Thousands of voters in at least 6 swing states have been blocked from registering to vote, or even removed from the voter rolls. According to the NYT, Michigan and Colorado are removing people from the rolls within 90 days of the election, which is illegal unless the person died, have moved out of state, or have been declared unfit to vote (so, convicted or committed).

Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina, and Ohio are using Social Security info to verify voter applications. Alabama, and Georgia are using Social Security records to screen registration applications. Louisiana has removed thousands of voters after the federal deadline.

Although much attention this year has been focused on the millions of new voters added to the rolls by the by the candidacy of Barack Obama, there has been far less notice given to the number of voters being dropped from those same rolls.

States have been trying to follow the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and remove the names of voters who should no longer be listed; but for every voter added to the rolls in the past two months in some states, election officials have removed two, a review of the records shows.

According to fivethirtyeight, here are the numbers on the swingstates as of today (their likelihood of leaning toward either candidate):

Ohio (20 EC votes): 76% Obama

Nevada (5 EC votes): 73% Obama

Colorado (9 EC votes): 86% Obama

Florida (27 EC Votes):71% Obama

Indiana (11 EC Votes): 59% Obama

North Carolina (15 EC votes): 64% Obama

Missouri (11 EC Votes): 58% Obama

via Rod 2.0

Monica Goodling is probably an excellent example of why nepotism, and discriminatory hiring practices really end up screwing you over in the long run. Not only is she out of a job, but she’s also the face of the Department of Justice’s criminal offense by hiring people who don’t exactly mesh with the Bush Administration’s agenda. According to the report that the DOJ released yesterday (PDF), Goodling had quite a tactic for researching job candidates via Lexis (a legal search engine).

[First name of a candidate]! and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!

Then of course there were the asinine questions that were actually asked in job interviews (!!)

Tell us about your political philosophy. There are different groups of conservatives, by way of example: Social Conservative, Fiscal Conservative, Law & Order Republican.

[W]hat is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?

Aside from the President, give us an example of someone currently or recently in public service who you admire.

Why are you a Republican?

I’m sure she flagged others who went to such high-profile conservative/Christian schools such as Regent University, or Messiah College, both of which she is a graduate.