Voters Un-purged-- De-purged?-- Under-purged?

It's a start: "Tens of thousands of Coloradans who had been removed from the state's voter rolls will be allowed to vote in next week's election and given extra protections so their ballots are counted, under an agreement reached late Wednesday in federal court here. The voters' names had been removed by Mike Coffman, the Colorado secretary of state, who said he did so because the voters had moved out of state or were listed more than once on the rolls. But Mr. Coffman was sued by a coalition of voting rights and other groups who said such purges were generally prohibited by federal law within 90 days of an election. Under the agreement, voters removed from the rolls will be permitted to cast provisional ballots, and those ballots will be counted unless election officials can prove the voters were not eligible. To strike such ballots, county election officials must conduct an extensive records review on each one, a decision that must then be reviewed by Mr. Coffman's office."

And in Michigan, purged voter names are being returned to the rolls: "On Oct. 30, election officials in Michigan began returning approximately 5,500 names to their voter rolls. The voters' names were removed because their voter ID cards had been undeliverable since Jan 1., 2006, according to The Detroit News. A U.S. District Court judge originally ordered the official to reinstate the names on Oct. 13, saying that purging them had violated the National Voting Rights Act. Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land appealed the decision, however, arguing that putting the names back would be a burden and that they had been removed legally."

From back ages ago (i.e. September), read the Brennan Center for Justice's really throroughly frightening report on Voter Purges."While the lack of transparency in purge practices precludes a precise figure of the number of those erroneously purged, we do know that purges have been conducted improperly before. In 2004, for example, Florida planned to remove 48,000 "suspected felons" from its voter rolls. Many of those identified were in fact eligible to vote. The flawed process generated a list of 22,000 African Americans to be purged, but only 61 voters with Hispanic surnames, notwithstanding Florida's sizable Hispanic population. Under pressure from voting rights groups, Florida ordered officials to stop using the purge list. Although this purge was uncovered and mostly stopped before it was completed, other improper purges may go undetected and unremedied."

Also don't forget if you're in Florida, that Obama has his ground team ready, if there is ANY problem at the polls. Just flag down a volunteer: "A team of 5,000 volunteer lawyers representing the Democrats will fan out across polling stations in Florida next Tuesday to ensure that the Republicans do not 'steal' the election as - Democrats claim - George Bush did eight years ago. Heading the biggest team of lawyers ever assembled is Charles Lichtman, a partner in the Fort Lauderdale law firm Berger Singerman, who has been working as an unpaid volunteer for up to 18 hours a day since August. His drive comes from the experience of being what he describes as 'the Hanging Chad Guy', heading up a team of lawyers based in infamous Broward county for weeks during the 2000 recount."

In happier news though, Obama's lead has widened on the Gallup poll, helping to raise Obama's RCP polling spread to 6.4 (at 1:30 pm...)