Students face HUGE obstacles when Voting and Registering

This morning Matthew Segal from the Student Association for Voter Empowerment" was on CNN talking about some of the challenges Students face and the rights that need to be protected for young voters. He also addresses the atrocious actions by the County Clerk in Virginia and El Paso, Colorado who attempted to disenfranchise students, and fliers that are geared to suppress the youth vote.

Secretaries of State Protect Our Votes

Not every state in the country has a Secretary of State, but the ones that do should know how important their jobs are. Secretaries of State are the chief election officers who ensure things run smoothly on the big day. Do you remember Katherine Harris right? She was the Secretary of State for Florida in 2000. She was played by Laura Dern in the Kevin Spacey movie Recount on HBO about the 2000 election if that helps.

It's not the most glamorous job. For instance, you don't enact foreign policy like the Secretary of State for the United States Condoleezza Rice.

But if you want to ensure that your vote is counted, or that you can vote on election day, your Secretary of State is key.

Video chat rooms at UstreamAt Netroots Nation, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen appeared on a panel called Educating and Empowering Voters that talked about everything from typical problems registering voters to purging voters from the voter rolls and more.

Robin Carnahan, the Secretary of State for Missouri defines her duties on her website as "defending voters rights"

"It is also my job to protect the voting rights of every eligible citizen. Not 95% of our citizens. Not just Missourians who have a drivers license or a passport. But every eligible Missouri citizen."

I caught up with Secretary Carnahan who has been the chief election officer since 2004: