A federal court blocked Texas from enforcing “a strict new voter identification law, ruling that the state had failed to prove that the mandate would not disproportionately suppress turnout among eligible voters who are members of minority groups,” the New York Times reports.

Rick Hasen: “Texas is likely to appeal this case to the Supreme Court, and I would expect to see an application for an emergency injunction allowing Texas to use its voter id law during the upcoming election. If this happens, this will be a major question for the Roberts Court, and it would have to be decided in short order. Given the closeness to the election, it is not clear to me that even if the Supreme Court disagrees on some of the analysis with the district court that it would grant such emergency relief.”

South Carolina state Rep. Alan Clemmons (R), the author of a voter ID law considered discriminatory by the Justice Department, testified in federal court that, “while crafting the bill, he had responded favorably to a friend’s racist email in support of the measure,” McClatchy reports.

An email from Ed Koziol said that if the legislature offered a reward for voter identification cards, “it would be like a swarm of bees going after a watermelon.”

Clemmons responded: “Amen, Ed, thank you for your support.”

However, Clemmons testified that he did not remember giving out packets of peanuts with cards that said “Stop Obama’s nutty agenda and support voter ID.”

Politico: “At least 5 million voters, predominantly young and from minority groups sympathetic to President Barack Obama, could be affected by an unprecedented flurry of new legislation by Republican governors and GOP-led legislatures to change or restrict voting rights by Election Day 2012.”

“Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin, all viewed as important states this fall, each have enacted stricter ID laws. Florida and Ohio have cut back on early voting. And a whole host of other states have passed new ID laws as well.”

A new report finds six states — Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina — are the least-prepared states to catch voting problems.

The best prepared states are Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is asking Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) “to launch an investigation into voter-registration forms that are being sent to Virginia residents and addressed to deceased relatives, children, family pets and others ineligible to vote,” the Richmond Times Dispatch reports.

“The errant mailings from the Washington-based nonprofit group Voter Participation Center have befuddled many Virginia residents, leading to hundreds of complaints.”

Associated Press: “The voter registration form arrived in the mail last month with some key information already filled in: Rosie Charlston’s name was complete, as was her Seattle address. Problem is, Rosie was a black lab who died in 1998.”

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) insists the state’s voter rolls “must be scrubbed carefully to remove any non-U.S. citizens, but his administration is keeping secret a list of more than 180,000 voters whose citizenship may be in question,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.

“Scott’s elections agency is refusing numerous requests from voter advocacy groups and news outlets to release the list, months after the state released an initial list targeting 2,625 potential noncitizens. Many people on the first list turned out to be citizens.”

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune notes that the job running elections is in hot demand.

“For years, county elections supervisor jobs were viewed as mundane administrative posts with so little public policy work that most politicians did not even consider running for them. Now, along Florida’s west coast, seasoned political players are looking to parlay their years of experience in partisan battles into an advantage in becoming elections overseers.”

Jonathan Alter: “Across the country, the Republicans’ carefully orchestrated plan to make voting harder — let’s call it the Voter Suppression Project — may keep just enough young people and minorities from the polls that Republicans will soon be in charge of all three branches of the federal government.”

“Yes, both sides try to change voting laws to favor their team. The 1993 ‘motor voter‘ law that made voting more convenient by extending registration to the Department of Motor Vehicles helped mostly Democrats. That was at least in the long American tradition of expanding the franchise.”

“The Republican effort to restrict voting isn’t just anti- Democrat, it’s anti-democratic. No fair-minded person believes the tall tales of voters pretending they were someone else… This isn’t about stopping vote-stealing and other corruption, for which there are already plenty of laws on the books. It’s about rigging the system to keep power.”

WSLS-TV: “When Tim Morris got his mail last week he found a pretty big surprise, a document asking his dog Mozart to register to vote. Not only is Mozart a dog but he’s been dead for two years.”

In light of the logistical issues
that marred Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses this year, the Iowa
Republican Party has “now set itself to the task of figuring out what
happened and how to fix it next time,” reports ABC News.

The
Iowa GOP has “formed an Iowa Caucus Review Committee comprised of 17
party members including county chairs, former state-party officials,
party activists, volunteers and supporters of multiple presidential
campaigns. Next Thursday, the committee will convene its first meeting,
where it will hear the first round of reports from subcommittees on vote
tabulation, public information and volunteer training.”

Bloomberg Businessweek: “Running for president is exhausting and all-consuming. Putting an end to a presidential campaign can be a nightmare that lasts years. There are employees, consultants, lawyers, and ad makers clamoring to be paid, ad buys to cancel, contracts and legal disputes to settle, office space, computers, phones, and furniture around the country to unload, and a staggering pile of disclosure forms and other paperwork to complete before the Federal Election Commission will certify that a campaign is officially over.”

“In all, 38 past presidential contenders going back 16 years are still candidates, if only in the eyes of the federal government.”

Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) and Rep. John Larson (D-CT) have introduced legislation that would let Americans vote on the first full weekend in November instead of the first Tuesday, ABC News reports.

“Tuesday was chosen as Election Day in 1845, when Congress decreed it the most convenient day for farmers — they needed three days to travel to their voting place without interfering with three days of religious worship. Reformers say the law is outdated and now interferes with workers’ plans, particularly people working more than one job or single parents who have responsibilities that might eclipse voting.”

A voter in Ohio told told WEWS-TV that he was bitten in the nose today by a poll worker.

The man said the incident started when he saw the poll worker arguing with a woman about signs she had outside the polling location. The voter stepped in to try to help the woman and was bitten by the worker who fled the scene.

Republicans in states like Florida and Ohio are making it more challenging to vote or to register others, the Los Angeles Times reports.

It’s part of a national trend, “as election law has become a fierce partisan battleground. In states where Republicans have taken majority control, they have tightened rules for registering new voters, reduced the time for casting ballots and required voters to show photo identification at the polls. The new restrictions were usually adopted on party-line votes and signed by Republican governors.”

“Democrats have denounced new restrictions as ‘voter suppression’ laws intended to deter voting by students, the elderly, the poor, the disabled and minorities.”