Alabama Prison Commissioner Richard Allen halted voter registration drives inside state prisons after receiving complaints from Alabama Republican Party officials.

According to the Associated Press, Alabama Republican Chairman Mike Hubbard told Commissioner Allen in a September 26 letter that "the party supports the idea of registering more people to vote. But he says that doesn't extend to prisoners."

Various groups began registering prisoners inside Alabama state prisons earlier this week, so that the prisoners could cast absentee ballots in the November elections.

Close to 80 prisoners filled out registration forms during the two days that organizations conducted registration drives inside Alabama state prisons.

Following complaints from civil rights groups, the Justice Department announced on September 23 that it will not station criminal prosecutors at polls on Election Day. The civil rights groups fear that the presence of criminal prosecutors may intimidate minority voters.

According to the Associated Press, "[t]he move reverses a decades-long practice that put prosecutors on the lookout for voter fraud, ballot access violations and other polling problems."

Acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker said in a statement that "[t]his decision was made as a precaution and is not the result of any instance of intimidation or complaint regarding any specific incident."

Even though this effort was focused on voter fraud, the Justice Department is pledging to place hundreds of federal monitors at polls around the nation to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised. The federal monitors will not be prosecutors, either.

Some civil rights groups are worried about intimidation by the federal monitors, as well.

According to electionline.org the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Act (S. 453) is stalled in the Senate. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said they are working with the Senate on the bill and encouraged advocates to get in touch when they identify cases of deceptive practices and voter intimidation. "Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., said he agreed with the need to combat deceptive practices but expressed his disappointment that the deceptive practices bill has languished in the Senate since October 2007."

Sabin said that preventing deceptive practices and voter suppression is a DOJ priority and said the deceptive practices bill would make it explicit that such acts are illegal, though he warned that policing political rhetoric may conflict with the First Amendment. Cardin said deceptive practices aren't covered by the First Amendment and reiterated his support for the bill.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has agreed to review a complaint by three former top IRS officials that the Alliance Defense Fund's (ADF) "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" violates federal tax law. Pulpit Freedom Sunday is part of an initiative asking churches to defy the IRS's prohibition against partisan politicking by preaching sermons that support or oppose a candidate for political office.

ADF distributed information about "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" at the Value Voters Summit 2008, which was held on September, 20.

BNA reported ($$) that a letter from Michael Chessman, director of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, acknowledges receiving the complaint from Marcus Owens, an attorney with Caplin & Drysdale, and a former IRS director. In the letter, the IRS has agreed to "review this information carefully and give it all due consideration."

To see other blog postings on "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," click here and here.

A bill passed the House yesterday that will ensure that non-partisan groups and election officials have the right to register voters at VA facilities. H.R. 6625, the Veterans Voting Support Act, passed by oral vote.

According to an AlterNet article, "[i]t requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to accommodate non-partisan groups seeking to register veterans living at VA facilities, and also allows top state election officials to designate the VA as a voter registration agency like state motor vehicle departments."

To see other recent blog postings about VA voter registration, click here or here.

The Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a hearing on S.3308, the Veterans Voter Support Act. And the Committee on House Administration voted out of committee the companion bill, HR 6625.These events occurred a week after the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) reversed a ban on third party voter registration drives at its facilities. The legislation would allow nonpartisan voting registration on VA property.

At the Senate hearing Rules Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and ranking member Robert Bennett (R-UT) said they intend to proceed with the bill. VA General Counsel Paul Hutter testified and said the VA could not offer its full support unless some changes were made. In Hutter's opening remarks, he said; "VA must be able to maintain a place of healing and rehabilitation for veterans seeking services in our hospitals, CBOCs, Vet Centers and offices. In order to provide such an environment, VA must have discretion to determine when and how outside organizations will access and utilize VA facilities and interact with VA patients."

And given recent news, no wonder Congress wants to move forward with legislation despite the VA's announcement last week. The VA is continuing to block nonpartisan groups access to facilities to sign up voters. In San Francisco, Veterans for Peace has to now file an emergency motion with the court in order to gain access.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that it will no longer ban voter registration drives for veterans living at federally run nursing homes, shelters for the homeless and rehabilitation centers across the country. The VA did not however decide to designate VA facilities as voter registration agencies.

For the fourth time in six months, the VA has changes its policy on allowing voter registration drives at VA facilities. This announcement came the night before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on S.3308, the Veteran Voting Support Act.

The directive now allows election officials and nonpartisan groups to provide voter registration services and nonpartisan voter information. The VA news release states; "In their written policies, VA hospitals are required to establish the criteria they will use to evaluate requests from outside agencies to register voters, and to determine where, when, and how such registration activities will be conducted. They will also develop procedures to coordinate offers of assistance from state and local governments and from non-partisan organizations, and how to work with VA's Regional Counsel offices to determine whether or not groups offering registration help are non-partisan, as required by law."

