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This election season is proving to be tough for Democrats, but many believe they can turn the red state of Georgia blue with the help of new voters.

One voter registration campaign led by the New Georgia Project, a "nonpartisan effort" according to its website, has targeted black, Latino and Asian-American residents.

The organization's parent group, Third Sector Development, is currently engaged in a legal battle with election officials over more than 40,000 voter registration applications that, the group says, are missing from Georgia's voter logs. This month, that organization, along with the NAACP and other civil rights groups, filed a lawsuit against five counties and Georgia's Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who oversees elections in the state.

"These are voters who deserve to have their voices heard," says Stacey Abrams, founder of the New Georgia Project. "This is a critical election — an election that will not only speak to what happens in the state of Georgia this cycle but ... speaks to the future of the Georgia that we want to have."

The issue has been resolved in Georgia's DeKalb County, located outside Atlanta. But four other counties, including Fulton, Chatham, Muscogee and Clayton, still face the lawsuit.

A Call For Transparency

Abrams, a Democrat who serves as Georgia's House minority leader, says it's unclear whether the 40,000 applications in question have been processed, based on the state's public lists of registered voters.

"The reality may be that the voters are in the process, and they will appear on the rolls. But we don't know," she says. "This is about information. It's about transparency."

The Georgia secretary of state's office did not respond to requests for comment by deadline, but during a press conference on Oct. 16, Kemp said the lawsuit is "totally without merit."

"The claim that there are over 40,000 unprocessed voter registration applications is absolutely false," he said. "The counties have processed all the voter registration applications that they have received for the general election."

In September, Kemp launched an investigation into the New Georgia Project's voter registration campaign after forged and other invalid applications were submitted to county offices. The New Georgia Project says it is legally required to submit all voter registration applications it collects — even invalid ones.

Resolution In DeKalb County

Earlier this week, DeKalb County was released from the lawsuit after confirming that the county had processed all of its applications. Maxine Daniels, director of voter registration and elections in DeKalb County, says she was upset by the lawsuit's allegations.

"We understand that what we do is the very basis for our democracy, and so we take it very seriously," she explains. "For someone to say that we're not doing it, it's just very disconcerting."

Daniels says the lawsuit may come down to failures in communication between the New Georgia Project and county election offices. She says she wishes the group had reached out to her office about missing applications earlier in the process. But Daniels still supports outreach to new voters.

"Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water," she says. "We have to keep in mind that there still were some 7,000 voters that as a result of their project got registered [in DeKalb County]. And so we applaud that effort."

NPR contacted the four other counties named in the lawsuit. All asserted that they currently have no unprocessed applications. A hearing about the case is set to take place in Atlanta on Friday.

Ahead of the midterm elections, Michel Martin is visiting Charlotte, N.C., to learn more about Latino voters' growing influence in the state. Join Michel for a Facebook chat from 4:30-5 p.m. ET today as she answers questions and shares more on her reporting.

Twenty-year-old Mary Espinosa is eager to get to the polls this Election Day. "I have a lot of friends who are undocumented [and] can't vote," she says. "My parents can't vote, and so for me, using my ability to vote as a way of kind of letting my dad's voice count."

Outside traditional Latino strongholds in the West and Southwest, voters like Espinosa are poised to have an impact in close races. She lives in North Carolina, where Latinos make up 9 percent of the state's population and some 2 percent of registered voters. Many of them are young, first-time voters. And there's a tight Senate race in the state that could hinge on them.

The first generation of people from Latin America arrived in the state in the 1980s, according to the University of North Carolina's Latino Migration Project, and they were "farmers, scientists, builders, housekeepers, teachers, cooks, factory workers and entrepreneurs."

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Diego Fernando Barahona Andrade is the editor of La Noticia, North Carolina's oldest Spanish-language newspaper. Andy McMillan for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Andy McMillan for NPR

Diego Fernando Barahona Andrade is the editor of La Noticia, North Carolina's oldest Spanish-language newspaper.

Andy McMillan for NPR

Architect Alina Bartlett moved from Caracas, Venezuela, in 1978 to attend UNC in Charlotte. "There were, what, about nine Hispanic students at the time, and they were very open to diversity in their student body, so they made it very accessible," she says.

Diego Barahona is the editor of La Noticia, the state's oldest Spanish-language newspaper. He points out that, in most of Latin America, voting is compulsory, but not so in the U.S. So voters who don't like the candidates might actually welcome the option of not voting.

In that heated Senate race, according to a new North Carolina study from the National Council of La Raza Action Fund and Latino Decisions, 40 percent of Latinos polled support incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan, while 15 percent support Republican challenger Thom Tillis. That means 45 percent of Hispanic voters are undecided.

