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MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry had a message for Ohio Secretary of State and Katherine Harris wanna-be Jon Husted, if he thinks minority voters in Ohio are going to forget about what he did when he's up for re-election in his state -- Jon Husted’s voter suppression will haunt him:

Dear Ohio Secretary of State Husted,

It’s me, Melissa. May I call you Jon?

How are you feeling today? Still a little sore, I’d imagine. Getting beaten so forcefully with all that backlash had to sting a bit. Probably gonna leave a mark. After all, you spent the better part of this year throwing the full force of your power as secretary of state into restricting the right of some Ohioans to vote. And on Tuesday, it boomeranged back upside your head something fierce.

After Ohio governor John Kasich and state Republican legislatures tried to restrict early voting the weekend before the election, President Obama’s campaign sued to restore early voting for all Ohioans. When a district judge agreed with the Obama campaign, you gave us the first indication of just how far you’d go to stop people from voting.

Not only did you appeal that decision, you also ordered county election boards to “defy” the judge’s order and “not” restore the early hours. Fortunately that judge called your bluff and ordered you into court to explain yourself.

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Ken Blackwell, the Republican former Ohio Secretary of State who presided over President George W. Bush's 2004 win, on Tuesday suggested that "groups that turn out high numbers of voters" -- instead of restrictions on early voting -- were to blame for long lines in African American precincts.

During an election night appearance on MSNBC, Blackwell explained that the county boards of elections had not deliberately placed too few voting machines in black precincts.

"They have to make practical decisions," he told host Chris Matthews. "They make decisions based on turnout patterns of elections, they put those voting machines and then what happens? There's tremendous organizational effort by Democrats and various groups, labor groups. And they get a great turnout. What does that cause? That causes long lines. Nobody is out there deliberately trying to suppress the vote."

"There are people deliberately trying to suppress the vote, let's get that straight," Matthews interrupted.

"I think there was a tremendous turnout in African Americans," Blackwell insisted. "Did they have to stand in line? Yes. Why? Because there was a tremendous organizational effort to turnout the vote."

MSNBC host Al Sharpton pointed out that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted had worked to cut back early voting hours, including the Sunday before election day when many African Americans go to the polls.

"He did end up cutting early voting hours," host Rachel Maddow agreed. "In terms of the state of Ohio right now, part of the reason there's long lines is that early voting hours got cut after they tried to cut early voting days. So we don't need to put that on you, that wasn't your decision, but that is what happened in the state."

"I thought it was a bad move to try to take away -- to try to block the tradition of voting on the Sunday before elections," Blackwell agreed. "That was his call. But the reality is we've had long lines due to the success of groups that turn out high numbers of voters."

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Here we go again with Florida leading the way with more voter suppression -- Florida Early Voting Fiasco: Voters Wait For Hours At Polls As Rick Scott Refuses To Budge:

Once again, Florida and its problems at the polls are at the center of an election.

Early voting is supposed to make it easier for people to carry out their constitutional right. Tuesdays are notoriously inconvenient to take off work, so many states have given voters the option of turning out on weekends or other weekdays in the run-up to Election Day.

But in Florida this year, it has been a nightmare for voters, who have faced record wait times, long lines in the sun and a Republican governor, Rick Scott, who has refused to budge and extend early voting hours.

"People are getting out to vote. That's what's very good," said Scott.

People are getting out to vote -- but many of them are having to wait in line for three or four hours to do so. One contributor to DailyKos claimed it took 9 hours to vote. In Miami-Dade on Saturday, people who had gotten in line by 7:00 p.m. were allowed to vote; the last person wasn't checked in until 1 a.m., meaning it took some individuals six hours to cast a ballot.

"We're looking at an election meltdown that is eerily similar to 2000, minus the hanging chads," said Dan Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida.

