Today’s Election News Roundup

Ill. Sen. Barack Obama will suspend his campaign on Thursday and Friday to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii. Mrs. Dunham, 85, had a prominent role in raising Barack while his mother lived in Indonesia. According to sources, her illness is very serious.

Republicans, concerned that Democrats may win the White House and increase their majorities in the House and Senate, have warned that an all-Democratic government could be dangerous. In his stump speech yesterday, Ariz. Sen. John McCain said that Obama is "measuring the drapes and planning, with Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and Sen. (Harry) Reid, to raise taxes, increase spending and concede defeat in Iraq."

Voters in Florida have headed to the polls in record numbers for registration and early voting. According to the Orlando Sentinel, “Most of the new voters are minorities. While the statewide voter roll has grown about 8 percent during the past two years, the number of Hispanic voters has increased 21 percent during that period, and the number of black voters is up nearly 18 percent.”

Florida has become an even tighter battleground this year because of the proliferation of Hispanic voters, many of whom are registering Democratic. Bloomberg reports: “Hispanic voters are 12 percent of Florida's electorate, and for the first time since the state started reporting registration by race or ethnicity, Democrats now outnumber Republicans among them by almost 68,000 registered voters, according to figures released Oct. 19 by Florida's secretary of state.”

Descendants of slaves owned by Sen. John McCain’s family have announced that they will vote for Barack Obama. McCain’s great-great grandfather owned more than 120 slaves in Mississippi and a cousin of McCain’s still owns 1,500 acres of the family's 2,000-acre plantation.

Real Clear Politics offers a chart for polling numbers in each state, including comparisons of where President Bush stood in 2004 and 2000 nationwide.

The findingDulcinea 2008 Election Web Guide highlights the best online resources relating to the candidates and the election.

Project Vote Smart describes the process of nominating a presidential candidate, with concise descriptions of the convention, caucuses, primaries and the process of awarding delegates.

An overview of the role of delegates and superdelegates is presented by the Council on Foreign Relations.

Daily coverage of the 2008 Election is gathered from media sources across the political spectrum and presented by Real Clear Politics to provide up-to-the-minute coverage. The site publishes daily political transcripts, including addresses on the campaign trail and withdrawal speeches. It also constantly updates and compares polling reports from Rasmussen, Gallup, CNN, Pew Research, and other major media sources. Additionally, the site provides a 2008 Primary Delegate Count, which presents the delegate counts of each candidate.

NPR provides an interactive calendar of past primaries. Headline stories that detail the events of the primaries and campaigns accompany the primary map. In addition, NPR hosts a “National Delegates Total,” with an ongoing count of delegates won by each candidate.

Minnesota Public Radio’s online “President Survey” matches the political convictions of respondents with the candidates’ policies in order to help voters make an informed choice come election day.

The New York Times publishes a constant stream of articles from the Associated Press. These concise AP stories cover new developments on the campaign trail.

As election momentum picks up, the Times of London offers British readers a glossary of campaign jargon that will be of use to many Americans as well.

OpenSecrets.org compares the total campaign donations for each candidate and looks into the war chests to see where the money comes from.