If you have any questions on where, when or how to vote, the League of Women Voters has information on how to register to vote, where to vote in your local area, what to bring to the polling place and all the relevant laws governing the process at Vote411.org.

In St. Paul, Tuesday’s election signals the city’s first use of ranked choice voting, which allows voters to pick a second choice that will be counted if the voter’s first choice is eliminated (more information on ranked voting is available at the Ramsey County election center).

Wherever you are in the state, if you run into any problems at the polling places tomorrow—long lines, not enough ballots, partisan attempts to intimidate voters—we encourage you to report that news to the world by using the Twitter hashtag #votingproblems and by emailing the Minnesota Independent at tips@minnesotaindependent.com.

National Organization for Marriage made $721,708 in independent expenditures which was 31 percent of all independent expenditures in Iowa in 2010. NOM was the 2nd highest single spender in the 2010 election cycle in Iowa, spending almost double that of Fair Courts for Us, a campaign that supported retaining the judges. That group spent $423,767.

NOM was joined by American Family Association Action which chipped in $171,225. The AFA is listed as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Family Research Council Action also pitched in $55,997 and is also listed as a hate group by the SPLC. Religious right figurehead Gary Bauer contributed to the campaign as well through his Campaign for Working Families which gave $100,000 to the cause. Iowa Family Policy Center Action gave $10,178. That PAC is affiliated with the Family Leader and Bob Vander Plaats.

These groups are back in Iowa in 2011 and have begun spending in support of Republican Cindy Golding who opposes civil marriage rights for same-sex couples. Golding is facing of with Democrat Liz Mathis in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Swati Dandekar who was appointed to the Iowa Utilities Board. The Democrats’ 26-24 majority in the Senate hinges on the election, and

Paul McKinley

“Since I will not be seeking another term, I believe the Senate Republicans should have a new leader in place now to continue building on the momentum that is being generated as we head toward picking up the majority in November of 2012,” McKinley said.

The Des Moines Register reported last month that State Sen. Bill Dix (R-Shell Rock) had called for a leadership election, which was later canceled.

But McKinley said the decision was made after speaking with his family, and it’s time to move on to a new chapter of life. He was first elected in 2000, and his current term expires in January of 2013.

“Serving my fellow citizens has truly been the honor of a lifetime,” McKinley said.

Republicans picked up six seats in the Iowa Senate in 2010, bringing the balance to 26-24 in favor of Democrats. A pending special election in Senate District 18 following the resignation of State Sen. Swati Dandekar (R-Marion) could result in a split chamber.

Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said that would leave people accused of crimes “in a horrid position.”

“They want people that are terrified of public opinion, because they know they can manipulate public opinion to get what they want,” Stone said.

Social conservative groups including the Iowa Family Policy Center (now known as The Family Leader), the National Organization for Marriage, the American Family Association and Iowa for Freedom launched a major campaign last year to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices that participated in a unanimous decision that found the state’s legislative ban on same-sex marriage to be a violation of the Iowa Constitution’s equal protection clause.

They were successful in doing so, and expectations are the remaining four justices that supported the unanimous decision in Varnum v. Brien will also face difficult retention votes in 2012 and 2016.

Meredith Palmer of Lambda Legal said that’s a serious threat to minority rights. Lambda Legal is the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization working for the rights of lesbians, gay men and people with HIV/AIDS. The group filed the Varnum lawsuit.

“As history has proven, it’s been the courts that have really upheld constitutional protections before the majority thought that was what America is all about,” Palmer said.

Connie Ryan Terrell, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, said the courts don’t make decisions based on popular will. Groups working against Iowa’s judicial system know that, she said, but they turn that around with a message that judges are ignoring the will of the people.

“They don’t fight fair. They don’t fight by our rules,” Terrell said. “They don’t fight by constitutional or legal rules. Churches that are of the religious right ilk, they do promote candidates in their churches. But it does no good to call them on it.”

And Stone noted the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision granting new political spending rights for some groups allows “the ability to secretly channel money into places and really manipulate with deception what people learn, what people hear.”

“There’s this long-running effort to make it possible for … cynical efforts of powerful people to manipulate less informed groups, less informed people, to override the rights of minorities, the rights of people that are dissenters, privacy rights,” Stone said.

