Today’s election snippet: This video from the Rachel Maddow show, about lies being told to college-age voters to intimidate them from voting. Students at Virginia Tech were told that they could forfeit their scholarships, lose their health insurance, and increase their parents’ taxes, if they voted locally (i.e., in the state where they go to school). And at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, a flyer went out saying that undercover cops would be staking out voting booths on Election Day, to catch people with unpaid traffic tickets.

Wanna know who’s doing this? Hint: The youth vote is polling extremely heavily towards Obama. And while young people in this country traditionally don’t turn out very heavily in elections, it’s generally being assumed that this election will be different. Young people aren’t just supporting Obama: they’re extremely excited about Obama. Passionate, even.

And just to point out: The states where these reports came from? The hotly contested swing states of Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The pertinent bit starts at about 1:10. Before that, what you get is a bit about a prank flyer announcing a separate election day for Democrats of Wednesday, November 5… and a deeply ironic clip from a McCain speech, about “letting the voters weigh in.”

Let’s hear it for the Republicans. Who happily trumpet the principle of democracy in jingostic abstractions… but are happy to trample on the democratic principle that everyone who wants to vote, and who is legally entitled to vote, should be able to vote, without intimidation.

Video below the fold.