Ten Million Fewer Voters In 2012?

According to a new USA Today survey, this November another ten million Americans will join the 80 million who did not vote in 2008. A majority of those staying home this year say they support Obama.

A nationwide USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll of people who are eligible to vote but aren't likely to do so finds that these stay-at-home Americans back Obama's re-election over Republican Mitt Romney by more than 2-1. Two-thirds of them say they are registered to vote. Eight in 10 say the government plays an important role in their lives. Even so, they cite a range of reasons for declaring they won't vote or saying the odds are no better than 50-50 that they will: They're too busy. They aren't excited about either candidate. Their vote doesn't really matter. And nothing ever gets done, anyway.

Even in 2008, when turnout was the highest in any presidential election since 1960, almost 80 million eligible citizens didn't vote. Curtis Gans, director of the non-partisan Center for the Study of the American Electorate, predicts that number will rise significantly this year. He says turnout could ebb to levels similar to 2000, when only 54.2% of those eligible to vote cast a ballot. That was up a bit from 1996, which had the lowest turnout since 1924.

FLORIDA: Former GOP Chair Accuses Party Of "Scheming" To Suppress Black Voters

The former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Jim Greer, is claiming that other leaders of the state GOP strategized on ways that they could suppress the votes of black citizens. Today's revelation comes from Greer's deposition in his lawsuit to be paid back salary from the state GOP.

Greer's animosity was evident on almost every page of the deposition as he described the inner workings of a party that has controlled Florida since 1998. On voter suppression, Greer said he had just completed a December 2009 meeting with party general counsel Jason Gonzalez, political consultant Jim Rimes and Eric Eikenberg, Crist's chief of staff, when questions arose about fundraising. "I was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting. It had been one of those days,'' he said. Rimes said he recalls no discussion of suppressing votes at any meeting. Eikenberg did not return phone calls.

Two months ago Florida Gov. Rick Scott launched an attempt to purge the state's voter rolls of alleged non-citizens, a move widely seen as a transparent attack on the state's minorities. Scott is now suing the federal government for thwarting that plan.

RELATED: Two years ago Greer was arrested on charges of six felony charges of embezzling campaign money. His trial date on those charges has just been moved back until November, "sparing Florida Republicans the embarrassment of intense scrutiny of the party's inner-workings just weeks before Tampa hosts the Republican National Convention."

Alabama Seeks To Circumvent 1965 Voting Rights Act, Files Federal Lawsuit

As one of several southern states that traditionally repressed minority voters, Alabama is specifically required by the 1965 Voting Rights Act to request federal approval any time it changes its congressional districts. Yesterday Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (GOP) filed a federal lawsuit demanding exemption from that law.

The Alabama attorney general’s office has for years taken the position in legal filings that the section of the Voting Rights Act requiring preclearance in unconstitutional. Staff in the attorney general’s office declined further comment. Attorney General Luther Strange could not be reached for comment. Democrats in the Legislature have complained that the plan passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature was written to favor Republicans and packed black voters in some districts while leaving them with little influence in other districts.

Senate Minority Leader Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, said the attorney general’s office wants to avoid the justice department’s preclearance process because the Legislature “passed a racially gerrymandered plan.” “It’s a ridiculous waste of taxpayer’s money,” Bedford said of the lawsuit. He said Republicans are trying to circumvent the way voting changes have been approved in Alabama for the last 40 years. House Minority Leader Craig Ford said he believes Republicans want to avoid going to the Justice Department because they are “ashamed of the way they drew the lines.”

Think Progress notes that in the two years since the 2010 Tea Party wave into Congress, there have been more challenges to the Voting Rights Act than in the previous 45 years combined.

This Is Why The GOP Has Installed Mandatory Photo ID Voter Laws

Since coming to power last fall, many Tea Party-GOP dominated state legislatures have installed new laws requiring a photo ID to vote. The above graphic tells us exactly why.

Pac-Man Eats Votes

Clip description:

This is the Sequoia AVC Edge touch-screen DRE voting machine. In 2008, it was used in jurisdictions with almost 9 million voters. Alex Halderman and Ari Feldman replaced the voting software with Pac-Man. They did this in three afternoons, without breaking any tamper-evident seals. It would be easy to modify the software to steal votes, but that's been done before, and Pac-Man is more fun.

Yet another reason to distrust electronic voting machines.

RELATED: With next month's primary NYC becomes one of the last places in the country to replace its giant clunky pull-lever voting machines as we move to optical-scan ballots, which do leave a paper trail (although many are suspicious of these machines too.) I will miss that satisfying kerCHUNK sound.

Tim Robbins Couldn't Vote, Scattered Reporting Of Similar Glitches

Progressive activist and actor Tim Robbins got turned away from his polling place today and he rightfully blew a gasket.

There was some kind of ruckus and the cops were called. Apparently Robbins has been voting at that polling place for more than a decade, but today his name wasn't on the register. They told Robbins he had to fill out a provisional ballot but he didn't want to do it. An argument erupted between Robbins and the poll worker. Robbins allegedly got loud and the poll worker said he was calling the cops. Robbins accused the poll worker of trying to intimidate him so he wouldn't vote. Robbins went downtown to the City Board of Elections to get proof he was good to vote. Robbings: "This is what you have to do to vote... I had to go down to see a judge... My name was not on the roll, and I'm not the only one. According to workers, 30 people in 5 hours had been taking off the rolls. You can do the math on that. 6 per hour, per district across America..."

CNN is reporting similar situations across the nation....broken machines, names disappearing from registers, etc. However, so far the problems don't appear to be widespread. Cross your fingers on THAT.