Palmer said those new political spending laws make it difficult for Lambda Legal. Because of the group’s status as a non-profit, it can’t endorse candidates or tell people how to vote. Lambda Legal will instead focus on education and outreach as 2012 approaches, and Justice David Wiggins comes up for retention.

Palmer said it can also be difficult for those looking to protect the state’s judicial branch and merit selection process to counter the opposition’s seemingly simple and clear message.

“When judges are punished for ruling on issues with these misguided messages … the message is so easy,” Palmer said. “It seems so American. If you don’t like what the judges say, vote them out.”

Despite the difficulties, Terrell said those defending the justices and the judicial system overall “need to take this as a personal mission,” and make it clear there are people across the faith spectrum that don’t agree with the efforts to throw out the justices and the merit selection system.

“It is incumbent upon us to fight harder,” Terrell said. “I’m not going to tell you to fight their way, because I’m not going to do that. We have to fight by our own sense of integrity and follow the laws. But we do have to fight harder.”

Iowa is often praised for its merit selection process in appointing judges, a system put in place in the 1960′s. Under that system, a 15-member judicial nominating commission composed of lawyers and non-lawyers recommend appointees to the governor based on quality, integrity and professional ability – rather than on political ability or connections.

Allan Vestal, dean of Drake Law School, noted the justices were penalized for simply upholding the state’s equal protection statute. That makes clear the need to defend Iowa’s courts, he said.

“It seems quite remarkable that we should even have this as a matter of debate, but here we are,” Vestal said.

The comments were made at a series of panels held as part of an event called Defending Iowa’s Courts, which took place last week in Des Moines. About a dozen groups sponsored the event, including Lambda Legal, Justice not Politics, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, One Iowa and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

The panelists discussed legislative attacks against Iowa’s courts following the Varnum v. Brien decision; how those attacks threaten judges’ ability to rule fairly and impartially; and how to engage communities to defend the state’s current court system.

A new web video by Family Research Council Action, formerly American Renewal and led by Tony Perkins as the political arm of the national religious conservative organization, tells the story:

The ad touts a collaborate effort between FRCAction and the National Organization for Marriage known as the “Judge Bus” tour, which spanned the state in advance of an historically non-political judicial retention vote in 2010. The groups were prompted to come into the state by a 2009 unanimous decision by the Iowa Supreme Court that found a legislative ban on same-sex marriage to be a violation of the state’s equal protection clause. Shortly after that decision, and despite disruption attempts by social conservatives, Iowa courthouses soon began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

The back-lash against the justices was swift and, as the video from FRCAction illustrates, largely spawned and funded by out-of-state interest groups that generally object to civil marriage for gays and lesbians on religious grounds — the same objections that the Iowa Supreme Court rejected as being no grounds for discrimination by the state.

Bob Vander Plaats, now head of The Family Leader — the state affiliate of the Family Research Council — led what he deemed an Iowa grassroots effort against the three justices that were up for retention: Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and Justices David Baker and Michael Streit. In truth, Vander Plaats’ effort was funded nearly in total by the American Family Association, a Mississippi-based organization that also works against marriage for gays and lesbians on religious grounds.

Iowa groups that favored a judiciary system that is as free as possible from political influence were caught off guard on two fronts. First, they had a natural aversion to running politically-styled advertising in support of the court, with many feeling that to do so would simply feed the effort of bringing politics to the judiciary. Second, many were skeptical that Iowans would ultimately vote to oust the judges — such an effort had never been undertaken in the state, and many believed that voters would see through the out-of-state influences already at work.

They were mistaken. At the end of election night in November 2010, it was clear that all three justices had been removed from the bench — although all lower-court judges had been spared.

Although the justices had been removed the religious conservatives had still failed to meet their ultimate goal of writing a ban on civil marriage for gays and lesbians into the Iowa Constitution — information that likely chagrined many voters who falsely believed the retention vote to be some sort of referendum on same-sex marriage directly. For that reason alone the groups were likely to remain a force in the state, but they also had another front to defend and influence in their national battle to promote social conservative issues: The 2012 first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.

