Our Morning Roundup

Virginia: the next Florida? Okay, now this is something I haven’t read 500 trillion times before. The NAACP filed a lawsuit against Virginia alleging that the state is unprepared to serve its greatly increased body of voters, according to the Washington Post. “Never have so many people in the region registered to vote, and with the intense interest in the presidential election, officials expect turnout rates as high as 90 percent. Virginia has added 500,000 registered voters to its rolls since the 2004 presidential election and now has more than 5 million. Maryland’s list has grown 10 percent, to almost 3.5 million, and the District has almost 427,000.” (Something to note here: according to the census bureau, D.C.’s 2006 population was 581,530. Roughly twenty percent of the population was under 18. So, roughly nine out of ten people in D.C. of voting age are registered.)

And now for some local drama (from theWashington Post): D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray breaks an unspoken rule and endorses an at-large candidate while his current colleague Carol Schwartz fights for her political life!

Apparently, there were some doubts about Michelle Obama‘s awesomeness. Now, those thoughts are gone from the campaign, according to a story in the New York Times.

Washingtonian is not wasting any time in covering the inauguration hoopla. Yesterday, it launched its Inauguration Nation series, which will “track the step-by-step process—and madness—of planning and putting on inaugural events.” First up: checking out the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, home to past inaugurations’ splashiest affairs, and glorifying the whims of ridiculously wealthy hotel moguls.

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