New voting laws in key states could force a lot more voters to cast provisional ballots this election, delaying results in close races for days while election officials scrutinize ballots and campaigns wage legal battles over which ones should get counted.

New laws in competitive states like Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could leave the outcome of the presidential election in doubt – if the vote is close – while new laws in Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee could delay results in state or local elections.

Some new laws requiring voters to show identification at the polls are still being challenged in court, adding to the uncertainty as the Nov. 6 election nears.

“It’s a possibility of a complete meltdown for the election,” said Daniel Smith, a political scientist at the University of Florida.

Even more, I can’t help but raise an eyebrow at (important swing state) Pennsylvania’s choice in particular backed by Republicans to institute strict voting laws just weeks before the national elections. A law placed into effected backed by actual  claim of the supposed voter fraud which actually occurs rarely. A law that plays no favor to minority voters (traditionally Democratic) and elderly voters, who may face trouble in obtaining a government issued ID in time. 

In short, PA, your politics is downright unconstitutional in infringing upon the rights of American citizens to have their voices heard. 

Washington (CNN)— Seven weeks before voters decide on their next president, a secretly recorded video threatens to further undo Republican candidate Mitt Romney by portraying him as out of touch with ordinary Americans.

Taped with a hidden camera at a private fund-raising event in May, the video shows Romney telling his donors that nearly half of Americans back President Barack Obama because they rely on government support.

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” Romney says in one clip first posted on Monday afternoon. “There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing.”

It’s the latest in what has been a shaky stretch for the Romney campaign following last month’s political conventions and as the candidates hurtle toward three presidential debates next month.

How candidates are preparing for the debates

Criticism came from both sides of the political spectrum, withconservative commentator William Kristol posting on the Weekly Standard website Tuesdaythat Romney’s comments insulted some of his own supporters — such as senior citizens on Medicare.

The former Massachusetts governor held a brief news conference late Monday to address the video footage that emerged earlier in the day, saying his comments were “off the cuff” and “not elegantly stated” while defending the main message that the election is a choice between a big government society under Obama or one that emphasizes personal responsibility.

Except, Mr. Romney, the government exists to serve their constituents, not vice versa. You’ve shot yourself in the foot with this one. 

As stated in the preamble of our Constitution, the U.S. is responsible for promoting “the general welfare”as defined by the U.S Constitution online in today’s context as “organized efforts on the part of public or private organizations to benefit the poor, or simply public assistance.” 

reuterspolitics:

An activist lies in front of a police line during a protest on the streets outside the Republican National Convention.

[REUTERS/Adrees Latif, August 27, 2012] 

- Mitt Romney, who claims his statement wasn’t a swipe at Barack Obama when given the broader context of the situation which he should have taken into consideration before speaking, “humorous” or not (which it wasn’t)—he so obviously was. 

A Texas judge is making headlines after he warned that a re-election of President Barack Obama would lead to a ‘civil war’ and possible invasion of United Nations troops.

The comments were made by Lubbock County Judge Tom Head.

He is pushing a tax increase in his county to give extra money to the district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Office to “beef up” its resources in case President Obama wins the November election.

“I don’t want rookies,” Head said flatly. “I want trained, equip and seasoned veteran officers to back me.”

Judge Head said he’s concerned the President would hand over sovereignty of the United States to the U.N. and that the American public would react violently.

“He’s going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the U.S. to the United Nations, what’s going to happen when that happens?” he told FOX 34 in Lubbock.

“I’m thinking worse case scenario - Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe…we’re not just talking a few riots or demonstrations.”

Head, a Republican said that if that happened - he, himself, will meet what he calls “the enemy.”

“In front of their armored personnel carriers” to tell them they are not welcome, he said, and that he has the county sheriff to back him up.

“I don’t want U.N. troops in Lubbock County,” he said.

White Texan Republican who is seeking the worse in Barack Obama. Why am I not surprised. 