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We've got stories that continue to come out about voter suppression everywhere from Arizona, to Colorado, to Pennsylvania to you name it, and stories like this one just coming out this week -- Florida 'Glitch' Wipes Out 1000 Early Votes In Black Area.

And this recent news from Ohio where their Secretary of State Jon Husted is doing his best to become the next Katherine Harris or Ken Blackwell -- Last-Minute Ohio Directive Could Trash Legal Votes And Swing The Election.

But never mind all that. If people don't like it that the Republicans are doing their best to keep them from voting or their votes from being counted, well that's too bad according to Mitt Romney's number one neocon fan-girl -- Wash. Post's Jennifer Rubin Dismisses Voter Suppression Concerns As "Sour Grapes".

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It seems Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted isn't finished doing his best to suppress the vote in his state and cause as much chaos and confusion as humanly possible between now and election day -- Husted To Appeal Ohio Early Voting Ruling To Supreme Court:

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced Tuesday that he will appeal a court ruling which restored access to early voting during the three days before the election.

An appeals court ruled Friday that Ohio must treat all voters the same as it treats military members or people who live overseas. Husted called the ruling “an unprecedented intrusion by the federal courts into how states run elections” in a press release on Tuesday.

“This ruling not only doesn’t make legal sense, it doesn’t make practical sense,” Husted said. “The court is saying that all voters must be treated the same way under Ohio law, but also grants Ohio’s 88 elections boards the authority to establish 88 different sets of rules. That means that one county may close down voting for the final weekend while a neighboring county may remain open. How any court could consider this a remedy to an equal protection problem is stunning.”

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that “while there is a compelling reason to provide more opportunities for military voters to cast their ballots, there is no corresponding satisfactory reason to prevent non-military voters from casting their ballots as well.”

President Barack Obama’s campaign and state Democrats had challenged Ohio’s effort to shorten the early voting period for those who weren’t in the military or based overseas. Early voting was available in the three day period period in 2008, and minority voters were more likely to vote during that period.

Read on for the response from the Obama campaign.

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Former President Bill Clinton is warning that President Barack Obama's edge in the polls may not be enough to defeat GOP hopeful Mitt Romney because the Republican Party was using voter suppression techniques to target traditionally Democratic voters like African-American church members and the elderly.

"How much will the vote be lessened or reduced by the fact that in Florida except for four counties, the pre-election voting -- advanced voting -- has been cut down to and doesn't include the Sunday before the election?" Clinton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired on Sunday.

The former president added that the tactic was "an arrow aimed straight at the heart of the African-American church, who pull up the church busses on the Sunday before the election and take elderly people who have no cars or people that are disabled to the polls so they can vote."

"How much will those things work in Ohio, where the legislature eliminated advanced voting unless the local election council voted for it?" he continued. "In the Republican counties, the three Democratic commissioners -- because they're not hypocrites -- voted with the Republican to allow advanced voting. In Cleveland, the three Republican commissioners voted against the Democrats so they can't have advanced voting."

"How much is all that going to affect the turnout? In my lifetime, nobody's ever done anything quite this blatant. So, I think you have to assume it's going to be close race, assume it's going to be a hard fight, and then fight through it."

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Here's one for the good guys. It looks like we found a judge who wasn't too happy with having the Ohio Secretary of State thumb his nose at a court order -- Ohio Secretary Of State Backs Down On Early Voting:

After being summoned to court by a federal judge, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted on Friday backed away from his order that would have banned counties from planning for early voting.

Husted’s original order had essentially ignored a ruling by U.S. District Judge Peter Economus, who declared that the state couldn’t take away early voting in the three days before the election. Economus sided with the Obama campaign, which sued Ohio to get the early voting re-implemented.

In a court filing on Friday afternoon, Husted said he “apologizes to the federal district court” for creating what he called the “misimpression” that he was ignoring the order. “The Secretary would never intentionally contravene an order issued by the federal district court or any other court — and this case is no exception,” the filing said.

