It appears that Lake County, IN may be the latest arena in the GOP’s effort to suppress the vote in swing states.

First some basics. Under Indiana election law, early voting can only take place in a county clerk’s main office. This clearly could be problematic in areas where the county seat is far in distance from the most heavily populated parts of the county. Therefore, the law gives each board of elections the authority to approve early voting centers elsewhere in their county.

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But on September 24, the two Republican members of the elections board voted against doing so. Their explanation is that Lake County Democratic chairman Rudy Clay made an agreement early in the year with GOP chairman John Corley to allow satellite voting during the state’s presidential primary, but not during the general election. Why wouldn’t the Republicans want residents of these three towns to have easier access to early voting in the weeks leading up to this historic election? Because they’re heavily minority, heavily low-income, and heavily Democratic.

More….

“I crashed a plane in Corpus Christi Bay one Saturday morning. The engine quit while I was practicing landings…I took a few painkillers and hit the sack to rest my aching back for a few hours….I was out carousing, injured back and all, later that evening.
–John McCain, “Faith of My Fathers.”

Controversy has surrounded a series of crashes involving planes piloted by John McCain while serving in the U.S. Navy. In his autobiography, the Republican presidential candidate maintained that a couple of the accidents were caused by engine failure. But an official investigation by the Naval Aviation Safety Center makes clear that the first accident, in March 1960, was caused exclusively by pilot error.

The Facts

During the course of his flying career with the U.S. Navy, John McCain was involved in at least five major mishaps or crashes involving his plane. The most dramatic incidents occurred in 1967. He barely escaped with his life after a missile exploded aboard an aircraft carrier, the USS Forrestal, in July of that year, killing 134 of his fellow crew members. In October, McCain was shot down over Vietnam by a surface-to-air missile.

U.S. Navy records make clear that no blame can be attached to McCain for either of these incidents. McCain was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on his return from Vietnam and cited for his “superb airmanship” in the abortive raid on the power plant in Hanoi that ended with his capture and imprisonment by the North Vietnamese.

Mystery has surrounded the precise circumstances of the three earlier incidents, and particularly an accident on March 12, 1960, while McCain was still in flight school at Corpus Christi in Texas. The McCain campaign has either ignored or failed to respond to requests by The Washington Post and other news organizations for the release of the candidate’s full military records, which could shed light on the accidents and the pilot’s personal involvement.

The official Navy report into the Corpus Christi accident on March 12, 1960, concludes that the AD-6 Skyraider trainer crashed because McCain failed to “maintain an airspeed above the stall speed.” It attributed the accident to “the preoccupation of the pilot coupled with a power setting too low to maintain level flight.” The single-engine prop plane sank to the bottom of Corpus Christi Bay. McCain was rescued by a helicopter after swimming to the surface.

The accident report excluded a series of other possible factors, including engine failure and disorientation of the pilot due to vertigo. It recorded pilot error as “the sole contributing factor” to the accident. A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post from the Democratic National Committee, which conducted research at the Naval Historical Center in Washington. McCain’s responsibility for the accident was first reported by the Los Angeles Times here.

McCain had another accident with a T-2 trainer jet in November 1965, while flying between New York City and Norfolk, Va. The Naval Aviation Safety Center was unable to determine the precise cause of the accident or the degree of pilot error. McCain wrote later that his engine “flamed out” and he had to eject.

In his autobiography, McCain recalls another mishap around December 1961 when “I knocked down some power lines while flying too low over southern Spain. My daredevil clowning had cut off electricity to a great many Spanish homes and created a small international incident.” He landed his Skyraider back on the USS Intrepid after the incident, which does not appear to have triggered a safety investigation.

From the Washington Post.

State  EVs  Poll         Total EVs
Safe Obama states           197

PA     21   O+12.9 (O+4.4)  218
NH      4   O+11.6 (O+1.8)  222
MN     10   O+10.9 (O+5.1)  232
MI     17   O+10.3 (O+4.5)  249
WI     10   O+6.9 (O+6.1)   259

NM      5   O+5.9 (O+7.1)   264
VA     13   O+5.3 (O+0.9)   277
FL     27   O+5.2 (O+1.1)   304
OH     20   O+4.4 (O+0.2)   324
NC     15   O+2.7 (M+2.5)   339
MO     11   O+2.8 (M+3.4)   350
NV      5   O+2.6 (M+1.5)   355
CO      9   O+2.0 (O+1.8)   364

IN     11   M+2.3 (M+2.2)   174
WV      5   M+6.3 (M+4.6)   163
GA     15   M+6.8 (n/a)     158

Safe McCain states          143

Total: Obama 364, McCain 174 (Obama 333, McCain 205)

Thanks TPM: