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The run up to midterm elections has sparked many heated legal and ideological arguments over voting procedures and requirements. To understand the debate, I went to Charlotte, North Carolina for a live community conversation around these voting laws. The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed a North Carolina law to go into effect that eliminates same-day voter registration and reduces the number of early voting days.

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Civil rights activist Charles Jones began the discussion when he shared a few of his personal experiences. Travis Dove/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Travis Dove/NPR

Civil rights activist Charles Jones began the discussion when he shared a few of his personal experiences.

Travis Dove/NPR

We heard from 77-year-old Charles Jones. He was heavily involved in voter registration efforts during the civil rights movement in 1960s. Jones shared a poignant story about a meeting he helped organize in Terrell County, Georgia to help African-Americans get comfortable with voting. The sheriff - also the local Ku Klux Klan leader - interrupted the meeting, but Jones emphasized the importance of standing up for yourself and making your voice heard.

"We have the option to help define our own lives," Jones said. "Involve yourself in learning from a factual base. Don't let anybody tell you what you ought to be doing, ought to be thinking."

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Hans von Spakovsky, manager for Election Reform Initiative and senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and also a former member of the Federal Election Commission. Travis Dove/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Travis Dove/NPR

Hans von Spakovsky, manager for Election Reform Initiative and senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and also a former member of the Federal Election Commission.

Travis Dove/NPR

Hans von Spakovsky is the manager of the Election Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, and the co-author of Who's Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk. He says the biggest reasons people fail to vote are not restrictive voter laws, but apathy and dissatisfaction with the candidates.

"The Census Bureau does a survey of non-voters and the biggest reason people don't vote has nothing to do with procedural issues...how you register, it's because they are not interested in politics, and they don't think their vote will make a difference, and they don't think that the candidates will really do anything for them," he said.

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Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Travis Dove/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Travis Dove/NPR

Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

Travis Dove/NPR

Janai Nelson is the Deputy Director and Associate Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She talked about how minority communities and low-income Americans are most affected by more restrictive voting laws.

"I fear that we're at critical stage in our current history where we risk turning back the hands on the clock and going back to a time where we are - for a variety of reasons - restricting the people who can vote in this country," she said.

We wanted the conversation to go beyond the McGlohon Theater in Charlotte. We held our social media chat - in collaboration with member station WFAE and La Noticia, North Carolina's oldest Spanish speaking newspaper - in English and Spanish. You can follow that conversation here:

[View the story "NPR Presents: Michel Martin, Voting Rights or Wrongs?" on Storify]

In case you haven't been following this year's election that much (don't worry, we're not judging you), we've rounded up a list of big ideas in play in the 2014 midterms.

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You're likely to see fewer of these cast this year than there were two years ago. YinYang/iStockphoto hide caption

itoggle caption YinYang/iStockphoto

You're likely to see fewer of these cast this year than there were two years ago.

YinYang/iStockphoto

Turnout: In a nutshell, it likely will be lower than in 2012. The Pew Research Center says voter turnout in the midterms has been lower than in presidential election years as far back as the 1840s.

NPR politics editor Charlie Mahtesian says that "[low] turnout in a midterm election also means the composition of the electorate looks different. In a midterm like this one, demographically the electorate tends to be older and whiter. That tends to be a recipe for a good Republican year." Pew's got a little more background on GOP engagement here. It says Republicans are more excited than Democrats about this election.

Voter turnout also could be affected by a number of voting law changes in several states that some think could hurt Democrats. NPR's Pam Fessler has a roundup.

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If past is prelude, President Obama's party may be in for a rough time. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Evan Vucci/AP

If past is prelude, President Obama's party may be in for a rough time.

Evan Vucci/AP

The 'Six-Year Itch': This is the idea that the election in the sixth year of a president's two terms tends to be very bad for the party in power.

PBS Newshour says all seven presidents elected since the Great Depression have seen their parties lose seats in both the House and Senate during their second terms. This will probably hold true for President Obama, as well. According to Gallup, Obama's job approval rating has been under 50 percent for well over a year.

Money: The Center for Responsive Politics says almost $4 billion will be spent on this election — making it the most expensive midterm ever, with Republicans spending a bit more than Democrats. Some of that stems from the Supreme Court's controversial decision in Citizens United in 2010 that made it legal for corporations and unions to spend as much as they want to support or attack candidates.

