WASHINGTON - October 31 - In part three of 'Is the fox guarding the henhouse?' series on voting in the US, the Real News explores the voting legislation that disenfranchises millions of American citizens.

Spencer Overton of the George Washington University Law School discusses with the Real News two 'big picture reforms' the US should make to its electoral system.  The first is to safeguard the voting system from manipulation by politicians.  This involves establishing an independent voting commission to monitor voting procedures. 

WASHINGTON - October 30 - Today, three voting rights watch dog groups, the Brennan Center, Verified Voting, and Common Cause released an advisory to election officials warning that voting systems in specific states may not total votes correctly if proper procedures are not followed, and stressing that all vote totaling should be manually checked. The warning cited an August 19, 2008 product advisory notice issued by Premier voting systems, formerly Diebold, which acknowledged that the voting system does not always aggregate machine totals correctly when it is compiling votes from multiple polling locations.

DENVER - October 30 - An agreement reached late yesterday before a federal judge in Colorado ensures that tens of thousands of Colorado voters illegally purged from the registration lists will have their votes counted. The decision was hailed by voting rights and good-government groups in Colorado and nationwide as a victory for voters and a clear message to election officials must take the necessary steps to make sure that ballots cast by eligible voters must be counted.

CINCINNATI - October 30 - A federal appeals court late Wednesday cleared the way for 5,500 illegally purged voters to be returned to the rolls in time for Election Day. The U.S. Appeals Court for the Sixth Circuit rejected Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land's request not to enforce an earlier court ruling that declared the state's voter removal programs illegal. The appeals court decision is the latest victory in a lawsuit filed in September by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Michigan, Advancement Project and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP.