If you're a West Wing fan desperate for just one more episode with President Jed Bartlet, CJ, and the rest of the crew, today is your lucky day. A handful of actors from the Emmy award-winning TV series reprised their roles in a campaign ad for the sister of Mary McCormack, a.k.a Deputy National Security advisor Kate Harper.

Bridget Mary McCormack is running for Michigan state Supreme Court. In a sketch littered with inside jokes, The West Wing team came together to bring attention to the not-so-sexy issue of filling out the non-partisan section of the voting ballot. This is how Michigan and 14 other states select their supreme court justices. As Bradley Whitford, who reprised his role as Josh Lyman, explains, “In non-partisan elections all across America, voters are leaving part of their ballot blank. And they don’t even know it.”

So who is Bridget Mary McCormack? According to the ad, she's a "married mother of four, dean at Michigan law. Bridget has spent her entire career fighting for justice for ordinary people for families with sick kids. For families of domestic violence. She's fought to free innocent men and women and get the actual criminals behind bars."

And in a TV-turned-reality twist, McCormack's husband, Steve Croley, currently works in the real West Wing as deputy counsel in the White House Counsel's Office.

While voting for Supreme Court justices may not be particularly racy, it is important. In fact, state Supreme Courts' decisions could influence the general election. Just this week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on the state's voter ID law, sending it back to a lower court to ensure that all voters can get an ID by November 6.

AP/Toby Talbo

Voters in Texas will not have to show photo ID in order to vote in November, following a ruling today by a federal court. A panel of three judges said the law puts "strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor" — particularly minorities.

Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott called the decision "wrong on the law" and says Texas will appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court.

In response to the decision, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said, "We are pleased with the court's decision to deny preclearance because of these racially discriminatory effects."

While giving a speech at the NAACP convention, Holder referred to the Texas' voter photo ID law a "poll tax."

"Texas has in many ways been at the center of our national debate about voting and civil rights issues...Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not," Holder said in July. "Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes."

Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry called Holder's poll-tax remarks an attempt to "inflame passions and incite racial tension."

Last night, Ann Romney started her speech by saying, "I want to talk to you about love." She went on to tell us about her love for Mitt Romney. Her love for our country. Her love for her homestate of Michigan. And, of course, her love for women!!!

Well, it looks like all that love rubbed off.

Today, convention production manager, Bradley Thompson, proposed to longtime girlfriend and convention production coordinator, Laura Bowman.  Thompson, 32, put his production skills to work and created a very well-produced engagement - complete with mammoth-sized pictures of the couple and their cute dog with a little Jack Johnson playing in the background. Bowman, 27, did her part and said yes.

The Brooklyn couple met at the interactive, NYC show "Sleep No More" and have been dating for three years, but they said they have no wedding date in mind.

When asked whether Mitt Romney will be on the invite list, Bowman quickly quipped, "Will he pay for the wedding?"

Best wishes to the happy couple!

AFP Photo/US 109th Congress

Rep. Todd Akin (file)

Today, sitting Congressional member, Missouri Republican Todd Akin made the conservative radio rounds trying to clear up what he really meant to say on Sunday. He told radio host, Dana Loesch, “Well, it was a misplacing of that word 'legitimate.' That was the problem, particularly that one word.”

Akin went on to say:

And you know, Dr. Willke has just released a statement and part of that letter, I think, he just really stated it very clearly he said, of course, Rep. Akin never used the word "legitimate" to refer to the rapist but to false claims like those made in Roe v. Wade. And I think that simplifies it.

Simply put: Akin really meant to blame the victim. But who's Dr. Willke?

Dr. John Willke is the self-proclaimed, founding father of the pro-life movement. Currently, he serves as president of Life Issues Institute. Before that, he was the president of the National Right to Life Committee.

In 1971, Dr. Willke and his wife wrote the book, "Why Can't We Love Them Both: Questions and Answers About Abortion." In 1999, he wrote the essay succinctly titled "Rape Pregnancies are Rare," in which he writes:

Factor in what is certainly one of the most important reasons why a rape victim rarely gets pregnant, and that's physical trauma. ...Hormone production is controlled by a part of the brain that is easily influenced by emotions. There's no greater emotional trauma that can be experienced by a woman than an assault rape. This can radically upset her possibility of ovulation, fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy.

Just yesterday, Willke repeated this misinformation to the New York Times, adding that:

..."way under 1 percent" of rape victims become pregnant, not just because of female biology but because about half of rapists "do not deposit sperm in the vagina."

Today Willke released a statement on Todd Akin, which Mike Huckabee read on his radio show today:

"If you don't think that people can make false claims of rape, we need to look no further than Norma McCorvey, the Roe of Roe v. Wade. That infamous abortion decision responsible for the deaths of more than 55 million babies was based on that very lie. Not very legitimate if you ask me. Of course, Representative Akin never used the word legitimate to refer to the rapist but rather false claims like those made in the Roe case."

We'll leave you with another far-right, religious radio host and Akin supporter, Bryan Fischer, who claimed today that the real victim of assault is Todd Akin. (h/t Rightwingwatch.org)

MSNBC

The Obama campaign continues its fight against voter suppression. There are 22 new laws in 17 states that will restrict voting in November — among them 10 states with laws requiring voters to bring a photo ID in order to vote. A new report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University takes a look at just how hard it can be for a voter with a photo ID to get one. 

Critics say these voting laws unfairly target minority, poor, and older voters. Despite studies finding that a person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit voter fraud, Republican state legislatures continue to push these laws through.

The latest state is Ohio, where Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal spent yesterday campaigning.

The Obama campaign, along with the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party, have filed a lawsuit this week against Ohio's new law that limits in-person early voting for most of the state's voters the three days prior to the election.

The Obama campaign calls the new law unconstitutional.

Ohio is one of 32 states that allows voters to vote in-person at a polling station before election day. In 2008, nearly 100,000 Ohioans voted in-person during the three days before the election.  

On the House floor today, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) took on the only piece of the Arizona law still intact after the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this week. The "show me your papers" law allows police officers to check the immigration status of any person they stop for unrelated issues. Opponents of the law say it will encourage racial profiling.

To illustrate that point, Gutierrez played the "Pick Out the Immigrant" game, which included a comparison for the "young C-SPAN viewers": teen celebrity duo, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.  Bieber may look like the all-American boy next door, but he's a Canadian. His girlfriend and Disney channel star was born and raised in Texas.

Before moving on to the next comparison, Gutierrez had this warning for the pop star: "Justin, when you perform in Phoenix, remember to bring your papers."

Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (file)

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett is back! Don’t remember him? Think unicorns...

Last month, Bennett made headlines after threatening not to include President Obama on the Arizona ballot. For Bennett, the President's long-form birth certificate wasn’t enough proof that he was an American citizen. Arizona's top election official wanted Hawaii officials to verify its authenticity. After days of mocking and a unicorn campaign, Bennett eventually apologized for embarrassing the state of Arizona and dropped the issue.

But now, Bennett, who also co-chairs Mitt Romney’s campaign in Arizona, has a new conspiracy theory. At a recent meeting with fellow Arizona Republicans, Bennett said:

"I know there's a lot of people who...are very skeptical of whether the president was born in Hawaii. Personally, I actually believe he was. I actually think he was fibbing about being born in Kenya when he was trying to get into college and doing things like writing a book."

 Bennett believes President Obama lied to get into Harvard and spent millions of dollars to seal his college records because:

“If you're spending money to seal something, that's probably where the hanky panky was going on.”