On Friday, loyal Ticket readers will recall, we reported that Supreme Court justices were discussing discussing the cases challenging Barack Obama's right to assume the presidency next month due to allegations surrounding his citizenship and birth.

Generally, the issues focus on professed doubts that the 47-year-old Democrat wasn't really born in Hawaii, despite his birth certificate from the state, and/or that the fact his father was a Kenyan and a British subject makes Obama a dual citizen -- meaning he is not a "native born" American, as required by the Constitution. Under U.S. law, people born in the U.S. are citizens.

Despite the Obama opponents' obvious passion, which has been burning for many months often under the political radar, few legal observers believe that the required four justices will vote to hear arguments on the cases. Only a small number of the 150 requests received each week are granted arguments.

A decision is likely to come today, possibly a simple rejection without comment or explanation. (See video below.)

One sign a rejection is likely is the Court apparently did not feel the issue important enough to ask the other side for comment.

Opponents of Obama still plan protests at the court today and a Washington news conference.

Another reason, as noted by The Times' David Savage, is that: "The justices also review rulings made by lower courts, usually when there is a disagreement about the law. In [these Obama] cases, lower courts dismissed the lawsuits without handing down major rulings." Thus, there is no legal ruling to be overturned by the Supreme Court.

Similar cases in 2000, charging that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were both residents of Texas, which violates a prohibition in the Constitution's 12th Amendment, were thrown out because the courts said litigants had no legal standing.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credits: Associated Press

He doesn't dominate the news much anymore, which is fine with his wife, Laura.

George W. Bush lit the nation's Christmas tree for the last time the other night. He and the about-to-be-former-First Lady have bought a house in an affluent area of north Dallas (see photo here). Move-in date: Jan. 20.

His historically low favorability poll numbers have crept up to a little less unfavorable, as they historically do among Americans watching a president leave office.

Saturday Bush attended his final Army-Navy football game as the nation's 43rd Commander-in-Chief and delighted the crowd with a spontaneous field goal attempt that didn't go far. (See photos by clicking the "Read more" line below.)   

Earlier the Union League of Philadelphia unveiled its official historical portrait of Bush that will hang there while Bush retires far away. The president spoke at the unveiling and opened with the knowing remark, "Welcome to my hanging."

Here's a news video of the portrait unveiling and some of the 43rd president's remarks. The full transcript appears on the jump. (Click the "Read more" line below.)

--Andrew Malcolm

Bush may be leaving town. But The Ticket's staying right here. Register right here for cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item. Sign up here for RSS feeds.

Now click the "Read more" line to see more photos and the full transcript.

America strives to uphold the proposition that all men, women and votes, are created equal. But the archaic Electoral College requires that a group of extra-equal Americans cast their ballots before a president can officially take office.

That's where Sid Voorakkara and 54 other Californians come in.

The nonprofit health advocate and former Democratic political operative from San Diego will travel to Sacramento on Dec. 15 to cast his Electoral College vote for Barack Obama, who captured all the state's 55 electoral votes by getting way more popular votes than the Arizona guy and Alaska gal on Nov. 4, as The Ticket reported last night.

(A refresher for our many loyal Ticket readers abroad and some at home who didn't do too well in American Government:

(A state's Electoral College votes are the total of that state's elected U.S. senators (two each) plus the total of its U.S. House members re-apportioned every 10 years by population. The latter ranges from the minimum of one in Montana and Alaska to 53 in California.

(Yes, we know, it is arcane. But, hey, it was very hot in Philadelphia when the Founding Fathers argued this all out back in the 1700s.)

Few people will actually notice the official ...

Fifteen days after the presidential election, John McCain was declared the unofficial winner of the state of Missouri, his 0.12% victory over Barack Obama delivering the Show Me State's 11 electoral votes to the Republican ticket.

Unfortunately for the Arizona Republican, that still leaves him on the short end of a 365-173 electoral total, with Democrat Obama easily topping the 270 mark needed for victory.