Meet Charlotte's Latino voters

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Deborah Aguiar-Velez is a chemical engineer by trade and CEO of Sistemas Corp., a technology consulting company she founded in 1983. Aguiar-Velez was raised in Puerto Rico and moved to the United States in 1978. She settled in Charlotte, N.C., after 2006, after almost 30 years in Georgia. Andy McMillan for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Andy McMillan for NPR

Deborah Aguiar-Velez is a chemical engineer by trade and CEO of Sistemas Corp., a technology consulting company she founded in 1983. Aguiar-Velez was raised in Puerto Rico and moved to the United States in 1978. She settled in Charlotte, N.C., after 2006, after almost 30 years in Georgia.

Andy McMillan for NPR

Deborah Aguiar-Velez

"One of the great things about Charlotte is that you can talk to everybody. You can talk to the mayor, you can talk to anybody who is running — you invite them. And because we're Latinos, everybody comes and talks to us on election years. And they love you, and then they forget about you. That's the way that I think they think about most of the Latinos. All the people who are running just went to the Latin American Chamber [of Commerce], and then you don't see them again until the next year."

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Originally from Peru, Milagritos Aguilar is the manager and owner of Royal Roofing LLC., a roofing and solar panel company. She used to live in Pennsylvania and says the recession brought her to Charlotte in 2008. Andy McMillan for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Andy McMillan for NPR

Originally from Peru, Milagritos Aguilar is the manager and owner of Royal Roofing LLC., a roofing and solar panel company. She used to live in Pennsylvania and says the recession brought her to Charlotte in 2008.

Andy McMillan for NPR

Milagritos Aguilar

"As a minority businesswoman, I started my business five years ago, with no money and no experience. When I see that Charlotte opened doors for me and gave me so many opportunities, I thought that I had to give in return something. And little by little, I start having my business get successful and, little by little, saw that Charlotte also gives me the opportunity to speak out about my country. So it's a very interesting experience."

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Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Carlos Salum is a leadership performance adviser and the founder of Salum International Resources Inc. He says the first reason he moved to Charlotte was for the weather. Andy McMillan for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Andy McMillan for NPR

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Carlos Salum is a leadership performance adviser and the founder of Salum International Resources Inc. He says the first reason he moved to Charlotte was for the weather.

Andy McMillan for NPR

Carlos Salum

"Twenty-three years living under military dictatorships, that's something to you. And when you come to this country and vote for the first time, it makes you feel that you have an opportunity to sit at the table and make an impact."

On Wednesday night, the Latin American Coalition and National Council of La Raza held a Community Town Hall around voting and the election at Caldwell Presbyterian Church in Charlotte.

Many of the Latinos we met said they feel as though politicians take them for granted and aren't addressing the issues that matter most to the community. According to the NCLR/Latino Decisions poll, 33 percent of those polled said immigration reform is a top issue, followed by the economy (28 percent) and health care (22 percent).

Jorge De La Jara, the chairman of the Latin American Chamber of Commerce in Charlotte, says it's just a matter of time before politicians start paying serious attention.

In the meantime, he says, Latino professionals will help motivate young voters. "You have to be part of the change; you can't complain without being involved, he says."

I'll be returning to Charlotte on Monday for a live event on voting rights that will include a parallel bilingual Twitter chat, in English and Spanish, from 7 to 9 p.m. ET. Pop-up videos from our reporting trip in Charlotte are here on Storify.

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has once again changed the number of cars included in a massive and urgent recall over an inflator defect in air bags made by the Japanese company Takata.

Initially, 4.7 million vehicles were recalled, but in a list released on Wednesday, NHTSA added 3.1 million additional vehicles.

The Associated Press reports NHTSA has had difficulties getting the right facts out about the recall this week:

"[T]he regulatory agency has twice corrected the number of vehicles affected and acknowledged that a list it released Monday wasn't completely accurate. The agency urged people to use its website to see if their cars are affected — but a feature allowing people to check for recalls by vehicle identification number malfunctioned Monday night and still wasn't operational Wednesday."

Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton told our Newscast Unit that the bags in the recalled cars may have "faulty inflators that can rupture and send metal fragments flying out." Samilton says at least four people have died in accidents related to the air bag problem. Officials believe prolonged exposure to high heat and humidity might be a cause for the defect. That's led NHTSA to give a special warning to vehicle owners in warm, humid climates.

"The message comes with urgency, especially for owners of vehicles affected by regional recalls in the following areas: Florida, Puerto Rico, limited areas near the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana, as well as Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, Virgin Islands and Hawaii."

