From The Cafferty File:

The prescription for tomorrow is comfortable shoes and patience. It’s going to be awesome.

Never in recent memory has there been so much interest in a presidential election. More than one-third of Americans are expected to have already voted by the time the polls open tomorrow, a 50 percent increase from 2004. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a lot of people in front of you in front of you in line when you get to the polls.

Young people have signed up in unprecedented numbers. New voter registrations have broken records in almost every state. Turnout in many of the primaries was staggering. So be prepared.

Be aware also that tomorrow is a chance for all of us to strike a blow for democracy, and God knows she could use a shot in the arm. We’re at our best as a nation when we’re all involved. But that involvement tomorrow will come with a price. You’re probably going to have to wait. Maybe for a long time.

While you’re standing there grumbling that the line isn’t moving, or the machine is broken, remember what it was that got you into that line in the first place. This may well be the most important election we’ve ever had.

Here’s my question to you: How long are you willing to wait in line to vote?

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From The Rachel Maddow Show Nov. 2, 2008.

In January 1964, the 24th Amendment to the Constitution abolished the poll tax. A poll tax was a fee you had to pay at the time of voting. If you didn't have the money to pay the poll tax, you couldn't vote. In other words the only people had an affective right to vote were people rich enough to be able to pay the poll tax. Anybody too poor to pay it had no real right to vote. That's why southern states had the poll tax. It was a handy way to keep poor African Americans from voting even if they technically had a Constitutional right to do so. Well it's 44 years down the road now since the poll tax was Constitutionally abolished and what do you know, we've got, sort of, another poll tax. It looks like this.

Full transcript to follow.

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From The Rachel Maddow Show Oct. 28, 2008. Rachel runs through the gamut of Republican dirty tricks to make sure that as few people vote as possible, and a key demographic they're likely to target again this year is of course the youth vote. Rachel talks to Matthew Segal about the number of young people who are likely to vote this year and what their impact might be if they're all allowed to vote. Matthew became an activist after going through the debacle at Kenyon College where students waited in line as long as ten hours to vote and where the last of them emerged as late as 4am.

It's so important that everyone band together and try to fight against as many of these tactics as we can. Whether it be warning people about the dirty tricks to drive people away from the polls so they don't fall for them to following the example of the students at Kenyon College who made sure they voted despite those lines.

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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.

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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