ABC News has a nice roundup of the most expensive races of this election. The North Carolina Senate battle between Democrat Kay Hagan and Republican Thom Tillis tops the list, with $113 million spent so far. Another interesting tidbit: NPR's Peter Overby reports that the number of TV ads running this election is actually down from 2010.

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Sen. Mary Landrieu, whose family has deep political roots in Louisiana, and former President Bill Clinton, whose wife may have her eye on the White House in 2016. Gerald Herbert/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Gerald Herbert/AP

Sen. Mary Landrieu, whose family has deep political roots in Louisiana, and former President Bill Clinton, whose wife may have her eye on the White House in 2016.

Gerald Herbert/AP

Dynasties: Several big-name politicians running for office this year — and some rumored to be running soon — come from families with other successful politicians. NPR's Mahtesian calls this the recurring theme of dynasty politics. "For a country that was founded in rebellion," he says, "we really have a soft spot for political royalty."

He's right. You've got Sen. Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat whose father and brother have been mayors of New Orleans. Then there's Sen. Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat whose father was also a senator. And Democratic Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado comes from a long line of political royalty. His cousin Sen. Tom Udall, a fellow Democrat from New Mexico, is also running for re-election this year.

In Texas, GOP candidate George P. Bush, son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and nephew of George W., is running for land commissioner. (Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, dropped her Senate bid earlier this year.)

And the 2016 presidential race already has outlines of dynastic politics – with prospective candidates such as Jeb Bush, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and, of course, Hillary Clinton.

Mahtesian says this phenomenon isn't new: Until Obama won the presidency in 2008, every single winning presidential ticket since 1980 featured either the son of a U.S. senator or the son of a U.S. president.

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Who will win congressional seats that are in play? Odds are they will be incumbents. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

itoggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Who will win congressional seats that are in play? Odds are they will be incumbents.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Incumbency: There are some sitting House and Senate members who should be worried about holding onto their seats, but for the most part, incumbents stay put. "Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection," says the Center for Responsive Politics. The way that districts are drawn — at its most extreme, that's called gerrymandering — to put lots of like-minded people in the same districts plays a part. Another factor is the tremendous advantages of incumbency: Sitting lawmakers are more established and better able to raise money.

When incumbents do get upset, they're likely to be the most junior members of the House and Senate. When more seasoned incumbents fall, it's often because they are politically wounded or haven't put enough time toward the hard grind of retail politics back home.

Mahtesian says that sometimes "they just can't do the rubber chicken circuit anymore." Just look at GOP Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, who's in trouble in his conservative state.

Knowing all of these things, what should you expect on Tuesday?

Well, Mahtesian says that when you look at all of the closest House races nationwide, there are more Democrats in trouble than Republicans. He says Republicans seem poised to win between 4 and 14 seats, strengthening their grip on that chamber.

As for the Senate, several political forecasters and handicappers think Republicans will wrest control.

Republicans need a net gain of six seats to win the majority. Of the 36 Senate seats on the ballot this year, Democrats are defending 21 of them — seven in states that Mitt Romney won — which is good news for the GOP. And of the Republican senators up for re-election, only one is running in a state that Obama won, which is also good for Republicans.

If Republicans do win the majority, the South will help pave the path: Louisiana, Arkansas and North Carolina have key races featuring vulnerable Democratic senators. Republicans, however, will need to hold onto their seats in Georgia and Kentucky. Other important Senate races to watch: Colorado and Iowa.

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Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers is one of the most powerful politicians in America. She's the top-ranking woman in the House GOP, and her political ambitions and trajectory have been debated everywhere from Capitol Hill to the pages of Glamour magazine. But when she walks into locally owned businesses like Maid Naturally in Spokane, Wash., she's just Cathy.

In the final week before the election, she stopped by the Spokane-based cleaning business and sits down to chat with co-founders Ruthanne Eberly and Heather Brown. McMorris Rodgers puts them at ease quickly, and before long the three women are swapping stories about what it's like to balance family and work.

"Do you have some tips now as to how to keep employees longer?" McMorris Rodgers asks the pair, who launched their business together in 2006. Since then they've expanded, moving from working out of their homes to a larger space.

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Eberly and Brown agree that keeping their employees around, especially in a business where people tend to come and go, comes down to building strong relationships.

