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The Justice Department has ordered Florida, a likely key swing state in the 2012 election, to end a controversial voter purge that has primarily targeted Latino, Democratic and independent-minded voters. The Justice Department says the process had not been cleared under the Voting Rights Act. Some Democratic politicians have expressed fear the purge could help Mitt Romney win the state in November. "What we’ve seen in Florida is an effort on a massive scale by Governor [Rick] Scott to suppress the vote, to make it more difficult for people to vote," says Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL).

New Hampshire governor vetoes ‘restrictive’ voter ID law

Topics: new hampshire ♦ New Hampshire governor vetoes ♦ photo identification

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch (D) on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have required voters to present a government-issued photo identification before casting a ballot.

“The right to vote is a fundamental right that is guaranteed to all citizens of this State under the United States and New Hampshire Constitutions,” he said. “Our election laws must be designed to encourage and facilitate voting by all eligible voters in New Hampshire.”

Interesting perspective on voting and its economic effects.

U.S. District Judge Robert Jones said the state's decades-old ballot alternative of "none of the above" was unconstitutional because votes for "none" don't count in the final tallies that determine winners. A federal lawsuit filed in June and bankrolled by the Republican National Committee argued Nevada's unique voter option, which has appeared on every election ballot for statewide races since 1976, disenfranchises voters because it's a perpetual loser. Under state law, even if "none" receives the most votes, it doesn't win.

If it is true that voting is a means to an end, then voting is subject to the same moral rules as counter-economics or civil disobedience or any other means. Therefore, if other forms of activism are moral if and only if they eschew aggression, and voting as a form of activism is necessarily aggressive, it follows that voting must be an immoral form of activism.

Florida courts are rocketing through mortgage cases with hearings lasting mere seconds. Would this happen in private arbitration? The foreclosure hearing lasted less than 20 seconds, with Judge John Carlin asking her two questions: Are you current on your mortgage and are you living in the home? She answered no and yes and then offered to show him her paperwork.

"I don't need to see that. That's between you and the bank," he said as he gave Ms. Hill Scott, her husband and three grandchildren 60 days to work out a deal with their lender or vacate their three-bedroom house.

After election officials in Washington, D.C., egged on hackers to have a go at their new internet voting system, paid for in part with a $300,000 federal grant supposed to allow about 900 military personnel and overseas voters the ability to cast absentee ballots. A Michigan professor apparently “unleashed his students” on the system to get the win for Michigan; the result was Michigan’s fight song “Hail to the Victors” played to voters after they cast their ballots.

Daily News @ RevolutionNews.US - Angry and exasperated by faulty foreclosure documents, judges throughout Florida are hitting back by increasingly dismissing cases and boldly accusing lawyers of "fraud upon the court."

A Palm Beach Post review of cases in state and appellate courts found judges are routinely dismissing cases for questionable paperwork. Although in most cases the bank is allowed to refile the case with the appropriate documents, in a growing number of cases judges are awarding homeowners their homes free and clear after finding fraud upon the court.

Police Chief-turned-District Attorney George Gascón is drafting a plan to remake San Francisco's swamped criminal justice system by moving thousands of petty offenders into a network of volunteer-run community courts. "In many cases, we are criminalizing people we don't need to," Gascón said, adding that the current system is financially "unsustainable."