Daily French Roast

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Marian Fuson of Kennett Square, Pa., before an event where Republican presidential candidate will speak at the spring reception for the Republican Committee of Chester County in Mendenhall, Pa., Alex Brandon / AP Photo

Mitt and Women

In the latest presidential polling, Mitt Romney is winning among married women by 9 points over President Obama writes The Daily Beast. This is a more traditional voting pattern for married women. Among unmarried women — who make up 22.2 percent of the electorate — says Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, Obama leads by a 28-point margin.

Frank Newport of Gallup says other demographics drive the decision-making of single women.

“African-Americans are less likely to be married than whites, and 9 out of 10 support the president,” Newport said. “Also young people, particularly under the age of 30, are more likely to support Obama and less likely to be married. Nonmarried people are much less likely to be religious, and people who are more religious are less likely to support Obama. A lot of these things go together.”

Bottom line, at all age levels and in all demographics, a woman’s marital status is the determining factor in how she votes.

One often hears that single women tend not to be engaged with politics, but Lake says that her polling show a major upswing of 20 points among single women being engaged with the election, and “they attribute the Republican Party’s positions to Romney”.

DRF: PA Voter ID Lawsuit

On Tuesday Viviette Applewhite of Philadelphia became the plaintiff in challenging Pennsylvania’s new law requiring voters to produce a driver’s license or other photo ID before they are allowed vote, writes the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Applewhite says she has voted since 1960, when she cast her first presidential ballot for John F. Kennedy. But she doesn’t have a driver’s license. And since she has been unable to obtain a birth certificate from the state, Applewhite says, she will not meet the law’s requirements and therefore will be barred from voting in the Nov. 6 presidential election.

Speaking from her wheelchair, Applewhite is one of 10 plaintiffs, including three elderly women who say they’ve tried to get documents but can’t obtain them in the Jim Crow South. Represented by PA ACLU, the plaintiffs say they can’t obtain a birth certificate because the states have no records of their births.

In the video Viviette Applewhite explains that she is a single mother who has raised five children, each of them college-educated and long-time voters.