Pollsters and pundits have trained their eyes on Ohio, where President Obama maintains a narrow lead over Mitt Romney just days before the election. According to exit polls, Obama’s lead is even stronger among early voters. But several recent developments threaten to disenfranchise many of these voters and plunge Ohio into a bureaucratic nightmare on election night.

The Columbus Dispatch reported on Thursday that a data-sharing glitch and mistakes by election officials have caused thousands of absentee ballot requests to be rejected. While Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted maintains that this was a computer error, the Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates found an abnormally high rate of rejected absentee ballot requests in Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Cleveland. The Cuyahoga Board of Elections determined that 865 ballot requests had been erroneously thrown out. Though Cuyahoga sent notices to all affected voters, residents in other counties may not be aware and stand to be disenfranchised.

If these voters try to cast their vote in person, they will likely be forced to use a provisional ballot, as the absentee ballot error has thrown their registration status into question. At least 4,500 registered voters across the state will be left waiting for their absentee ballots, while as many as 6,000 provisional ballots cast by registered voters could be tossed out. The provisional ballots that do not get thrown out won’t be counted until November 17, according to state law, further dragging out the confusion.

This absentee ballot fiasco is just the latest in Ohio’s dysfunctional election saga. On Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Husted to discount ballots cast by people directed to the wrong polling station by a pollworker — one of the most common errors that led to thousands of votes getting thrown out in Ohio’s dysfunctional 2004 presidential election.

Husted became a national symbol of voter suppression after he banned early voting on nights and weekends, and attempted to defy a court order that restored early voting on the last three days before the election.

In his defense, Husted often touts his unprecedented initiative to mail absentee ballot requests to every registered voter in the state. But critics have pointed out that this measure will probably add to the confusion that could delay the results of the election. Anyone who chooses to return the absentee ballot application but later decides to vote in person will be required to use a provisional ballot, as election officials need to verify that they did not also send in their absentee ballot. The absentee ballot initiative, then, could be a bureaucratic nightmare in disguise. With innumerable legitimate votes cast on provisional ballots, Ohio’s 2012 election could end up mirroring 2004, when the state discarded thousands of votes and tipped George W. Bush over the edge to victory by the narrowest margin.

Nine Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate — Tammy Baldwin (WI), Rich Carmona (AZ), Martin Heinrich (NM), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Mazie Hirono (HI), Tim Kaine (VA), Bob Kerrey (NE), Chris Murphy (CT) and Elizabeth Warren (MA) — all committed to “fix the broken Senate by reforming the filibuster” according to a fundraising pitch on their behalf by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), increasing the likelihood that the Senate will finally fix its deeply broken rules when it reconvenes with its new members this January.

Although it is unclear just what package of reforms will be on the table in January, Merkley is the leading proponent of an eight part rules reform plan that is likely to be among the leading contenders. Although many prongs of Merkley’s plan are rather modest, his most significant proposal requires a gradually escalating group of senators to be physically present on the Senate floor in order to maintain a filibuster:

The public believes that filibustering senators have to hold the floor. Indeed, the public perceives the filibuster as an act of principled public courage and sacrifice. Let’s make it so.

Require a specific number of Senators — I suggest five for the first 24 hours, 10 for the second 24 hours, and 20 thereafter — to be on the floor to sustain the filibuster. This would be required even during quorum calls. At any point, a member could call for a count of the senators on the floor who stand in opposition to the regular order, and if the count falls below the required level, the regular order prevails and a majority vote is held.

Because Merkley’s plan imposes a physical cost on senators who filibuster, it would go a long way towards eliminating the kind of widespread obstructionism that dominated the last four years. Currently, just a handful of senators can bring the Senate to a standstill by objecting to each bill or nomination that comes before the body. Then the burden falls on the majority to come up with 60 votes to break the filibuster — and even if they do, the obstructionists can still force up to 30 hours of needless delay afterwards.

The Merkley plan will not eliminate all of this needless delay. Nor will it prevent a truly determined minority from blocking a high priority item that they care a great deal about. But it will go a long way towards preventing just a small group of senators from blocking routine bills and confirmations.

When the new senators are sworn in next January, a brief window opens up when a bare majority of the Senate can reform the filibuster or eliminate it entirely.

A federal judge in Montana rejected an emergency request Tuesday by 15 Native American plaintiffs who argue the lack of polling places on reservations violates the Voting Rights Act and amounts to discrimination. The judge, Richard Cebull, acknowledged Native Americans do not have equal access to the polls, but said the plaintiffs were unable to prove “that they can’t elect the candidates of their choice.”

I’m not arguing that the opportunity is equal for Indian persons as it is to non-Indians . . . Because of poverty, because of the lack of vehicles and that sort of thing, it’s probably not equal. However, you have to prove … that they can’t elect candidates of their choice.