At least the Texan Democrat Party were intelligent enough to point out, “This nonsense is what passes for mainstream in today’s Republican Party. It’s not only ridiculous, it’s dangerous.”

And it is. 

See a full video clip on Judge Head’s remarks here.

inothernews:

In other news, I’m beside myself, laughing out loud.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans derailed a Democratic bill on Tuesday that would keep interest rates on federal college loans from doubling July 1 in an election-year battle aimed at the hearts — and votes — of millions of students and their parents.

Republicans said they favor preventing the interest rate increase but blocked the Senate from debating the $6 billion measure because they oppose how Democrats would pay for it: Boosting Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on high-earning stockholders of some privately owned corporations.

GOP senators want a vote on their own version heading off the interest rate increases and paid for by eliminating a preventive health fund created by President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul. That financing idea has no chance of passing the Democratic-run Senate and has drawn a veto threat from the White House.

Tuesday’s vote was 52-45 in favor of starting debate on the Democratic legislation — eight votes shy of the 60 needed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was the only one to defect his party’s position, a procedural move that will allow him to hold the vote again should the two sides work out a deal later.

The vote was largely symbolic because the Democratic bill had no chance of approval by the GOP-led House.

The measure would extend today’s 3.4 percent interest rate on subsidized Stafford loans for another year. Those rates would grow to 6.8 percent without congressional action, thanks to a 2007 law that gradually lowered those rates but expires on July 1.

During a stop at the State University of New York in Albany, Obama tried raising pressure on lawmakers to act.

“Before they do anything else, Congress needs to keep student loan rates from doubling for students who are here and all across the country,” he said. He added, “Don’t let politics get in the way. Get this done before July 1.”

Both parties know full well that they will need a bipartisan pact on financing the measure. They are both motivated to strike such an agreement because in the months before this November’s presidential and congressional elections, neither wants to be blamed for letting college costs grow for students and their families struggling in today’s weak economy.

But before they strike a compromise — which both parties believe will happen before July 1 — both were eager to use the debate to score partisan points.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Democrats were forcing that vote as “a way to drive a wedge between Republicans and a constituency that they’re looking to court ahead of November’s elections. That’s what today’s vote is all about for them.”

McConnell said the Senate “has ceased to be a place where problems are resolved. It’s become, instead, a place where Democrats produce campaign material.”

Reid said he might be willing to allow a vote on the GOP bill. But he also criticized Republicans for opposing the Democratic plan.

“They’re sending a clear message that they’d rather protect wealthy tax dodgers, and that’s what they are, than help promising students achieve their dreams of higher education,” Reid said.

Both leaders acknowledged that a bipartisan agreement on how to finance the legislation was needed for the effort to advance, but each dared the other to propose such a plan.

“If they want some other way to pay for it, let’s take a look at that,” Reid said.

McConnell said Democrats should support the GOP proposal “or at the very least offer a bipartisan solution of their own.”

The fight over student loans has become a high-profile, symbolic tussle over which party wants to do more for Americans scrounging to get by at a time jobs are hard to find, and each side is happy to force the other to take embarrassing votes.

With both parties focused on this November’s presidential and congressional elections, it is no coincidence they each have chosen to pay for their bill with a favorite target that they believe speaks to their core voters: Democrats going after higher revenues from the rich, Republicans trying to punch a hole in Obama’s health care overhaul.

Subsidized Stafford loans are for low- and middle-income students. The higher rates, should they occur, would only affect students taking out new loans starting July 1.

Democrats who controlled Congress in 2007 and wrote the student loan law allowed the lower interest rates to rise again this summer because they felt it would have been too expensive to permanently reduce those rates.

The Education Department estimates 7.4 million students will borrow $31.6 billion in such loans in the year beginning July 1, averaging $4,226 for each student.

These loans generally are paid off over a decade or more after graduation. Allowing interest rates to double would cost the typical student about $1,000 over the life of the loan, the administration says.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.