The narrow McCain Missouri victory, by just 3,902 votes out of 2,888,000 cast, means that Missouri sided with the presidential loser for just the second time in the last century.

Missouri also "got it wrong" in 1956, when it delivered a narrow 3,984-vote win to Democrat Adlai Stevenson over Republican incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The state had remained unclaimed this year as election officials awaited final results from four locales -- the city and county of St. Louis, Jackson County near Kansas City and from rural Montgomery County. Those tallies arrived Wednesday at the Secretary of State's office.

McCain gained 31 votes in the final returns, while Obama actually lost 235 votes. Election officials found that a figure for the ...

Here's a good reason why more loyal Ticket readers should take a little time to wander around elsewhere on LATimes.com. Yes, we know the map was in the newspaper. But most of our readers don't get the LA Times, silly people.

So here's a wonderful map showing the 2008 presidential voting for John McCain and Barack Obama by county, no less. Which one is yours?

Enjoy.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Credit: LATimes.com and our Ticket buddy Ben.

Few things seem to happen officially in modern American life until they are somehow ratified by being seen on TV. And it sure didn't take long for the television networks, armed with their exit polls studied all day, to proclaim Barack Obama the 44th president.

In fact, all the networks did it at once -- at 8 p.m. sharp, just as the polls closed in California.

“An African American has broken a barrier as old as the Republic,” NBC anchor Brian Williams said. “An astonishing candidate, an astonishing campaign, a seismic shift in American politics.”

With plenty of time to prepare, all the networks made the call simultaneously, pronouncing with certainty what they had prognosticated throughout the night.

Our meticulous colleague Matea Gold and some of her media cohorts have the full details on the simultaneous call over on the Show Tracker blog here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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California is hardly a battleground state, but a new poll released today predicts record-breaking voter turnout in the state.

The Field Research Corp. estimates that 13.8 million voters will vote in today's election, either in person or by absentee ballot. That's 1 million more people than voted in 2004. The poll predicts that 78.9% of California's 17.3 million registered voters will cast ballots, the highest turnout in 32 years.

One thing drawing many voters to the booth is Proposition 8, the controversial measure that would amend the California Constitution to ban gay marriage. The two sides have raised nearly $74 million, according to The Times' Jessica Garrison, and the race is tight. A Field Poll last week showed that 49% of likely voters were against Proposition 8, 44% in favor of it, and 7% undecided.

For more on Proposition 8, check out the video below or Garrison's extensive coverage here. And you can find more about how the election is unfolding in California at our L.A. Now blog.

-- Kate Linthicum

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Well, the final day before the official presidential voting and the final version of Karl Rove's exclusive national electoral map sees a strong victory for Barack Obama, gaining the most electoral votes since Bill Clinton's lopsided win over Bob Dole in 1996.

According to the research of compiled state polls by Karl Rove & Co., the hypothetical electoral college numbers suggest an Obama win over the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin of 338 electoral votes to 200.

For the final report, Rove has allocated each state to the candidate leading there in state polls today.

According to these calculations, Obama takes hard-fought Florida. But McCain edges ahead in Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota and North Carolina.

Rove notes that Obama and McCain are in dead heats in North Carolina and Missouri, but the most recent polls over the weekend show a trend toward the Republican ticket. "Florida, too, could end up in McCain’s column," Rove adds, "since he’s benefited from recent movement in the state." But it's not enough for the Arizona senator to capture the necessary 270.

For an explanation of the research methodology and for a chart showing the study's movements week by week since July 1, click on the Read more line below. The Ticket's appreciation to Rove & Co. for its permission to publish these polls simultaneously throughout the recent hotly contested months.

--Andrew Malcolm

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As history predicts, national polls began showing a distinct tightening in the presidential race between the Republican ticket of Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden this week.

But with time running out before Tuesday's balloting -- and millions already having voted early -- state polls, which usually do trail national surveys, have yet to show any discernible movement toward McCain, according to new research just released by Karl Rove & Co.

