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Election Day is two and a half weeks away and early voting has already started in many places. So here's a recap for all those trying to keep track of the flurry of last-minute legal activity involving state voting laws:

Arkansas: The Arkansas Supreme Court has struck down the state's voter ID law. A county circuit court judge found the law unconstitutional in May, but stayed his decision pending appeal. That meant that the ID law would have been in effect for the November elections. Now it won't be. The state's high court found that requiring voters to show a photo ID imposed a new qualification for voting, violating the state's constitution.

Ohio: The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to block a lower court ruling that would have prevented the state from cutting back its early voting period. That means that instead of starting early voting on Sept. 30, Ohio voters had to wait a week. The decision also cut out early voting during evening hours and on Sunday, Oct. 26th. However, there will still be early voting in Ohio on the weekend right before Election Day. Opponents said the early voting cuts would hurt minority voters the most. The state countered that Ohio still offers more early voting than other states.

North Carolina: The U.S. Supreme Court stayed a federal appeals court decision to block part of the state's sweeping new voting law. The appeals court had ruled that two provisions — eliminating same-day voter registration and prohibiting the counting of ballots cast in the wrong precinct — should not go into effect this year, while the law is being challenged. The Supreme Court disagreed. Two justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, dissented. Ginsburg noted that the appeals court found that the state law "risked significantly reducing opportunities for black voters."

Wisconsin: The U.S. Supreme Court blocked a federal appeals court ruling that had allowed the state's voter ID law to go into effect this year. So, at least for now, Wisconsin voters do not have to show a photo ID at the polls. Three justices dissented — Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Even so, Alito expressed concern about imposing the new ID requirement — which had been on hold — so close to the election. He said it was "troubling" that the state sent out thousands of absentee ballots without the ID requirement. Those ballots were at risk of being rejected, but will now be counted.

Texas: Civil rights groups have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state's new voter ID law — one of the strictest in the nation — from remaining in effect this year, while the law is being challenged. A decision is expected soon. The emergency request comes after a federal judge found the law unconstitutional because it placed a disproportionate burden on black and Hispanic voters, who are less likely to have the required government-issued photo ID. But a federal appeals court agreed to stay that decision, leading the voting groups to turn to the Supreme Court for relief.

Arizona and Kansas: One other noteworthy case is pending. It involves a requirement by Arizona and Kansas that voters show proof of citizenship when they register to vote. The states are suing to get the federal government to change its registration form to reflect that requirement. The case is before a federal appeals court and a decision could come before Election Day. If not, voters in those states who used the federal registration form — and haven't shown proof of citizenship — won't be allowed to vote in state and local elections. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says he thinks only a few voters will be affected.

Those are the highlights. The Supreme Court has shown a reluctance to allow major voting changes to be put in place right before an election. But it hasn't ruled on whether these laws are constitutional. That's expected to happen after the election, and more likely next year.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

In a bit of a twist, the archives of the late, great crime novelist Elmore Leonard have come to rest at the University of South Carolina, the school announced Wednesday. Leonard, long known as the "Dickens of Detroit," chose Columbia, S.C., over the Motor City to house his collection after visiting the school last year, just months before his passing.

It was Leonard's tour of the university's literary archives — a walk among the original manuscripts of writers such as Ernest Hemingway and George V. Higgins — that persuaded him. And the choice came quickly: On the flight home to Detroit, Leonard made his decision, according to his son, Peter.

While Leonard was known for his spare writing style — he "had a contempt for putting pretty clothes on hard, direct words," NPR's Scott Simon remembered — he left behind his fair share of those words. More than 450 drafts of manuscripts, ranging from his early Westerns to his best-known novels, will join scrapbooks, typewriters and even a few Hawaiian shirts in the collection.

Samples of the archives went on display Wednesday, and The Associated Press reports that the whole collection is expected to be ready for researchers' eyes in about 18 months.