Ohio also requested a stay of the court’s order until their appeal is heard with the Sixth Circuit.

Politics Nation's Al Sharpton who reported on the story for MSNBC, asks what happened to the party of Lincoln and Douglas and reminded everyone of just how important that our right to vote is. Here is the op-ed he quoted from when talking about Frederick Douglass: Voter Suppression, Then and Now.

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After passing a series of restrictive voter ID laws in every state where Republican governors and state legislators made gains the last election, as Rachel Maddow pointed out this Tuesday night, they've continued to prove that they really don't care all that much about breaking their own rules.

Whether it be the Indiana Secretary of State found guilty of voter fraud that might be reinstated by Gov. Mitch Daniels if a judge decides to downgrade his felonies to misdemeanor charges, or Dick Lugar who has had voter fraud charges filed against him by his "tea party" primary challenger, or the fact that the Republicans weren't too worried about ID's during their own caucus in Iowa, they continue to prove as Rachel noted, that IOKIYAR.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is requesting that the GAO take a look at the impact of these new laws which he discussed with Rachel in the segment above. Here's more on that from the Senator's web site -- The Right to Vote:

February 21, 2012

A group of U.S. senators on Tuesday asked the Government Accountability Office to study what they called an "alarming number" of new state laws that will make it "significantly harder" for millions of eligible voters to cast ballots this November. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, Richard Durbin and Bill Nelson sent a letter asking the non-partisan research arm of Congress for the review of new laws in at least 14 states.

The study is needed "to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to exercise their constitutional right to vote and are not unreasonably hindered or burdened in that process," the letter said.

Some of the new restrictions, the senators added, are tantamount to poll taxes.

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After DCCC Chairman Rep. Chris Van Hollen points out that the Democrats are out performing Republicans in many of the districts which allow early voting Mrs. Greenspan decides to read straight from the Republican talking points memo of the week.

Mitchell: Well, although Republicans put out the word yesterday that you should be careful for what you wish for because some of those Democrats who are turning out early could be Democrats who are voting against you.

Van Hollen lets her know that there isn't any polling data to support that, but I'm sure that won't stop Andrea Mitchell and the rest of the beltway Villagers from allowing this to become the new conventional wisdom from now until the elections next Tuesday. It sounds like she's already making excuses for flawed election results if these rigged machines don't match up with voter turnout and exit polls on election day. I'm also tired of the concerted effort by the media to suppress the Democratic vote by telling everyone the races are already lost before election day. The Democrats very well may not hold the House but the Villagers are doing their best to make sure that happens.

Mitchell then went on to downplay the outside anonymous groups donating to conservatives by comparing that to the Democrats' war chest. As Van Hollen explained:

There's a huge difference these big monied special interests that are pouring money into races and money that candidates spend which is both limited and transparent and that's what the voters don't like.

We need to be getting all of the money out with publicly funded elections but our lovely Supreme Court opened the floodgates to make things even worse instead no matter how much the Villagers like Mitchell want to pretend this is just business as usual. Most voters don't like our politicians being bought whether it's transparent who's doing the buying or not. Unfortunately we're not seeing Democrats take the opportunity to make the case for public financing. If this election cycle doesn't wake them up to the fact that our badly broken system needs to be fixed, I don't know what will.

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From The Rachel Maddow Show Nov. 2, 2008.

In January 1964, the 24th Amendment to the Constitution abolished the poll tax. A poll tax was a fee you had to pay at the time of voting. If you didn't have the money to pay the poll tax, you couldn't vote. In other words the only people had an affective right to vote were people rich enough to be able to pay the poll tax. Anybody too poor to pay it had no real right to vote. That's why southern states had the poll tax. It was a handy way to keep poor African Americans from voting even if they technically had a Constitutional right to do so. Well it's 44 years down the road now since the poll tax was Constitutionally abolished and what do you know, we've got, sort of, another poll tax. It looks like this.

Full transcript to follow.

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