A Values Bus tour — much like the earlier Judge Bus — was launched in the weeks before the Republican Party of Iowa’s fundraiser known as the Ames Straw Poll. Participants, which ranged from national GOP leaders to state GOP candidates to prominent social conservatives, urged Iowans to attend the straw poll and select a candidate that would uphold the demands of the groups; a national ban on gay marriage and a complete ban on anything remotely related to abortion (including most contraceptives) being chief among them.

While there is no evidence that the group leveraged enough influence to select the straw poll’s winner — at the time, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann was already expected to earn the top spot — the simple fact that a candidate who agreed with the groups’ mission won was enough. The Values Bus was immediately heralded as a major success.

Both missions — the Judge Bus and the Values Voter Bus — have been held up as major fundraising ploys by the groups involved; an example of how conservative donors from throughout the nation can make a difference with their dollars. In fact, the group is now ready to take its Iowa success, according to the web video, and roll it up into a new national strategy. In the near future, the bus tour that began in Iowa will make stops in states throughout the nation.

The ads by Keep Conservatives United (KCU) paint Perry as being soft on illegal immigration and says “illegals take jobs.”

The radio ads supplement two television ads that have been running in the state in support of Bachmann since mid-August.

“The ad shows voters in next year’s critical South Carolina primary the clear differences between Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry on illegal immigration,” Bob Harris of KCU said in a statement on the website. “It will reach a politically attuned audience for a week to build support for Bachmann.”

The PAC has been airing two television ads targeting Perry. One targets his spending:

Another ad accuses Perry of embracing President Bush:

Bachmann, of course, has been the target of ads that poke fun at her embrace of President Bush:

On August 1, Larry Bucshon, a freshman GOP representative from Indiana’s Eighth Congressional District, joined the majority of his caucus to vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling in exchange for a package of spending cuts and the promise of more to come. It’s a vote congressional Republican leaders desperately needed their freshmen members to support so as to avoid an impending national default. Back home in Bucshon’s district, however, the vote may come back to haunt him, as Bucshon is facing a tea party challenge at a time when he can least afford it.

Nicknamed “the Bloody Eighth” by political observers for its postwar tradition of tough campaigns and losing incumbents, Bucshon’s district is one of a handful being targeted and closely watched by national Democrats. A perennial swing district, its U.S. representative has been a reflection of who controls the House for the past two decades: John Hostettler, one of the most conservative of the Gingrich class of 1994, was defeated by Blue Dog Brad Ellsworth in 2006. When Ellsworth retired, the seat was won by heart surgeon Bucshon in the 2010 Republican sweep.

Like other states with newly GOP-controlled state legislatures across the country, Indiana has recently approved congressional redistricting plans that have strengthened the position of some of the Republican incumbents. Freshman Bucshon isn’t one of them, though: The Eighth District has lost three strongly conservative counties and gained three comparably more moderate ones, which Democrats believe puts the odds of regaining the seat more in their favor.

Two Democrats are currently vying for the nomination: Warrick County Democratic Party chair Terry White and former state representative Dave Crooks. Both fit within the tradition of moderate-to-conservative Blue Dog candidates that won districts like the Indiana Eighth all across the country when Democrats last took the House in 2006.

White describes himself as “pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-small business,” as is appropriate for a district that is “conservative in nature,” but he says he’s also “pro-union and pro-labor.” He told The American Independent that efforts by the Republicans in the General Assembly to pass anti-union legislation such as “right-to-work” and a school voucher program are going to mobilize traditionally Democratic constituencies, such as teachers and other public-sector workers, that were relatively more apathetic in the previous 2010 election cycle.

White thinks that because he’s from Evansville, the city that is the historical power center of the Eighth District, he has an advantage in the primary over Crooks, whose county is comparatively more rural. He also points to his lack of a voting record to defend as a good advantage he will have over both Crooks and, should he get the nomination, Bucshon as well.

Given the predicted favorable climate for whoever their party eventually nominates, both of the Democratic candidates also recognize the need to avoid a drawn-out primary. Crooks told the Evansville Courier & Press when he first entered the race that he has reached out to White, and is “doing everything I can to keep as many people out of the primary as possible.”

