Update: Unfortunately, according to the Denver Election Commission, the update below applies only to overseas and military voters. Too bad.

Bump and Update: 23 states allow you to vote by fax if you haven't gotten your absentee ballot:

Special Alert: 23 states allow you to vote by fax! AK, AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, HI, IN, KS, LA, ME, MS, MT, NJ, NM, NC, ND, OK, RI, SC, TX, UT, WA.

Download your federal ballot (pdf) and fax it to your county court clerk, then put it in the mail. County clerk addresses (all states) listed here. [hat tip 5280 reader Molly]

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Original Post
Many college and graduate students are registered to vote in their home state rather than school state. At 5280 the other day, I wrote about irate parents in Colorado whose kids didn't get a ballot despite a proper and timely request. Among them: the TL kid and two of his friends. The TL kid has called the Denver election commission, been told his ballot is in the mail, but as of now, no ballot.

Ezra at Pandagon outlines the affirmative resons to vote for John Kerry. Who said flip-flopping and ambition are negatives?

Update: Latest John Kerry interview to MTV...go read what he has to offer. And yes, he liked Eminem's video--he caught it on Saturday Night Live.

Voter turnout is key...the Boss will be on hand to drive out the vote in Cleveland tonight. Get out every vote you can.....Wednesday's headline should read:

Feeling stressed with election day uncertainty? Play the Give Bush a Brain game--very cute. [hat tip to Deb in Chicago]

Chief Justice William Rehnquist, battling thyroid cancer, may be more ill than previous reports suggested. He has announced he is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation and is delaying his return to the Supreme Court.

We wish Justice Rehnquist a complete and speedy recovery. This is the toughest battle he will ever face.

We also remind everyone of the enormous impact this election will have on the makeup of our Supreme Court. The next president will have the chance to appoint between one and four new Justices who, depending on their age, could serve for up to 40 years.

If abortion rights matter to you, if you want judges who are not right-wing ideologues and activists who will impose their view of the Constitution on the rest of us, vote for John Kerry. Here's how a writer in the New York Times recently described a Supreme Court dominated by Bush appointees:

Abortion might be a crime in most states. Gay people could be thrown in prison for having sex in their homes. States might be free to become mini-theocracies, endorsing Christianity and using tax money to help spread the gospel. The Constitution might no longer protect inmates from being brutalized by prison guards. Family and medical leave and environmental protections could disappear.

Among the issues the Supreme Court will face in the coming years:

Following an exchange of gunfire at an office in western Baghdad, believed to be that of a Saudi company, four people, including an American, were kidnapped. No additional details yet, stay tuned.

Electoral-Vote.com has been a favorite stop for continuously updated electoral vote projections. While revealing he is a Kerry supporter, the person behind the site has remained anonymous... until today, when he publicly identifed himself. Right now, I'm not getting into the site, there must be too much traffic, but Coyote Gulch has the goods:

And the question we've all been waiting to have answered Who is behind Electoral-vote.com. Wow, it's Andrew Tanebaum, the developer of Minix. I wondered how he could be in the U.S. and update so early every morning. He's not, he's in the Netherlands. Minix helped Linus Torvalds when he was starting out writing GNU/Linux. At the end of his "Votemeister FAQ" Tanenbaum writes, "I am Andrew Tanenbaum and I approved this message."

Two states, Vermont and Maine, allow felons to vote even while serving their sentences. This year, voting numbers are up among the inmates:

"There's almost a childlike excitement here," said Kirk Wool, 44, one of the Vermonters in Kentucky, who is serving 29 to 73 years for a sexual assault conviction, and said he "hadn't begun voting until actually after my incarceration."

But now Mr. Wool, inmate No. 263524, says he feels so empowered by voting that "if I had chosen politics instead of crime, call it arrogance, but I believe with my ability to touch people, my ability to speak, I believe I very well could have been governor of the state of Vermont."

Not surprisingly, those inmates who are interested in their Government, are quite well versed on the issues. As the article notes, they have a lot of time on their hands.

Inmates pay attention, reading newspapers, watching television, and even perusing campaign leaflets that are mailed to registered voters like themselves.

One of the prisoners interviewed, who is serving a 35 year sentence for murdering two of his friends, explains why he voted for Bush. Apparently, this is not that unusual. The authors conducted a number of interviews and found more than a few conservatives among the inmates.

Some of the prisoners have the same concerns as those on the outside:

John Edwards went door to door Sunday in Columbus, Ohio seeking votes. He believes every vote counts. Somehow I can't picture Dick Cheney knocking on doors in an unfamiliar neighborhood and saying, "Hi, I'd really like your vote."

Edwards is a people person. A warm geniune smile. Sincere concern for the problems of those explaining them. Cheney, I think, is most comfortable in his undisclosed, secure locations, by himself.

A poll taken by the Independent U.K. finds that 56% of British citizens believe John Kerry will make the world safer. Only 20% think Bush can do the job.

by TChris

Our prisons too often house the mentally ill, who need treatment, not warehousing. And too often prisoners are subjected to conditions that would impair the mental health of even the most stable person. Exposing the mentally ill to those conditions leads to tragic consequences, as illustrated by the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.

The box is the most severe punishment in prison: the final threat, the ultimate time out. It is a small barren chamber set apart from the general population with a concrete floor, a steel door and no clock to mark the time. The essential quality of the box is isolation -- a gloved hand passes food through a slot in the door; a caseworker's muffled voice filters through the holes in a small Plexiglas window. Inmates are allowed few personal possessions. Lights are never fully extinguished. It is four walls for 23 hours a day -- a psychologically punishing experience by design. For people like Jessica Roger, it can also be an incubator of psychosis.

The linked article tells Jessica Roger's story -- a story that has become too common, of a mentally ill inmate who was "punished for exhibiting symptoms of illness that the system has failed to treat." Jessica attempted suicide in the box four times before being sent to a prison hospital, where she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and other mental illnesses.

Jessica was returned to complete her punishment in the small airless cell that had broken her. Within days, she again attempted suicide.

She succeeded on her last attempt. The linked article uses Jessica's story to illuminate the broader problem: society's reliance on the criminal justice system to address the poor and homeless who suffer from untreated mental illness. As the article notes: "Today some 250,000 Americans with mental illness live in prisons, the nation's primary supplier of mental-health services."

by TChris

Forget the polls. Football provides a more reliable predictor of presidential elections.

Ever since 1936, the year before the [Redskins] moved to Washington, the last home game before the election has predicted the winner. If the Redskins win, so does the incumbent party in the White House; if not, not. This rule has held good for 17 straight elections.

The good news for Kerry: the scrappy Green Bay Packers bested the Redskins by a score of 28-14. Kerry's victory on Tuesday is thus assured.