The emergency ruling means the state will not set up satellite voting stations on reservations for this November’s election. The lawsuit, however, will continue after the election. The Native American vote is crucial to the reelection of Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and maintaining the Senate’s Democratic majority.

Most Native Americans in Montana — of which an estimated 30,000 are eligible voters — live on reservations that lack voting stations. As a result, some have to travel more than 120 miles to complete voter registration and fill out early voting forms. With higher than average poverty and unemployment rates, it is likely some Native Americans lack the resources to travel such distances.

The state claims the tribes did not give enough notice for anything to be done, but the plaintiffs sent a letter to Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch in early May requesting assistance. They also offered to cover the cost of setting up the satellite stations. The Department of Justice supports the Native Americans’ lawsuit and says, “Without an injunction, Native Americans in Big Horn, Blaine, and Rosebud counties will not have the same electoral opportunities as their white counterparts.”

– Greg Noth

Judge Robert Cleland, a George H.W. Bush appointee and former Republican candidate for Michigan Attorney General, held yesterday that a private, for-profit outdoor power equipment company can ignore new rules requiring most employer-provided health plans to offer contraceptive coverage to women because the new rules conflict with the company’s owner’s religious beliefs.

There’s a lot to not like about Judge Cleland’s opinion, which often relies on cursory reasoning or fails to apply the correct legal standard. The plaintiffs, for example, sought what is known as a “preliminary injunction” which means that they wanted their client to be held immune from following the law until the court has sufficient time to fully consider the case. Under binding Supreme Court precedent, “[a] plaintiff seeking a preliminary injunction must establish that he is likely to succeed on the merits.” Yet Judge Cleland never determines that this is the case. At one point, he says that it “remains uncertain” how to resolve a key prong of this case. At another point, he outright states that “[n]either Plaintiffs nor the Government have shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits.” For this reason, an appeals court should reverse Cleland’s order solely because he failed to apply the correct legal standard.

Cleland’s order also places him at odds with another opinion written by a different George H.W. Bush-appointed judge, which held that conservative Catholic bosses do not have a legal right to “force [their] religious practices upon others.” And it conflicts with a California Supreme Court decision upholding a similar birth control law. Five of the justices who joined that California opinion were Republicans.

The most unfortunate part of Cleland’s opinion, however, is his holding that a for-profit company can claim the same immunity from the law as an actual human being:

Weingartz Supply Co. is a secular, for-profit company that sells outdoor power equipment. Weingartz Supply Co. asserts, without contradiction, that it is a “family owned and operated business,” led by Daniel Weingartz as its president.

Neither the Supreme Court nor the Sixth Circuit has held that a for-profit corporation can assert its own rights under the Free Exercise Clause. The text of RFRA extends its protections only to individuals, not corporations. However, at least one Circuit has held that “a corporation has standing to assert the free exercise rights of its owners” when that corporation is closely held and “‘merely the instrument through and by which [the plaintiffs] exercise their religious beliefs.’” Further, the Supreme Court has famously recognized that First Amendment free-speech protection extends directly to corporations. Citizens United v. Fed. Election Comm’n, 558 U.S. 310, 130 S. Ct. 876, 900 (2010) It appears to the court that, although it is first impression for this Circuit, a strong case for standing, at least on a Stormans pass-through instrumentality theory, is sustainable.

Weingartz Supply Co. was founded as a family business and remains a closely held family corporation. Accordingly, the court need not, and does not, decide whether Weingartz Supply Co., as a for-profit business, has an independant First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. For the purposes of the pending motion, however, Weingartz Supply Co. may exercise standing in order to assert the free exercise rights of its president, Daniel Weingartz, being identified as “his company.”

It is one thing to say that the Catholic Church itself cannot be required to act contrary to its doctrine, which is why the church itself is already exempt from the birth control rules. Cleland’s opinion, however, holds that a power equipment sales company can enjoy identical rights to an actual religious entity, solely because it is owned by someone who believes their religious views should be imposed on others.

Earlier this week, ThinkProgress released internal documents from the Romney campaign detailing how it is training poll watchers to mislead voters in Wisconsin. Now, according to new documents, Wisconsin may not be the only state where Romney’s campaign is equipping volunteers with deceptive information.

A new ThinkProgress investigation has found that in Iowa, Romney poll watchers are being trained to watch for voters who show up without a photo ID, even though no voter ID law exists in the state.

In a training video for Romney poll watchers in Iowa, the narrator tells volunteers to be on the lookout for anytime “a voter fails to show a voter ID and they are still permitted to vote.” If that happens, he says, “alert the legal team so they can handle the problem.” The text of the campaign’s slide, however, says something contradictory, instructing volunteers when poll workers should check the voter’s ID. Despite the mixed messages, the slide ends with: “If an election worker is not checking photo ID, please call the legal hotline immediately.”