Whoever wins the primary, Indiana Democrats see 2012 as their best shot at winning back the Eighth District for a long time to come. As a freshmen representative, Bucshon has yet to accrue all of the advantages that incumbency brings in the House of Representatives. “He got elected in a tsunami last year,” White says, “where basically all you had to do was breathe and be a Republican and get elected.”

Bucshon is also facing a primary challenge from Kristi Risk, who ran against Bucshon in the 2010 primary to replace retiring Democratic incumbent Ellsworth. Running a campaign with strong support from the newly-founded tea party movement, Risk came very close to winning the nomination in an eight-candidate primary where national Republican leaders and donors had rallied behind Bucshon. Risk garnered 29 percent of the vote to Bucshon’s 33, a considerable achievement for a stay-at-home mother and political novice who designed and printed her own political fliers.

“I think that I would have voted differently in some areas,” Risk told TAI, on how she differentiates herself from Bucshon. In addition to the debt ceiling, Risk points to the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, which Bucshon voted for, and military withdrawal from Libya, which Bucshon voted against. Her website has a long list of issues that echo tea party themes, including a call for “sound monetary policy” (which would “remove the power of a few to create fiat money that enslaves the citizens of our nation”) and a promise to “defend against efforts by the United Nations to supersede our God-given parental rights.”

Risk says she hasn’t been following the Democratic primary, but they have certainly been following her. Were Risk to defeat Bucshon, White told TAI, it would give the Democrats an advantage.

“She is the tea party candidate and they don’t think that Bucshon is conservative enough.” In Southwest Indiana, he says, “we are conservative people, sure, but we are also reasonable people.”

Democrats in Evansville don’t think there’s a high probability that Risk will unseat Bucshon, but he will nevertheless be forced to spend time and money fighting her off, which will weaken him in a general election that’s sure to be heated. (Bucshon did not respond to TAI’s request for comment by publish time.) And just like in 2010, Risk won’t need money or the institutional support of a national party if she can get Evangelicals and tea party activists to canvass for her. She points to her campaign manager Sean Selby, a former organizer for Hotstettler, as a sign that her campaign will have the benefit of political experience this time around.

Democrats hope she’s right.

This report is part of collaboration with WNYC’s “It’s a Free Country” to cover the 25 most captivating congressional races from around the country.

“Republicans are sending a clear message to Colorado voters for the next decade: when it comes to your representation in Congress, your opinion and your vote won’t matter, Palacio is quoted to say in a release. “The GOP is trying to freeze the status quo while Coloradans are demanding a real say in who speaks for them in Washington.

“Competitive districts force representatives to pay attention to every voter and every issue, not just those of their political base. And competitive districts reflect Colorado’s political makeup, where voters equally identify as Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliated from any party.”

The Republican map was reportedly released Friday. Democrats are set to release their map this afternoon.

When the state legislature last session failed to pass district boundaries updated according to recent census data, lawsuits redirected the task to federal district Judge William Hood, who will begin to hear arguments in mid October. Hood ordered the party maps released in advance of the coming trial so various stakeholders and community-of-interest representatives set to give testimony could adequately prepare.

A strategic endeavor with long-term consequences, redistricting is as much poker as demographic science. There’s no secret that both parties are angling for advantage.

As Lynn Bartels at the Denver Post reports, Republicans called their latest map “Minimum Disruption,” a title mocked by Democrats as a name more suitable to a “light jazz quartet.”

The Republican map would seem to create predictably partisan districts. Swing district CD3, currently held by Republican Scott Tipton, would include more GOP voters, as would recently purple CD4, presently held by Republican Cory Gardner. CD7, represented by Democrat Ed Perlmutter, would include more Democrats.

For their part, state Democrats have reportedly targeted CD6, currently represented by Republican Mike Coffman, for the most change. Coffman’s district is mostly suburban Denver, an area where Democrats are betting the population is most likely to trend left in coming years. In moving favorable voting areas into CD6, however, Democrats may also be taking a right-leaning district like CD4 out of contention.

Click on the maps to enlarge them:

Current district boundaries:

After the 2008 election, Democrats represented five of the state’s seven congressional districts. In the 2010 election, Democrats lost two of those districts to Republicans, CD3 and CD4.

