You know that millions of new voters have registered to vote in this election. And they’re disproportionately Democrats. So Republicans across the country are pulling out every stop to disqualify as many of those voters as possible or gum up the works with procedural delays they’re not eligible to vote on election day.

They just had a big victory in Ohio.

The court ruling applies to more than 600,000 new registrations in Ohio. And there’s some question whether the new ruling can even be put into effect in time for the November election.

This article from last week provides more detail on the lawsuit in question.

Late Update: TPMMuckraker reporter Zack Roth has now given a close look to this story. And while it’s an important development that bears close watching, it turns out to be more complex than I first suggested.

Gov. Palin has spent the last six weeks telling us she’s on lookout if Russia tries to mount an invasion of the US through Alaska. But while she’s down here in the Lower 48 trying to get her crowds to think that Barack Obama is in league with Muslim terrorists, the Russians themselves just landed in Anchorage. According to Bloomberg, more or less the entire senior management of the Russian oil and gas monopoly Gazprom just showed up in Alaska to meet with Palin’s Department of Natural Resources and the CEO of ConocoPhillips to see if they can get in on that big pipeline projects she keeps bragging about that she says is going to lead us to energy independence.

Tonight’s the big night: the season finale of Project Runway. Also, a presidential debate. That and the day’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.

From the Times …

“He’s neither-nor,” said Ricky Thompson, a pipe fitter who works at a factory north of Mobile, while standing in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store just north of here. “He’s other. It’s in the Bible. Come as one. Don’t create other breeds.”

Without Ricky, where would McCain be?

I think it’s fitting that in the course of McCain’s utter self-destruction he become a ‘vote fraud’ scammer as well. In for a dime, in for a dollar. Whatever it takes.

TPM Election Central has uncovered two McCain/RNC robocalls in usually red North Carolina of all places — one hitting Obama on taxes and the other claiming he puts Hollywood ahead of America. Listen in.

Late Update: TPM readers in Missouri and Wisconsin report getting the same robocalls. Colorado, too. And Pennsylvania.

Later Update: Did we mention Minnesota, Virginia, and Ohio? Readers confirming getting calls over last day or so in all those states. Obviously, a big robocall push by the McCain camp in key states.

The “Kill Him!” threat from an attendee at the Palin rally yesterday has gotten the Secret Service’s attention.

CBS’s Bob Schieffer is the moderator for tonight’s debate. And as you’ll remember from this exchange with retired Gen. Wes Clark from late June, Schieffer is no stranger to the McCain Tire Swing …

Rockefeller to White House: Can the Senate intel committee please have copies of those torture memos leaked to the WaPo?

Everybody’s gaming out what McCain ‘has to do’ tonight. But we’ll leave that nonsense to others. We’re going to focus on the big questions: Like, will he make eye contact with Obama? And will he finally have the nerve to bring up Bill Ayers to Obama’s face, as he’s been doing all week on the stump, or flinch like last week? We take a look at the options in today’s episode of TPMtv …

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.