Our guest blogger is Jack Jenkins, a Writer and Researcher with the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative.

In the lead-up to tonight’s Vice-Presidential debate, the conservative Family Research Council’s political arm, FRC Action, has released a “2012 Catholic Vice Presidential Voter Guide” that brazenly — and unfairly — compares how Vice-Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan fare on “Catholic issues.”

In an attempt to influence the so-called “Catholic Vote,” the guide tries to place Biden and Ryan — both of whom are Catholic — on opposite sides of the theological fence by comparing their support for public policies that are labeled as either “Intrinsic Evils” for Catholics or ones that require “Prudential Judgement.” According to the guide, policies that qualify as “Intrinsic Evils” include same-sex marriage, abortion, stem-cell research, and military torture, whereas policies that require “Prudential Judgement” (i.e., issues about which Catholics might disagree) include giving to charity, the death penalty, Child Tax Credits, and immigration issues. Unsurprisingly, the guide makes the case for Paul Ryan as the more “Catholic” Vice Presidential candidate.

Setting aside the fact that Paul Ryan has already been in trouble with the Catholic hierarchy this year — or that he has long sung the praises of Ayn Rand, an author whose books have been decried by scores of Catholic scholars and theologians as incompatible with Catholic social teaching — the guide is misleading for Catholics on multiple levels. For example, while FRC Action claims in a supporting letter that their categories of “Intrinsic Evil” and “Prudential Judgement” are based on far-reaching Catholic Church teaching, the authors only cite two documents — a pamphlet on “Faithful Citizenship” produced annually by the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops and a joint letter issued by two Kansas Bishops in 2008 — as the primary source for their definitions. Despite being issued by Catholic officials, these documents are known to be especially controversial within Catholic circles, with several scholars and theologians frequently calling the poorly-defined categories into question.

And given the Catholic Church’s longstanding commitment to providing for the poor, the guide is shockingly silent about one issue in particular: Economic policy. What’s more, while the aforementioned USCCB “Faithful Citizenship” document does refer to abortion and same-sex marriage as “intrinsic evils,” it also paints a far more complex image of the Catholic faith and urges congregants to advocate for several issues that have a lot more in common with the Obama-Biden administration than a Romney-Ryan agenda:

“The moral imperative to respond to the needs of our neighbors—basic needs such as food, shelter, health care, education, and meaningful work—is universally binding on our consciences and may be faithful citizenship … Racism and other unjust discrimination, the use of the death penalty, resorting to unjust war, the use of torture, war crimes, the failure to respond to those who are suffering from hunger or a lack of health care, or an unjust immigration policy are all serious moral issues that challenge our consciences and require us to act.”

The FRC seems to have missed this, but American Catholic leaders haven’t. Catholic bishops and nuns, for instance, continue to decry cuts to assistance programs like Medicaid and food stamps that Ryan wrote into the proposed House GOP budget earlier this year. In addition, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, made it clear in a blog post last month that caring for the poor is not only a primary concern for Catholics, it’s also necessary for the faithful to urge their government to play a large role when it comes to providing for “the least of these.”

And American Catholics voters get it, too. Polls conducted amongst likely Catholic voters — including one released today — repeatedly show that Catholics place jobs, public education, and health care at the top of their issue agenda, and actually give a low priority to abortion and gay marriage. In fact, most Catholics, like Joe Biden, support same-sex marriage.

Groups like FRC Action might want to influence the voting habits of Catholics through one-sided, uncomplicated, and hyper-politicized theology, but American Catholics watching tonight’s debate will likely be guided by something else: their faith.

Our guest blogger is Erik Stegman, Manager of the Half in Ten campaign for the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Angry about a lack of voting services in their communities, a group of Montana tribal members filed suit in federal court on Wednesday seeking an order for local election officials to provide satellite voting stations on their reservations. The plaintiffs, members of the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap tribes, allege under the Voting Rights Act that it is discriminatory to make them drive long distances to county seats to exercise their right to vote. In some cases, they have to drive as far as 113 miles round trip to vote.

The suit alleges:

“Allowing a non-Indian majority county to establish in-person absentee locations at county courthouses but denying the same level of voter access to Indian majority communities is evidence of an invidious discrimination by state and county officials.”

O.J. Seamans (Lakota), Executive Director of Four Directions, a national voting rights organization and party to the suit, said the organization offered to help pay for the satellite voting offices, but county officials refused. “Right now, practically speaking, most Native American Indians in Montana have one day to vote in person—November 6—and no more days to late-register. White people have 20 days. That’s not equal access,” Seamans told Indian Country Today Media Network.

While registered voters in most large cities in Montana are able to vote early at their local county clerk and recorder’s office 30 days before election day, those voters are mostly non-Indian. There are almost 50,000 voting age American Indians in Montana, representing 6.5% of the state voting age population. According to the most recent census, the poverty rate for American Indians and Alaska Natives (28.4%) is nearly double the national rate (15.3 %).

This comes during an election where the stakes are high for tribes in Montana. Recent polls place current Senator and member of the Indian Affairs Committee, Jon Tester in a statistical dead heat with candidate Denny Rehberg. And, President Obama was officially adopted as a member of the Crow Tribe in 2008—one of the tribes with plaintiffs bringing the suit. Both Obama and Tester were supporters of legislation important to tribes such as the Tribal Law and Order Act and the SAVE Native Women Act. Due to their unique nation-to-nation relationship as sovereign governments with the President and Congress, federal elections are especially important for tribal members.

Nationally, tribes have been organizing their members to turnout through efforts like Native Vote.

Mitt Romney doubled down on his suggestion that uninsured Americans can find the care they need in emergency rooms, telling The Dispatch that people will always receive the treatment they need, and do not die or suffer because they can not pay for care. He pointed to federal law that requires hospitals to admit emergency patients, repeating his advice that patients rely on the most expensive form of care reserved strictly for emergencies. Romney told the Columbus Dispatch:

“We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,’  ” he said as he offered more hints as to what he would put in place of “Obamacare,” which he has pledged to repeal.

“No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.”

He pointed out that federal law requires hospitals to treat those without health insurance — although hospital officials frequently say that drives up health-care costs.

Emergency rooms serve as a place of last resort, but 45,000 Americans still die every year because they lack health insurance, or one every 12 minutes. Uninsured adults under age 65 are also at a 40 percent higher death risk. Hospitals may treat patients for emergency medical conditions regardless of legal status or ability to pay, but patients with chronic conditions that don’t require emergency interference are often unable to access needed care.

Romney’s health care proposal would leave 72 million Americans without health insurance and wouldn’t provide all uninsured Americans with a stable source of insurance.