Got a tip? Story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

The board dismissed the complaint against the Minnesota Family Council because the group did not pay for the ads. Though the ads were listed as “Paid for by the Minnesota Family Council and the National Organization for Marriage,” the Family Council did not actually contribute any funds to the ad campaign.

MFC’s CEO John Helmberger told the board,

Because of their shared goals of preserving traditional marriage in Minnesota, National Organization for Marriage asked MFC to help plan the production and placement of the [subject] ads. While MFC had input as to the production and placement of these ads, MFC did not pay for any part of their production or broadcast, nor is it obligated to reimburse the National Organization for Marriage for any part of the cost of producing or broadcasting the ads. Further, during 2010 MFC did not make any contribution to the National Organization for Marriage.

Based on that, the board dismissed the complaint from the group.

“There is no probable cause to believe that MFC paid for or is obligated to pay for any cost of creation, production, distribution, or broadcasting of the subject communications,” the board wrote.

The board also dismissed the complaint against NOM: “There is no probable cause to believe that NOM engaged in activities during 2010 that would require it to report as a principal [lobbyist].”

Because the ads were vague, NOM did not actually lobby for the anti–gay marriage amendment, the board noted. At issue is the fact that although NOM advocated the election of Tom Emmer who supported the amendment, the governor has no say in constitutional amendments.

“The legislation most clearly implied in the ads is the constitutional amendment to define marriage,” the board wrote. “While the next Governor may advocate for a legislative action, the Governor himself or herself can neither force nor prevent the placing a constitutional amendment question before the voters.”

The board also concluded that since no bills on same-sex marriage were active in the Minnesota Legislature at the time the ads came out, the ads did no constitute lobbying.

“Some of the ads also refer generally to the claim that Dayton, Horner, or the DFL legislature want to impose gay marriage on Minnesotans. Considering the fact that at the time the ads ran, there were no active bills and the composition of the next legislature could not be predicted, these references are too remote and vague to constitute an attempt to influence legislative action.”

The board added, “Any influence the ads may have on a the actions of future legislature, the composition of which will not be known until after the 2010 elections, is too speculative to permit regulation of the ads under Minnesota’s principal disclosure statutes.”

Copies of the decisions can be viewed on the board’s website.

“If what Barack Obama released is really a valid birth certificate that answers all the questions about this controversy, why is the Obama campaign in attack mode on Jerome Corsi’s bestselling book?” asks WorldNet CEO Joseph Farah in a promotional email.

The Obama campaign is selling tee-shirts and coffee mugs that bear a smiling photo of the president above the words “Made in the USA.” There is an image of the birth certificate on the reverse side.

“[Obama] fears [this book] is his undoing,” explains Farah. “Do you really think the $1 billion Obama campaign cares about selling a few coffee mugs? Give me a break. This is an effort to derail media attention from a successful book and media tour that is focusing renewed attention on his ineligibility for office.”

Like WorldNet, the Obama campaign is having fun promoting its product on the post-birth certificate birther wave.

BarackObama.com sent out an ask this morning with the subject line: “You’ll like this.”

“Let me introduce you to Jerome Corsi,” says the email. “This week he released a new book that the publisher says will be a bestseller ‘of historic proportions.’ The title is ‘Where’s the Birth Certificate?’ – yes, really.

“Corsi’s work is a greatest-hits reel of delusions, ranging from 9/11 conspiracies to claiming that there is an infinite supply of oil in the Earth’s core. In 2008, he published a book about Barack Obama claiming, among other things, that he (a) is a secret Muslim; (b) is secretly anti-military; (c) secretly dealt drugs; and (d) secretly supported terrorist actions when he was eight years old. So many secrets.”

“The only thing we can do is laugh at it — and make sure as many other people as possible are in on the joke.”

Limited edition tee shirts available for early donors!

Colorado has been marked out by the Obama reelection campaign as a key battleground on which the campaign intends to dedicate significant resources. It was also a major midterm election Tea Party state last year where GOP “rising star” politician Cory Gardner dabbled in birtherism on the stump in the fourth district.

The Corsi book tour will likely arrive here just ahead of the Obama campaign grassroots army any day now. Look for competing billboards in different colors with different fine print that say the exact same thing: “Where’s the Birth Certificate?”

Got a tip? Story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.