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

Photo by Ema

Because I’m a responsible voter, a feminist, and a legal nerd, I was looking at California’s ballot initiatives that we’ll be voting on this November. Apparently, (aside from the same-sex marriage ban that’s going to fail, dammit!) there’s going to be another initiative to require parental notification and a waiting period for minors undergoing abortion. The language, according to the California SoS:

PROPOSITION 4: Waiting period and parental notification before termination of minor’s pregnancy (Initiative Constitutional Amendment)

• Changes California Constitution to prohibit abortion for unemancipated minor until 48 hours after physician notifies minor’s parent or legal guardian.

• Permits notification to certain adult relatives if doctor reports parent to law enforcement or Child Protective Services.

• Provides notification exceptions for medical emergency or parental waiver.

• Permits courts to waive notice based on clear and convincing evidence of minor’s maturity or best interests.

• Mandates reporting requirements, including reports from physicians regarding abortions on minors.

• Authorizes damages against physicians for violation.

• Requires minor’s consent to abortion, with exceptions.

Summary of Legislative Analyst’s Estimate of Net State and Local Government Fiscal Impact:

* Potential unknown net state costs of several million dollars annually for health and social services programs, court administration, and state health agency administration combined.

South Dakota is facing another abortion ban, which has a better chance of winning this time, because it would allow for the procedure in cases of rape or incest (that wasn’t included last time around). Check out other states with propositions on reproductive rights at NARAL.org

Hey there, 20somethings — you’re making the TV news dorks itch with anxiousness. Seems that since our preceding generation didn’t really give to poops about politics, we’re something of a rebirth of political conscious. Polls are showing a surge in primary votes from people under the age of 30… probably because a lot of us are smart enough to realize that we have to be the best balance between those pie-in-the-sky Boomers and the mopey, dot-com kids, the Gen-Xers: are we hopeful? Sure. Are we creative? Yes. Are we materialistic and self-centered? I guess so (that’s what I keep hearing from Boomers who are jealous of our iPhones).

However, Millennials are also the most entrepreneurial generation alive right now, and probably more politically savvy, and geographically aware than our parents were at our age… well, there still are a lot of dumb-ass 20somethings out there, but for the most part, I think we’re pretty rad.

Anyway, you would think that these broadcasting honchos would be rolling in cash with all of these young people (read: coveted demographic) but we don’t watch TV. Haw-haw. According to the NY Times:

Young people are catnip for advertisers, but they mostly shun TV, and especially news broadcasts. A biannual news consumption study released Monday by the Pew Research Center found that only a third of news consumers younger than 25 watch TV news on an average day. That’s still twice as many as the 15 percent who read a newspaper on an average day.

Add to that, the fact that the average age for the evening news is 60.5. Well, honestly, when was the last time you watched Brian Williams? All that news is hack, anyway.

So, if you’ve noticed, the big dogs are looking for ways to court younger political watchers.

On cable news, CNN promotes a “League of First Time Voters” and the Fox News Channel is covering what it calls the Y Factor with a full-time correspondent. On broadcast, NBC has assigned Luke Russert, the son of the late anchor Tim Russert, to the youth vote beat and ABC, CBS and PBS are all running stories by student journalists.

So, do you watch broadcast news? If so, what networks/shows do you watch? Or does it all just suck? Personally, I’d rather listen to NPR and read news magazines…

(photo by Thirty30 Photography