Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an IRS complaint against Word Outreach Christian Center in Little Rock, Ark. AU alleges that Bishop Robert Smith endorsed John McCain and Sarah Palin in an Oct. 12 Sermon. Smith's sermon was part of the Sept. 28 "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" initiative organized by the Alliance Defense Fund. Smith was unable to deliver his sermon on that date, so he postponed it until Oct. 12. Smith's church is the eighth church that AU has asked the IRS to investigate as a result of "Pulpit Freedom Sunday."

A Judge recently ruled that a Michigan program that requires clerks to purge voters whose voter cards are returned as undeliverable violates federal law. The National Voter Registration Act allows voters to remain on the election roles for two cycles after the voter registration cards are returned as undeliverable. According to an ACLU press release, the Judge ordered the state of Michigan to "immediately discontinue their practice of canceling or rejecting a voter's registration based upon the return of the voter's original voter identification card as undeliverable."

Across the nation, millions of people are already in the process of voting for the next President of the United States. The emerging popularity of early voting has changed the manner in which elections are conducted. Paul Gronke, a researcher with the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Oregon, told the Washington Post that, "early voting, by mail or in person, is becoming more common and is likely to account for one-third of all votes cast in the November elections, up from 14 percent in 2000."

Alabama Prison Commissioner Richard Allen halted voter registration drives inside state prisons after receiving complaints from Alabama Republican Party officials. According to the Associated Press, Alabama Republican Chairman Mike Hubbard told Commissioner Allen in a September 26 letter that "the party supports the idea of registering more people to vote. But he says that doesn't extend to prisoners." Various groups began registering prisoners inside Alabama state prisons earlier this week, so that the prisoners could cast absentee ballots in the November elections.