Sixty-six new state polls since The Ticket last published this map on Sunday have seen Obama's leads solidify and moved Nevada's five electoral votes from the tossup category to Obama's column.

This gives the freshman Illinois senator 311 hypothetical electoral votes to McCain's 157 and 70 still tossups. (270 are needed for victory.)

McCain's road is growing steeper as he must, according to Rove, pick up all the remaining tossup states plus win several larger states, such as Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

--Andrew Malcolm

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National electoral map and chart below published courtesy of Karl Rove & Co.

(UPDATE: See below.)

A federal judge ruled this week that Ohioans can cast ballots next Tuesday even if their "residence" is a park bench or street grating.

U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus says that voters, presumably the homeless, need not have an actual address in order to vote and help determine whether Ohio's crucial 20 electoral votes go to the Republican presidential ticket of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin or the Democratic ticket of Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The lawsuit was brought by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, whose attorney claimed that local election officials had made the ridiculous assertion that they needed actual addresses to verify and accept legitimate voters.

(UPDATE: Conan O'Brien on hearing this Ticket news: "“A judge in Ohio has ruled that homeless people are allowed to vote and that they can list their home address as 'a park bench.' Ohio officials say that a park bench may not be the most traditional place to live –- but it’s still a lot nicer than Cleveland.”)

-- Andrew Malcolm

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John McCain and Barack Obama increasingly seem to be operating in separate political universes.

Obama continues to draw jaw-dropping, record-shattering crowds while McCain struggles to fill small venues. The contrast was most glaring Saturday in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state McCain desperately needs for the inside straight draw he needs to reach the 270 electoral votes necessary for victory.

That day, McCain pulled fewer than 1,000 people to a sun-dappled plaza in the New Mexico State Fair grounds despite the campaign’s best efforts to drum up a crowd. That evening, Obama drew what police said were about 45,000 to a rally several miles away –- and more than tripled that total the next day at two rallies in Colorado, another battleground state.

For a video diary of a campaign day on the trail with...

...John McCain, view this video.

Polls seem just as lopsided. The most recent average of national polls, compiled by realclearpolitics.com, indicates Obama is up 7.6%, and up in the key battleground states of Colorado, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia –- all states that President Bush carried in 2004.

So it seemed odd to hear McCain insist to Tom Brokaw on NBC’s "Meet the Press" that the race is tightening and he is doing “just fine.”

A campaign official, speaking on background, later explained the internal polling numbers that McCain’s campaign has collected. Their data show McCain down only 4 percentage points nationally –- a sharp improvement from a week ago -- and closing fast. They also show him down only 3 percentage points in Virginia, and up 1 in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and Missouri.

The Arizona Republican needs to capture all five states. Assuming they lose in Pennsylvania, which the campaign believes is probably out of reach now, McCain needs to pull 10 more electoral votes out of some combination of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico or Iowa -– all states where even the internal numbers look bleak.

“Check with me Wednesday,” the official added. “If we’re still within the margin of error, we’re going to win.”

-- Bob Drogin

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A flood of new state polls the last couple of days -- virtually one new survey an hour -- has widened the hypothetical electoral college lead of Barack Obama to its largest size yet, according to the latest state poll research published today by Karl Rove & Co.

Obama now holds 317 electoral votes (see map below) to 157 for John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket, and 64 more votes remain in the tossup category.

New poll results in Indiana turned that traditionally Republican state from McCain's column into Obama's, while new results from Montana pushed the Big Sky state from McCain's camp into tossup. (The research methodology can be reviewed by clicking on the "Read more" line below.)

Rove adds one cautionary note: "From here to the end, these electoral college maps will be slow to reflect last-minute shifts in opinion since they are based on an average of state polls over a two-week period."

A fascinating chart showing the presidential race's weekly ups and downs from July 1 is also viewable by clicking the "Read more" line below.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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