and asked to see someone from the Board of Elections and told them I wasn't going to leave until someone from the Board of Elections came and explained to me why I wasn't being allowed to vote — why my name had been taken off the voter rolls."

The supervisor said a police officer had been called over, he said, "at which point, I said to him, `Are you trying to intimidate me?'" The police at the location said he had "every right to be there," said Robbins, well-known as a liberal activist who even played a candidate running for the Senate in "Bob Roberts," a 1992 film he also wrote and directed.

Police said there was no police involvement.

After hours of waiting, Robbins said he was told to visit the board's downtown office, which confirmed what he knew to be true: He's a registered voter. A judge then issued a court order allowing him to vote — and that he did, at the same location where his trouble began.

It ended up taking five hours for Robbins to vote. While it's somewhat tongue-in-cheek to say that of course someone as outspoken as Robbins would be stricken wrongly off the voting rolls, it's something else he said that should give pause: according to Robbins, 30 others got the same message. How many of them would have the wherewithal or the free time to fight for their right to vote as Robbins did? How many others in other precincts experienced the same? Never underestimate the importance of that one vote.

I actually voted a couple of weeks ago. I sat down with my husband and we dutifully marked our early voting ballots and made our voices heard. Today, I drove some seniors to their precinct to help make sure that their voices were heard as well. And on the drive, I talked with them about what a historic day it was. Almost to a one, these seniors talked about their impressions of the campaign season and how important it was to them to vote today, more so than any other time in their lives. It was almost a cathartic experience for us all. I realized how much weight and stress I've been carrying for the last eight years and what a relief I felt--almost a tangible sense of weight being lifted--to be able to come out and say I want this country to change.

The world is watching us and waiting just as anxiously. I communicate with a fantastic group of women writers from all over the world and our conversations of late have been all about the elections. One Canadian writer (still mourning the results of their own most recent elections) wrote this, and I think it sums up exactly why I support a progessive agenda:

When I vote, I vote for all the children in my country who need to go to school and who need to go to a hospital.

I vote for children who don't get to decide who their parents are -- they don't get to decide if they are born to a nice, caring family, they don't get to decide if they are born with Autism or Down's Syndrome or a learning or physical disability, they don't get to decide if their parents live near a factory with smoke stacks or if their parents are alcoholics or abuse drugs. There is no reason for a child not to have the same basic health and educational opportunities, regardless of who their parents are because I live in a country, like yours, that should be able to afford that.

I felt that way before I had children but when I did have them, it only reinforced it. My son has a disorder and because we were financially capable of me being home, of getting private speech and occupational therapy, of being able to learn the therapies ourselves, he's entered school in the best possible situation for him. We have that money and time, so many others don't... and while it was expensive now, I know he will turn into a productive, creative member of society instead of being limited and potentially a burden to the social safety net.

I don't understand people's narrow-minded view of taxes and being a little "socialistic". It's happening here in my country too so I'm pretty emotional about it. So much of what I read about those who have issues with Obama's ideas sound so much like greed and selfishness. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be rich! I am not against making money and I can't stop an adult from screwing up their lives, but I will always vote for a positive outlook and a government that is attempting to make all lives better.

That it exactly. After eight years of Bush, something I've apologized to my children for over and over, I am voting to make things better for my children and for your children, even the ones yet to be born. The positive changes in this country (the New Deal, civil rights, women's right to vote) have taken place when Democrats were in office and we need those positive changes now to undo the mess we're in.

The Politico has invited people to share their voting experiences. I think this one from Marian Wright Edelman is noteworthy:

A cartoon published in the early 1960s depicted a Black boy saying to a White boy: "I’ll sell you my chance to be President of the United States for a nickel." At the time the cartoon appeared, Barack Obama was a toddler. There were only five Black Members of Congress and about 300 Black elected officials nationwide. The Voting Rights Act hadn’t been passed and the overwhelming majority of Black Southerners were disenfranchised.

On the ballot this morning was a Black man for President of the United States, marking the culmination of a long evolutionary struggle for political empowerment among disenfranchised Americans. My fellow voters—of all races in every corner for America—will consider Obama’s presidential candidacy on the basis of his proposals, his vision and his intelligence.

This is a world-defining and nation-defining election. This morning as I stood in line to vote, I was moved by the realization that finally this is the day on which my fellow Americans are willing to do what Dr. King envisioned: vote for a President based on the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.