Toyota was one of the automakers with vehicles added to the expanded list. But Reuters reports the automaker says it will stand by Takata:

"[A] top Toyota Motor Corp. executive said in Tokyo that the Japanese automaker had no plans to abandon Takata despite the supplier's struggles.

" 'Toyota's not one to just dump a supplier,' Steve St. Angelo, Toyota's head of Latin American operations and the former chief quality officer in North America, told reporters. 'Have we ever eliminated a supplier? Yes. But it's really, really tough. We will exhaust every opportunity to help that supplier first.' "

David Shepardson, the Washington bureau chief of the Detroit News, told NPR's David Greene that in some places, Toyota is shifting replacement air bags away from colder states to warm-weather states. Shepardson also said Toyota is telling some vehicle owners that it will deactivate their passenger air bags until they can be replaced.

Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors have vehicles being recalled. NHTSA has published an updated list of vehicles potentially affected.

Today's mobile phones can do almost everything a computer can. But we still need them for their most basic purpose: making phone calls — especially in emergencies.

And yet, existing technology can't always pinpoint a caller's location, particularly when a 911 caller is indoors.

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed new regulations for wireless carriers to help address the problem, but so far, wireless providers are resisting the changes.

One of the first questions a caller is asked when they call 911 is, "Where is your emergency?" It's also "absolutely the most important," says Steve Souder, director of the Fairfax County Department of Public Safety Communications in Virginia.

"We need to know where you are to send somebody. We don't need to know what; we don't need to know how, we don't need to know when," Souder says. "The 'where' is the No. 1 thing."

But that's become a much harder question for first responders in the past 20 years. First, the GPS on cellphones doesn't work as well indoors as it does outside.

Second, callers used to reach 911 via a landline, which was linked to a specific address — down to the apartment number. That's not true with cellphones.

Chris Frederick, a 911 call-taker in Fairfax County, remembers when an 8-year-old called him on a cellphone because his parents had a medical emergency. The boy couldn't read very well, and his parents didn't speak English. So Frederick asked him to walk outside.

NPR/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics National Health Interview Survey

"And I said, 'Can you tell me what the number is on your house?' And he told me the number. It took about 10 minutes."

If the call had come in on a landline, Frederick says, identifying the house would have been instantaneous — the location would have just popped up on his computer screen.

With nearly half the children in the U.S. — like the boy Frederick helped — living in wireless-only households, situations like that are common. According to the National Emergency Number Association, around 210 million 911 calls come from cellphones every year. And about half of the people calling on a cellphone from indoors don't know where they are specifically.

The FCC regulates the cellphone industry, including wireless carriers like Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. Currently, the FCC requires cellphones to have technology that tracks a person to between 100 and 300 meters of where they are.

But as Jodie Griffin, senior staff attorney at the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge points out, "100 meters, which is the stricter end of the rules right now, is more than a football field."

And a football field is longer than some city blocks.

"When you're talking about someone who's outdoors, the ambulance may be able to arrive and just see where someone is in distress," Griffin says.

But if a caller is inside one of these buildings? Good luck.

So earlier this year, the FCC proposed new rules that would require vertical location information. That way, first responders could identify what floor a caller is on. The rules would also require location information within 50 meters — still longer than some apartment building hallways.

The new rules would apply to any phone, no matter what type.

So far, wireless providers are resisting the proposed changes. In filings with the FCC, Sprint said that the agency's timeline wasn't realistic.

In an email to NPR, Verizon said the company is "working with a variety of organizations across the ecosystem on a viable path forward."

The technology to meet those requirements is actually already available.

All Tech Considered

New Digital Amber Alerts Could Create A Backlash

Several companies have created systems that can better track a phone's location. The company TruePosition creates custom geo-location technology.

NPR Ed

Enlisting Smartphones In The Campaign For Campus Safety

"Special receivers are installed in the existing wireless operators' or carriers' cell towers," says Rob Anderson, TruePosition's chief technology officer. "Those receivers are able to very accurately measure the time the signals that are transmitted from the cellphones arrive at the various cell towers. And by making those time measurements, we can compute a position. And we measure those signals very precisely, on the order of nanoseconds."

Cities Project

Police Take Different Approaches To 'The Tyranny Of 911'

TruePosition's system doesn't require updates to every cellphone, but it does require cellphone carriers to add equipment to their towers.

Obviously, this would cost money — which companies would likely pass on to consumers in one way or another.

Public Knowledge's Jodie Griffin says the added cost could also raise another problem.

"The people who can't afford the newest smartphone, or can't afford to be on an LTE network, are going to be left behind if we just assume that we'll let the new technology that comes along in two years solve everything," she says.

The FCC is currently taking comments on the proposed rules. If they're approved, the regulations would still take at least a year to implement.

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