McSweeney's Makes A Change: McSweeney's is going nonprofit. Founder Dave Eggers says he hopes that the San Francisco publishing house — the force behind a number of books, the magazine The Believer and, well, McSweeney's (the quarterly literary journal) — will become a 501(c)(3) group within a year. Eggers tells the San Francisco Chronicle why: "You know, the taste of the editors and the staff ran toward really worthy books and worthy undertakings and anthologies and series that ... didn't necessarily indicate profit."

Stretch Break: Electric Literature has an infographic's bounty of useful yoga poses for writers who, really, are hoping mostly just to dodge the blank page. Stretches include "Navel-Gazing Poet," "Blurb-Begging Novelist" and, naturally, the "Plot Twist."

Klein's Prize: In a week thick with awards, it's best not to forget neglect our friends north of the border. Journalist and activist Naomi Klein has won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize, Canada's richest prize for nonfiction ($60,000), for her book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Klein hopes the prize helps expand the book's otherwise "lefty audience," the writer told Publisher's Weekly. "It's all about having the debate, and you can't have the debate unless everybody is talking to each other."

Before The Afterlife: Oh, and you heard, right? Wolverine died Wednesday. But be calm, says Glen Weldon: He's not dead dead.

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For borrowers in default, the repo man is no longer the one to fear; it's Big Brother. Growing numbers of lenders are getting tech savvy, remotely disabling debtors' cars and tracking customer data to ensure timely payment of subprime auto loans. The practice has created problems for consumers, and raises privacy concerns.

Lenders use the starter interrupt device, which has been installed in about 2 million vehicles, according to The New York Times, to deactivate car ignitions remotely if borrowers are late on payments. Lenders can also track cars' movements using the GPS on the device, and the device emits beeps when a payment due date is approaching.

"The use of the devices has increased, and it worked its way up the credit chain a bit," says Tom Hudson, a partner at Hudson Cook LLP and founder and editor-in-chief of CARLAW, a monthly review of developments in automobile finance. "Suddenly these things seem to have grabbed the attention of the media, but they have been around for many years."

Hudson says he first heard of the devices in 1997, when they were largely used by "buy here, pay here" dealerships. Now, more subprime lending companies have taken to using them too.

Many borrowers with bad credit are required to have the starter interrupt device installed on their car before driving it off the lot. The device has helped feed into the growing subprime auto loan market, as it allows lenders to extend subprime loans with greater confidence.

Newly originated subprime auto loans, through June, were at an eight-year high $70.7 billion, according to Equifax. The Times reported that Lender Systems, a California company that makes a variety of starter interrupt devices, has seen its revenue more than double this year.

"You can see two sides of it. On one hand, look, if you're the kind of person who really needs a drastic prod to pay your bills, then it's probably as good as anything else. The thing is, it can be one of those things where it could be construed as somewhat undignified," says Bill Visnic, senior editor at Edmunds.com. "We all know how it goes with fine print, but the fact is that you've entered a legal arrangement with the dealer."

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The devices have put consumers in situations ranging from inconvenient to life-threatening. One woman claims that her lender had remotely shut down her car while she was driving down a three-lane highway in Las Vegas, according to Times report. Others in the report claimed that their cars were shut off when they needed to travel for medical attention, or that they had only been a few days behind on payments when lenders disabled their cars.

"The key public policy issue is procedural fairness from the consumer perspective," says Marc Rotenberg, president of Electronic Privacy Information Center. "This is a consumer fairness issue about whether people are being properly notified."

The practice also raises privacy concerns. The Times reported that a subprime lender used a device to track down and repossess a woman's car when she left her abusive husband to seek residence in a shelter. The woman feared that her husband would find out her location from the tow truck company.

"When [GPS tracking] is being done on the actual owner without their knowledge, we would object to that," Rotenberg says. "People should know the circumstances under which they are being tracked."

Hudson, the CARLAW editor, says he had initially expected to see several lawsuits surrounding the devices, but says he has seen fewer than 10 cases since he first learned of the devices in the late 1990s.