So ask everyone you know, did you vote for Barack Obama today?

It looks like FOX News and the wingnutosphere has made PA their battle ground. After the top video story turned out to be nothing at all, they went in this direction.

The Black Panthers are coming! Even though African Americans vote here 4-1...

We're all for fair elections. The right wingers suddenly got interested in it when John McCain got behind in the polls.

Greg Sargent has thoroughly debunked the story anyway:

Fox News and other conservatives on the Web are pushing hard on the story that two black panthers may be intimidating voters at a polling place in north Philadelphia. But an Obama campaign volunteer who's been on the scene since 6:30 AM this morning tells me in a phone interview that there's been absolutely no intimidation of voters at all today. And a Pennsylvania spokesperson for Obama said the two men aren't in any way affiliated with the campaign

"There was no fight, nothing," she says.

Fox News arrived on the scene at around that time and started interviewing people near the entrance. The building manager asked the Fox reporter to leave, she says, and he moved further from the entrance. That's where things now stand. "There has been no fighting, no voter intimidation at all," she said.

I touch wood everytime I say or write that it now looks as nearly certain as it can be that Obama will be the next President of the United States. But, of course, Obama is correct that all the polling in the world is meaningless if people decide that they can stay home on Election Day because Obama is going to win anyway. So get out there.

And while you're at it, make sure you know your rights and be on the look out for vote supression tricks. The Obama campaign has a new video on the GOP's voter supression campaign - because the lower the vote the better it is for Republicans. They thrive in a climate of disenfranchisement.

Despite all their accusations, even the McCain campaign admit they can't make the voter fraud claim stick:

For weeks, Republican leaders have warned that widely reported problems with fake voter registrations could result in a flood of phony votes in pivotal states.

But Ronald Michaelson, a veteran election administrator and member of the McCain-Palin Honest and Open Election Committee, said in an interview that he could not name a single instance in which this had occurred.

“Do we have a documented instance of voting fraud that resulted from a phony registration form? No, I can’t cite one, chapter and verse,” he said.

Which makes their accusations a form of fraud in its own right, doesn't it? One that's been falsely used to fuel "Republicans’ invocation of legal power to scrutinize voters, demands for U.S. Justice Department intervention and court orders, and criminal investigations."

But make no mistake - if the Republican's can't steal the election through voter suppression and voting irregularities they'll use that failure as an excuse to accuse Democrats of stealing it. The McCain campaign and Republicans have already trotted out dozens of excuses but there's only one reason McCain will lose - Obama is the better man for the job.

[ Find Your Polling Place | Voting Info For Your State | Know Your Voting Rights | Report Voting Problems ]

As expected, Latino voters are turning away from the Republican party in droves.

As has happened at different points throughout United States history, New Americans — immigrants and the children of immigrants — are changing the face of the electorate. And apparently they aren’t too happy with the way their communities are being treated. This may in the end decide the outcome of the presidential election.

In a report released today, the Immigration Policy Center points out that New Americans are big voting blocs in key swing states, including: 14.8% of the electorate in Nevada and 14% in Florida. IPC also notes that Latinos and Asians together account for 31.5% of all registered voters in New Mexico, 16.2% in Nevada, 12.6% in Florida, and 11.1% in Colorado.

Most daunting for those politicians who have chosen to scapegoat immigrants — according to a Pew Hispanic Center poll this summer, 75% of Latino voters view the immigration issue as important or very important.

Once again I want to thank the Republican led House of Representatives and the ex-Rep. Sennsenbrenner for making this shift possible. If you're Latino, Please vote and go in groups of at least four because they will try and intimidate you.

Greg Palast's book: Armed Madhouse is a good read.

Intimidation is a big part of Republican strategy to keep turn out low. Latinos should band together and show up to vote in groups of at least four so that they won't be intimidated when someone tries to deny them the right to legally vote. Republicans are deathly afraid of the Latino influence in elections ever since Sennsenbrenner tried to call them all felons and the radical right shot down any attempt to get an immigration deal. Why do you think Rove and Bush tried to pass that legislation?

