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huffingtonpost.com — The next 36 hours are crucial for the future of our country, our lives, our children's lives, so we don't want to waste even a minute of your time.

No matter what the polls or pundits say, it's all about voter turnout and unlikely voters (especially youth) actually going to vote. And we're not just talking about the Presidential election. This is about Congress, and all the critical state and local races and ballot measures too. No matter what the polls say, voter turnout in the next few hours is the whole ball game. Here are eight cool, interesting (and useful) things to do in the next 36 hours in addition to voting.

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thenation.com — Three months ago, TheNation.com kicked off a new campaign: “#TalkPoverty: Questions for Obama and Romney.” At the outset of the #TalkPoverty effort, I promised to hound both campaigns for answers. In the end, it didn’t really require hounding as far as the Obama campaign was concerned—they agreed to respond when I first contacted them. The Romney campaign, on the other hand, initially expressed openness before sending an e-mail last Thursday: “We will not be participating. Thanks for the offer.” It seems that the Romney campaign prefers to continue its strategy of speaking about “the poor” without saying anything of substance about antipoverty policies, or speaking in a manner completely untethered from reality, or outright lying. I promised both campaigns that we would run the answers without any interpretation, simply let their responses speak for themselves. Here are the answers from the Obama campaign:

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colorlines.com — In the months ahead of Election Day, we’ve written here about dubious voter purges, cut offs to early voting, voter intimidation, and more. The fact that so much has been invested to suppress peoples’ right to vote—particularly after the election of the country’s first black president—should indicate voting remains a threat because those votes can destabilize the way power has traditionally been held. Voting rights still matter as much as the act of voting itself. Aside from the long history that guaranteed suffrage for all adult citizens, casting a ballot does make a difference to our future. This is especially true in a country where demographic shifts will inevitably have to be reflected in domestic policy. The upcoming presidential race may determine the future makeup of the Supreme Court, and congressional races will mark whether cooperation or filibustering will define the next four years. And state and local races will determine issues much closer to home.

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commondreams.org — While we help victims of Sandy get back on their feet every way we can, we also have an obligation to make sure that reconstruction efforts provide real solutions for the future -- rather than compounding the tragedy. From Katrina and Isaac to Irene to Sandy, severe weather events are becoming a constant feature of our lives. And they're leaving in their wake too many lessons of the wrong way to rebuild. It even has a name: disaster capitalism. Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine and many other journalists have documented how developers and their political allies have used disasters like Katrina as a chance to funnel billions in public dollars into private pockets, to push conservative economic agendas, and to leave low-income people stranded -- literally locked out of reconstruction jobs in the communities they once called home. We can't let the same happen in Sandy's wake.

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jackandjillpolitics.com — Have you ever worked at a job where somebody was actively trying to sabotage you? Do you remember what that feels like? Well, that has been President Obama’s experience from Day One. As African Americans, we have a special sensitivity to situations where folks are unfairly set up to fail. We shouldn’t allow such tactics to determine the outcome of a national election. This is especially true in the president’s case. Obama’s performance has been extraordinary in both foreign and domestic policy, but he has gotten almost zero credit for truly historic achievements.

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