Voter Registration, 2012 Presidential Election | featured news

A man originally reported to have been working for the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested by the Rockingham County, Va., Sheriff’s Office on Thursday and charged with attempting to destroy voter registration forms by tossing them into a dumpster behind a shopping center in Harrisonburg, Va.

Online registration systems have dramatically boosted voter sign-ups in the dozen states that allow citizens to register to vote over the Internet. Colorado has logged more than 79,000 voter registrations since Sept. 1 — and more than 300,000 since introducing online sign-ups in 2010. In the two years prior to going online, the state logged roughly 90,000 registrations.

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a challenge to Florida's recent voter purge efforts, clearing the way for the removal of about 200 suspected non-U.S. citizens from state voter rolls before the November 6 presidential election.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an investigating of alleged fraud involving a company hired to register voters by the state's Republican Party.

At least 133 residents of a state Senate district there have filed formal complaints with the state, saying they were added to GOP rolls without their knowledge. Aggressive recruitment efforts in one of California's most hotly contested voting districts has created a surge of newly minted Republicans like Marleny Reyes -- except she had no intention of joining the GOP.

Dozens of states, including Mississippi, have changed their election procedures. Some states require voters to show government-issued photo IDs. Others have reduced the time period when voters can cast ballots early and have imposed new limits on third-party groups that register new voters... Opponents, mostly Democrats and civil rights groups, say the changes will suppress turnout, particularly among blacks, the elderly and the poor.