Greg and Robert Kennedy, Jr. have a new article out in Rolling Stone called: Block The Vote:

This November, what happened to Maez will happen to hundreds of thousands of voters across the country. In state after state, Republican operatives — the party's elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics — are wielding new federal legislation to systematically disenfranchise Democrats. If this year's race is as close as the past two elections, the GOP's nationwide campaign could be large enough to determine the presidency in November. "I don't think the Democrats get it," says John Boyd, a voting-rights attorney in Albuquerque who has taken on the Republican Party for impeding access to the ballot. "All these new rules and games are turning voting into an obstacle course that could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states."

These 7 steps come from the website: Steal Back Your Vote. You can watch it too...

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I was on the conference call with the Obama campaign that addressed this issue:

The General Counsel of the Obama campaign is currently holding a media conference call to "Announce Major Action Taken Today To Address Illegal Conduct and Improprieties in the Sham "Anti-Fraud" Campaign Orchestrated By McCain-Palin and the RNC."

I have the letter they sent out. I'll post it soon. They are taking it very seriously. Digby has been asking to hear from David Iglesias about the phony election fraud charges that the McCain campaign has been pushing. They are trying to demand an FBI investigation of Voter Fraud against ACORN. This is actually all about registration and not actual voting. Digby says:

The US Attorney scandals and this ACORN nonsense are pieces of the same story.

If you remember the Attorney firing scandal revolved around the fact that people like David Iglesias would not go after phony voter fraud cases pushed by Republicans.

He spoke out on it.

David Iglesias says he's shocked by the news, leaked today to the Associated Press, that the FBI is pursuing a voter-fraud investigation into ACORN just weeks before the election.

"I'm astounded that this issue is being trotted out again," Iglesias told TPMmuckraker. "Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it's a scare tactic." In 2006, Iglesias was fired as U.S. attorney thanks partly to his reluctance to pursue voter-fraud cases as aggressively as DOJ wanted -- one of several U.S. attorneys fired for inappropriate political reasons, according to a recently released report by DOJ's Office of the Inspector General.

Iglesias, who has been the most outspoken of the fired U.S. attorneys, went on to say that the FBI's investigation seemed designed to inappropriately create a "boogeyman" out of voter fraud.

And he added that it "stands to reason" that the investigation was launched in response to GOP complaints. In recent weeks, national Republican figures -- including John McCain at last night's debate -- have sought to make an issue out of ACORN's voter-registration activities.

Whenever Republicans bring up anything about Voter fraud it's always targeted to disenfranchise voters and not protect our voting rights.

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I don't like some of this ACORN stuff either, but it's small potatoes compared to what Republicans have been doing for decades and to try and link it to Obama is nuts. Registering and voting are two different things. Republicans use the Ken Blackwell method of purging the voting rolls every chance they get. Sometimes they can count on the Supreme Court to do their bidding. Case in point The Indiana Voter ID law....You can hear my Rachel Maddow interview on it here. And what I find really insulting is the idea that Ken Blackwell himself is actually trying to make a case involving Voter fraud. Now that is laughable..

And yes, in case you were curious, that's the same Ken Blackwell who was Ohio's secretary of state in 2004. The same Ken Blackwell who worked himself into infamy by actually directing his office to reject voter registrations based on the weight of the paper used. And yes, the same Ken Blackwell who was embarrassed in 2006, when he lost the race to be his state's governor by 23 percentage points -- but only after his supporters challenged the eligibility of Blackwell's opponent

Steven Rosenfeld writes: California GOP had Same Voter Registration Problems as ACORN in 2006

Faked names on voter registration forms. Error rates as high as 60 percent. Firing the people responsible for these errors. Investigations launched by local and state police. Sound familiar? This is not ACORN in the 2008 election's final days.
This is the California Republican Party and its contractors in 2006, when the same problems that are now dogging ACORN and providing political fodder for GOP attacks plagued an effort by California Republicans to register 750,000 people.
The details were all spelled out in a series of Los Angeles Times stories, which quoted former California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres saying these kinds of errors are inevitable "when you use private vendors." Even the state's top election official in 2006, Republican Bruce McPherson, was forced to investigate his own party's actions...read on

And Editor & Publisher has a great piece about it and asks: why does it seem to be a greater sin to be suspected of voter registration mistakes than to publicly engage in voter suppression efforts?

Accusations of voter fraud by the pro-Obama progressive group ACORN. It's the subject all the rightwing bloggers are going nuts over and now they've been joined in their prosecutory zeal by the Wall Street Journal. But looking closely at the outrage, it becomes obvious very quickly that if there is a problem at all then, "the more accurate accusation may be voter-registration fraud -- for which there appears to be plenty of checks in place to guarantee it doesn't turn into some actual voter fraud."