Most states allow starter interrupt devices, so long as consumers are informed of the installation. But restrictions have been placed in some states, Wisconsin being the strictest among them. A statement released by the Department of Financial Institutions in Wisconsin notes that the devices leave consumers responsible for vehicles but without control over the vehicle, possibly leading to parking tickets or blockages of driveways or garages. The statement also takes issue with the fact that vehicles may be disabled prior to the time the creditor is entitled to physically take possession of the vehicle.

Yet Hudson argues that these devices offer an alternative that is less painful for subprime borrowers.

"This is a much more consumer friendly approach to encouraging payment—there is no repossession," says Hudson. Instead of having to go down to the repo yard to pay a repossession fee, consumers can have their car turned back on just by paying what is due, he says.

Other auto repossession technologies have raised data security concerns. In March, The Boston Globe reported that Texas-based company Digital Recognition Network installs automated readers in "spotter cars" around the country that capture images of every license plate they pass. Each picture is sent, along with the time and GPS location at which it was taken, to a database that already contains more than 1.8 billion scans.

Law enforcement has used this technique for decades, but not without its own problems. Boston police suspended their license plate scanning efforts in December 2013 in the wake of news that data on more than 69,000 license plates had been accidentally released.

Subprime borrowers have also been subjected to tracking when purchasing other products on loan, such as personal computers. In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission charged that several rent-to-own companies had spied on consumers by remotely taking screenshots, tracking computer keystrokes, and taking webcam pictures, all without consent. The software, licensed by DesignerWare, also enabled the stores to disable the computer if the renter was late on payment.

Apartments might be another area where technology will begin to play a role when consumers are behind on payments, according to Rotenberg. Electronic lock systems are beginning to be used, and renters could be remotely or automatically locked out of their apartment if they are behind on rent.

"That's where I think it's going to get really interesting," Rotenberg says.

For now, starter interrupt devices remains legal in most states. But as the practice grows, the ways by which it is implemented will likely continue to have a significant impact on consumers.

"It's not a small decision to say that when someone puts the key in to turn on the car, that it's not going to turn out the way they expected," Rotenberg says.

Robert Szypko is an intern on NPR's business desk.

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HBO has built a robust and popular online presence over the past couple of years with its app, HBO GO. But to get it — as is the case with many streaming services that offer television over the Internet — you've needed a cable subscription. In other words, HBO GO was an add-on for people who already had HBO, not an alternative way of getting shows for people who didn't. (Although it should be noted: Wide sharing of HBO GO logins with friends and family who don't have HBO has been an open secret that the network hasn't appeared to care about, particularly.)

But today, HBO Chairman and CEO Richard Plepler announced the news that fans of the network's programming but not of cable packages have been waiting to hear: Beginning in 2015, HBO will offer a streaming service to cord-cutters and other nonsubscribers on an a la carte basis. It should be noted that the announcement HBO released to the media does not explicitly say the service will be HBO GO (or that it won't), only that it will be "a stand-alone, over-the-top, HBO service." And, of course, it doesn't say how much the service will cost. It doesn't even say it will carry every HBO show, let alone what archival material will be available — HBO GO has a lot. Those who are currently jumping up and down and declaring their independence from their cable provider may or may not be as happy when more details emerge.

The move, though, would seem to be a big one, given that requiring a cable subscription is standard on many services besides HBO that provide streaming access to cable programming (without requiring episode-by-episode purchase through services like iTunes or Amazon). The announcement says HBO will "work with our current partners" and "explore models with new partners," but it seems inevitable that an arrangement like this will unsettle cable providers who have been able to use legitimate access to premium networks like HBO as one of the remaining barriers against cord-cutting, the practice of declining to have a cable subscription in favor of watching online. (Others remain, including live sports broadcasts on cable.)

Many observers have expected an eventual full or partial decoupling of premium programming — and perhaps all programming — from the cable television subscription model beyond what has already happened (remember, Emmy nominations are now going to shows like Netflix's Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards, which are television shows that never aired on either broadcast or cable television). How large a step in that direction the HBO service will represent remains to be seen, but some version of a service people have been demanding for a very long time is in the near, and increasingly complex, future.