Understandably considering past events, this AlterNet article is a bit skeptical. Scott Rafferty was quoted as expressing doubt about those "procedures" the VA will develop. "Rafferty said the VA's new policy contained no standards or procedures for how non-profit groups would be vetted and approved for voter registration activities. He feared the new policy, which relies on local VA facilities to promulgate voter drive rules, could result in some locations encouraging voter registration while other do not, a scenario 'subject to political bias.'"

Hopefully, being so close to the election, this new development will actually benefit some veterans.

In Michigan, there is an effort underway to deny individuals whose homes have been foreclosed on the right to vote. According to the Michigan Messenger, James Carabelli, chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, is "planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP's effort to challenge some voters on Election Day." Carabelli told the Michigan Messenger that, "[w]e will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses."

J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department and Executive Director of the Campaign Legal Center, told the Michigan Messenger, "I don't think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance."

The effort seems to target individuals who the organizers believe are most likely to vote Democratic.

The Michigan Messenger reported that according to a report issued last year by the state's Department of Labor and Economic Growth, "[m]ore than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans — the most likely kind of loan to go into default — were made to African-Americans in Michigan." Thus, this is likely to disproportionately affect African-Americans. Voter registration information and previous history indicate that African-Americans largely vote Democratic.

There are also efforts in Ohio to challenge voters who are voting from addresses where the homes have been foreclosed.

Nathaniel Persily, a law professor at Columbia University, told the Columbus Dispatch that, "Ohio is stricter than most states in using outdated registrations as grounds for disqualifying voters. But increasing numbers of outdated registrations increase the possibility of voter challenges in 2008."

According to the Columbus Dispatch, Franklin County GOP Chairman Doug Preisse "didn't rule out challenges before Nov. 4." He told the paper that his party wants "clean, accurate voter lists." The Ohio Democratic Party is organizing a "voter-protection" plan to fight challenges to voter eligibility.

Earlier this week, we mentioned that American's United Against the Separation of Church and State filed an IRS complaint ($$) against Atlah World Missionary Church in Harlem, New York for engaging in prohibited electioneering. Several videos posted on the church's website and on YouTube show Rev. James Manning, who is African-American and the pastor of the church, making crude and derogatory comments about Senator Obama.

Religious organizations, which are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, are prohibited from promoting or opposing a candidate for political office. A charity or religious organization that violates this prohibition may have its tax-exempt status revoked.

Some of the comments that Manning made about Senator Obama from the pulpit are that he is a "pimp" and a "long legged mack daddy." When speaking about Obama, he also said, "you don't get your campaign started with a big-chested white woman," a reference to the popular Obama Girl YouTube video, which was done without the consent of the Obama campaign. One particularly demeaning comment Manning made was that Obama's "African, in-heat father went a whoring after a trashy white woman. He was born trash."

In another statement from the pulpit, Manning seems to clearly tell the congregation not to vote for Obama. In that statement, Manning says, "I want to say to you, black America, that Barack Hussein Obama is not the one. God has not sent him. He is a diversion from the truth."

To see some of the derogatory comments that Rev. Manning made against Senator Obama, click here and here.

Many churches are now using the World Wide Web to disseminate their message to large groups of people. As a result, messages that previously would have been confined to the walls of the church and only heard by like-minded individuals are now heard by both supporters and opponents of the message. Federal tax law prohibits a pastor from giving a message that promotes or opposes a candidate for political office. The IRS can revoke a charity or religious organization's tax exempt status for engaging in prohibited partisan politicking.

However, many pastors have been doing this for years without repercussions. Generally, the IRS investigates if someone files a complaint with them. With the messages being disseminated to a larger group of people on the web, the likelihood that the message will be heard by an individual who feels that message violates the IRS prohibition against electioneering increases.

According to the New York Times, Atlah World Ministries in Harlem is being investigated because a video of its Pastor, James David Manning, making derogatory comments about Barack Obama appeared on the church's website and on YouTube. In addition to the derogatory comments about Senator Obama, "Mr. Manning praised Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, the former president, for bringing economic vitality to Harlem, but called Mr. Obama the candidate of 'irresponsibility and unaccountability'." As a result of the YouTube video, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed a complaint with the IRS.

The IRS has also launched other high profile investigations as a result of information that came to light on the web. They are currently investigating Bill Keller, a Florida televangelist who preached that a presidential vote for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon, was "a vote for Satan." This sermon came to light because the sermon was posted on Keller's website. Also, Americans United filed a complaint against Cornerstone Church in Madison, Tennessee asserting that the Pastor violated federal tax law during a sermon in which the Pastor endorsed three School Board candidates from the pulpit. Americans United was made aware of the incident because the sermon was posted on the Church's website and, as a result, a local newspaper published the comments.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization, is fighting back against the IRS by arranging "Pulpit Free Sunday" on September 28, in which clergy members will violate IRS rules by preaching sermons that promote or oppose political candidates.