The McCain-Palin campaign is being careful in its wording, limiting its direct accusations while hinting at far more. A current fundraising email under Sarah Palin's signature says:

The left-wing activist group, ACORN, is now under investigation for voter registration fraud in a number of battleground states. ACORN's political action committee has endorsed Barack Obama and Senator Obama himself has said, "I have been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career." The Obama Campaign even paid more than $800,000 to an ACORN affiliate for "get out the vote activity." And now we find out that ACORN is suspected of voter registration fraud.

... We've always known the Obama-Biden Democrats will do anything to win this November, but we didn't know how far their allies would go. The Obama-supported, far-left group, ACORN, has been accused of voter registration fraud in a number of battleground states.

The media, in the main, are only too happy to pile on - as this compilation of reports by a rightwing YouTuber illustrates:

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At a DC press conference this morning, the GOP trotted out two elder statesmen to do its dirty work – former senators John Danforth and Warren Rudman. Echoing accusations made by McCain and the RNC against the community organizing group ACORN, they falsely warned that voter fraud could throw the election into chaos.

With a straight face Danforth said that 2008 could be like 2000 if we don’t act now. But I’m sorry, wasn’t 2000 when his party strong-armed the recount and disenfranchised thousands of Floridians? But never mind that.

In fact, today’s press conference was just the latest effort by the GOP to justify voter suppression under the guise of so-called election integrity. As in the past, Republicans have latched onto a few colorful but insignificant examples – e.g. a man who was registered to vote 73 times and a 7-year-old child who was registered – to advocate for draconian enforcement measures that disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters, typically minority and low-income voters.

But there are already safeguards in place that prevent people who submit fraudulent voter registrations from actually voting. In fact, there is no evidence of significant voter fraud of any variety anywhere in the nation. At the urging of the GOP, the Justice Department sought evidence of fraud but came up empty-handed.

However, there is evidence for significant vote suppression and disenfranchisement. As the New York Times reported last week: “Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law.” This is what Danforth and Rudman would have talked about today if they really cared about election integrity.

They also would have talked about the various barriers to voting that members of their party have erected, like rejecting voter registration forms not printed on 80-pound bond paper or requiring names on voter registration forms to exactly match records in existing databases (e.g. Mike R. Neuman would be rejected if listed elsewhere as Michael R. Neuman). Or how about the strict voter ID laws put in place by Republicans? They seem reasonable enough, until you consider that millions of voting-age Americans (perhaps as high as 10%) do not have driver’s licenses.

The logic behind the GOP’s efforts is as simple as it is undemocratic: the fewer people who vote, the better off Republicans candidates will be. When you hear Republicans talk about vote fraud, here’s what they really mean:

Kathryn Kolbert is President of People For the American Way.

The Bus Project saw that hacky special by John Stossel suggesting that maybe we shouldn't allow young people the right to vote and they decided that they were mad enough to get even.

Love the correspondent's moustache. So Stossel-like.

You can join The Bus Project to mobilize the youth vote (and hell, encourage people of all ages to get out and vote) and have fun too with their Trick or Vote! campaign.

And so it begins.

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.

Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. The screening or trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.

Some states allow such voters to cast provisional ballots. But they are often not counted because they require added verification...read on

Republicans know that when mistakes are made they always hurt the Democratic Party. That's just a fact.

Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio seem to be improperly using Social Security data to verify registration applications for new voters.

In addition to the six swing states, three more states appear to be violating federal law. Alabama and Georgia seem to be improperly using Social Security information to screen registration applications from new voters. And Louisiana appears to have removed thousands of voters after the federal deadline for taking such action.

    Down in Alabama, you don't lose your vote if convicted of a felony unless it's for a crime of "moral turpitude' - and simple drug possession doesn't fall into that category. Which means somewhere around 50,000 Alabamans are allowed to vote and maybe don't know it - including about 6 - 7,000 still in prison.

The Ordinary People's Society and their national partner the Drug Policy Alliance had been working in the prisons, registering voters with the full support of the Alabama Department of Corrections  - until...

Alabama Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen stopped a voter registration drive for inmates Thursday under pressure from the Alabama Republican Party.

In a letter to state Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard, Allen said individuals conducting the program "were not doing anything for the inmates that they could not do themselves by simply contacting the Secretary of State's Office for the voter registration postcard."