NARRATOR: Naturally, you’re probably wondering what irregularities may come up throughout the day. We’ll walk you through some quick examples. First, there may be an instance where a voter fails to show a voter ID and they are still permitted to vote. If you notice this, use the legal help button to alert the legal team so they can handle the problem and you can get back to checking voters.

Watch it:

The text on the video notes that utility bills and other government documents are acceptable forms of ID, but that section is contradicted by the narrator’s decree to be on the lookout for anyone who tries to vote without a photo ID and text at the bottom warning poll watchers to be on the lookout for voters who lack photo ID. In sum, the training material is, at best, highly misleading.

Iowa in not a voter ID state. ThinkProgress asked a representative at the Iowa Secretary of State’s office whether it would be incorrect to say that voter ID is required in Iowa. “That’s right,” she confirmed. Voters do not need ID on Election Day; they can show a current utility bill (including cell phone bill), bank statement, paycheck, or other government document, but are not required to do so.

This video is part of Romney’s massive nationwide poll-watcher effort on Election Day. The campaign is training 34,000 volunteers to fan out in swing states across the country and monitor for voter fraud. Romney personally touted Project ORCA in a video released Wednesday evening, telling poll watchers that they’ll “be the key link in providing critical, real-time information to me.” Because of the program, Romney said, “our campaign will have an unprecedented advantage on Election Day.”

Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler Magazine, is offering Senate candidate Richard Mourdock (R-IN) $1 million for “proof” of Mourdock’s widely condemned claim that pregnancies that result from rape are “a gift from God.” Flynt, a known provocateur, has taken out a full-page ad in the Indianapolis Star mocking the candidate’s comments and asking him to verify the statement with “letters, emails, text messages, or videos from God.”

After sarcastically listing the criteria for this proof, Flynt goes on to make his point:

I will accept for purposes of this reward any verifiable transcript of your personal conversations with God; letters, email, text messages, or videos from God, or messages addressed to you from God trasmitted by any third party, including the Republican National Committee or the Romney/Ryan campaign.

I assume that you would not have made this statement unless you had been authorized by God. No one who believes in God would ever use the Almighty’s name in vain. That would be blasphemy.

With the cash reward, Flynt follows in the footsteps of real estate mogul and prominent birther Donald Trump, who recently demanded President Obama’s college transcript and passport application in exchange for a $5 million donation to charity.

Mourdock refused to apologize for the offensive comments, and Mitt Romney emphatically reiterated his support for the embattled candidate.

Last April, Bishop Daniel Jenky, a Catholic bishop from Illinois, delivered a homily claiming that President Obama “now seems intent on following a similar path” to Adolf Hitler because of his “radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda.” On Wednesday, he came within a hair of ordering every priest under his supervision to campaign for Mitt Romney.

In a letter, Jenky told the priests in his diocese “[b]y virtue of your vow of obedience to me as your Bishop, I require that this letter be personally read by each celebrating priest at each Weekend Mass, November 3/4.” The letter leaves little doubt that Jenky wants Obama out of the White House:

Neither the president of the United States nor the current majority of the Federal Senate have been willing to even consider the Catholic community’s grave objections to those HHS mandates that would require all Catholic institutions, exempting only our church buildings, to fund abortion, sterilization, and artificial contraception. . . . Nearly two thousand years ago, after our Savior had been bound, beaten, scourged, mocked, and crowned with thorns, a pagan Roman Procurator displayed Jesus to a hostile crowd by sarcastically declaring: Behold your King. The mob roared back: We have no king but Caesar. Today, Catholic politicians, bureaucrats, and their electoral supporters who callously enable the destruction of innocent human life in the womb also thereby reject Jesus as their Lord. They are objectively guilty of grave sin.

For those who hope for salvation, no political loyalty can ever take precedence over loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Gospel of Life. God is not mocked, and as the Bible clearly teaches, after this passing instant of life on earth, God’s great mercy in time will give way to God’s perfect judgment in eternity.

I therefore call upon every practicing Catholic in this Diocese to vote. Be faithful to Christ and to your Catholic Faith.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops proclaimed that the federal budget must place “[t]he needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty” first — adding that the Republican budget authored by vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan “fails to meet these moral criteria.” Pope Benedict XVI, for his part, called for more robust government involvement to combat wealth inequality. Yet Jenky seems completely unmoved by these prongs of Catholic doctrine.

Jenky’s opposition to birth control all puts him wildly out of step with his flock. 82 percent of Catholics say birth control is “morally acceptable,” and 54 percent of Catholics believe religiously affiliated organizations should be required to offer health plans to their employees that include contraception coverage.