Lindsay Beyerstein

Elana called from a car in Charlotte, North Carolina to report that this is shaping up to be a remarkable election day. Union organizers have noticed that they’re not the only ones giving rides to the polls today. People who aren’t affiliated with any campaign are spontaneously stepping up and offering rides.

My good friend Elana Levin is in on the ground in North Carolina with UNITE HERE. Elana and her colleagues in the Change to Win coalition are working hard to close the deal for Barack Obama in this unlikeliest of battleground states:

According to separate lawsuits filed in Texas and Delaware last week a wealthy Republican donor funneled $75,000 from a Texas oil services company to Sen. Norm Coleman through the insurance company that employs Norm’s wife, Laurie.

A mercenary firm in Oregon offered to provide “security” on election day in case voters “get out of control,” Danger Room reports

Polling wiz Nate Silver reports that Obama has a 5.8-point lead in the national popular vote. McCain is trailing in Pennsylvania, despite a massive last-minute campaign onslaught.

Virtually every winning scenario for McCain presupposes that the polls are flat-out wrong, whether because of the Bradley effect, voter suppression, electronic voter fraud, or the most massive statistical fluke in the history of quantitation.

A pair of comedians from Montreal, Canada placed a prank call to Sarah Palin. Their conversation strongly suggests that Palin doesn’t know who the Prime Minister of Canada is.

Palin thought she was talking to French president Nicholas Sarkosy.

Keith Olbermann offers a little friendly advice to John McCain on how this whole “guilt by association” thing works: Do not play up your opponent’s “guilt” when you are more closely linked to the allegedly guiltifying person than he is.

Tactics aside, the McCain campaign’s insinuations that Khalidi is an anti-Semitic are slanderous, loony, and downright racist. Rashid Khalidi is an excellent American, the sort of person anyone would be proud to have as a friend. He’s an esteemed scholar, a beloved teacher, a champion of human rights, and a regular commenter on Mid East issues for prestigious national media outlets. Khalidi’s books have gotten rave reviews in the New York Times from such wild-eyed rabble rousers as Tom Friedman and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Rebecca Traister argues that this campaign season has been a watershed for women in political journalism.

Columbia Journalism Review agrees that 2008 has been a breakthrough year for female journalists and commentators. The two big success stories are Katie Couric (for her interviews with Sarah Palin) and Rachel Maddow (for her hit political TV show).

The College Republican and McCain campaign volunteer who staged her own mugging and blamed backwards “B” scratched into her face on a fictitious big black Barack Obama supporter is out of jail.

Ashley Todd, 20, will be required to undergo mental health treatment. If she stays out of trouble, her criminal record will be expunged.

Introducing the twitter Vote Report, an innovative new project brought to you by the blog techPresident and an all-volunteer team of software developers, designers, and other concerned citizens.

The basic idea is simple: Voters tweeting about their experiences at the polls. Did an improperly calibrated voting machine flip your vote in West Viriginia? Lines around the block in West Palm Beach? GOP goon squads massing at your polling place? Let the Vote Report know.