Still, Allen said he decided to stop the drive because of a section in the state code that prohibits using state-owned property to promote or advance candidates for election.

"While it is not clear that assisting voters to register would violate those provisions, I cannot expose departmental employees to that possibility," he wrote.

... Allen's letter to Hubbard was in response to one the chairman e-mailed him earlier in the day, saying the GOP supports the idea of registering more people to vote, but not when it comes to prisoners.

"Furthermore, I have concerns about potential issues with how this effort is being monitored to ensure no form of voter fraud occurs," wrote Hubbard, who is also minority leader of the Alabama House, which votes on the prison system's budget.

Of course, the subtext here is "stop, or we'll vote to cut your budget". Meanwhile, the State AG is trying to get the whole law overturned and ban everyone convicted of a felony from voting.

But we're not talking about murderers, rapists and violent criminals here - we're talking about tens of thousands convicted of a simple possession charge who have stayed clean thereafter. Trouble is, those folk don't usually vote Republican.

  Michigan Messenger:

Last week we reported about Republican plans to use home foreclosure lists to block voters from the polls after James Carabelli, chair of the Macomb County Republican Party, told Michigan Messenger that on election day Republican volunteers will "have a list of foreclosed homes and make sure people aren't voting from those addresses."

Republican leaders have since disavowed plans to use foreclosure lists as part of their plan to challenge the eligibility of some voters, but an attorney for the party, Eric Doster, did confirm that the party would use returned mail to challenge voters based on residency. As veteran Republican activist Allen Raymond told Michigan Messenger in a recent interview, holding down Democratic turnout is a key part of Republican strategy for victory in November.

Raymond knows about Republican campaign tactics. For almost a decade he managed campaigns for Republicans running for state and national office. In the 2002 New Hampshire elections, he ran a phone-jamming operation aimed at blocking elderly people from arranging rides to the polls, an illegal action that he says was approved by the highest levels of the party. He spent three months in federal prison. Earlier this year Raymond published a book about his life and work as a Republican operative, titled "Confessions of a Republican Operative: How to Rig an Election."

As for our report that the Michigan GOP planned to use foreclosure lists to block likely Democratic voters, Raymond said: "It's a very good tactic. It works."

"It is actually a very smart thing to do," he went on, "particularly in this climate with so many foreclosures."

For Republicans, he said, targeting the foreclosures would be a cost-effective and "probably" legal method of reducing Democratic votes.

If he were still in the election business, he said, "I'd be doing that all day long."

Sneaky.  The majority of foreclosed homes are the ones with sub-prime loans held by lower income families, who are more likely to be Democrats.  So challenge them and suddenly that pledge for "honest and open elections" is so much easier:

In anticipation of problems to come, John McCain's campaign announced Monday the "Honest and Open Election Committee" to troubleshoot voter issues on Nov. 4.

In the wake of the recount in 2000, campaigns have been quick to the draw on recognizing - and solving - problems with voter access. To be sure, there are plenty of issues, such as needing identification to get a ballot.[..]

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers said there were a number of issues that required advance legwork, including the proper handling of absentee ballots by military personnel deployed overseas.

Another issue is the last-minute decisions for polling places to stay open later. Rogers said the committee will work with precincts to determine under which circumstances an extension should be granted as well as agree upon a judge to handle such claims.

"You could pre-approve some judges," Rogers said, "so they're not going to somebody who's in somebody's pocket."

I'm sure everyone will be content with McCain's pre-approved judges, right?

UPDATE:  Michigan Dems and the Obama Campaign Sue for Foreclosure-Related Vote-Caging

Officials in charge of voter registration in Virginia seem to be asking for Federal investigation... According to this press release from this extremely important battleground state, students are being told that they risk losing their scholarship and tax dependency status if they register to vote in their college, as opposed to home, state.    And surprise, it appears all these warnings are bogus and have one impact and one impact only: to suppress voter turnout among college-aged people, who are overwhelmingly supporting Obama this year.   Memo to Virginia: that's illegal. 

InsideHigherEd:

Last week, Virginia’s Montgomery County, home to Virginia Tech, issued a press release regarding proper protocol for college students registering to vote. In interviews with Inside Higher Ed Tuesday, it was described by turns as “unsubstantiated,” “chilling,” and (more generously) as not “incredibly encouraging or friendly.”    Read more...

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