That's something McMorris Rodgers understands. She's built a career on it.

"I find myself reminding people that Congress is also built on relationships," she tells them. "It's about building relationships. It's like anything you do in life, and you have to make that a priority."

McMorris Rodgers has a few priorities: Representing Eastern Washington in the House — a job she's held for a decade — and heading up the House Republican Conference where she is one of just 19 women.

The 45-year-old also has three young children. Her 1-year-old daughter flew cross-country with her during her most recent trip back to Spokane.

"I was single when I was elected, then I got married," she tells Eberly and Brown. "So I kind of eased into it. Got used to the business up-front, then I got married, added the kids."

This is how McMorris Rodgers connects with the women she meets on the trail, the very people her party needs to attract. She's down-to-earth, folksy even, and she makes everything personal.

But she is also politically savvy.

McMorris Rodgers says she never dreamed she'd be in politics herself, but she was appointed to the Washington statehouse at the age of 25. She went on to beat two members of the leadership to become the state's first female minority leader. Then, she decided to run for Congress.

"I just decided I was going to muster up all the courage I had, be a risk-taker, go see what I could do," she says.

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First elected to Congress in 2004, McMorris Rodgers is set to easily win re-election to a sixth term. But she's not taking that for granted. All in one day this week, she participated in a debate with Democrat Joe Pakootas, visited local businesses, chatted with eighth graders at a middle school and fired up a Republican women's group.

She often brings up her roles as a wife and mother while campaigning, saying the challenges she faces are just like any other working mom in America. But she bristles at the notion that she's "window dressing" for a party trying to refresh its brand.

"That's what the critics like to suggest," she says when asked about the public debate over whether her rise is simply because she's a woman. "Even when I was asked to give the response to the State of the Union this year, there were some that immediately started saying 'Well, it's only because she was a woman' versus that I was someone who could really connect with people or that I could deliver an effective message on behalf of the Republicans."

McMorris Rodgers says she wants to see more women run — and get elected — to Congress. That's why she's taken on a leadership role, raising money for female Republicans and mentoring them, too.

"So many women have never even considered running for office themselves. They think that's something someone else does," she says.

McMorris Rodgers says she knows what that's like. Before she decided to run for Congress, she'd been thinking about getting out of politics.

Now, a decade later, she says she doesn't want to be a "seat warmer." She wants to maximize her opportunities and her influence.

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She chose not to enter the race to be House Republican whip after Eric Cantor, who was defeated in a primary, chose to leave his leadership post. She says she's excited for another year serving as GOP conference chair.

But there appears to be a path open for McMorris Rodgers. The question is: does she want it?

Asked point-blank what her next chapter looks like, she says "we'll see."

"One thing about serving in Congress, it kind of comes in these two-year chunks," she says. "For the next Congress, I'm seeking to continue to serve as conference chair. And we'll see what other opportunities come. So much of that is being the right person at the right time."

Taser International is reporting a big jump in demand by police departments for "body cameras." The company, one of the biggest providers of body cams to police departments, says 2014 sales of its "Axon Body" model are up 300 percent over last year, and sales of its more expensive "Axon Flex" camera have doubled.

And what's interesting is that this spike started well before the August shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

"We were getting onesies, twosies, ten here and there in the first few years," says Steve Tuttle, Taser's vice president of communications. "And then in the last year, right before Ferguson hit, we hit this part where it was the fastest-growing market segment for the company. Then Ferguson hit!"

This may be a measure of the longer-term pressures that police departments have felt to adopt this technology. New Orleans bought cameras for all its patrol officers this spring, in an attempt to convince the Department of Justice that its police department has reformed itself enough to get out from under federal monitoring.

Albuquerque is another troubled police department that has embraced the cameras. And last year, a federal judge ordered the New York Police Department to set up a body camera pilot program, as a remedy for constitutional abuses committed by officers practicing "stop and frisk."

But the body cameras have not been a cure-all. In New Orelans, the independent police monitor has been repeatedly frustrated by the apparent non-existence of videos in incidents of alleged police brutality. Officers say they forgot to turn the cameras on, or they blame technical problems.

And even though body cameras have become a popular rallying cry, post-Ferguson, most departments are still taking a wait-and-see attitude. The cameras cost upwards of $400 per unit, and the real long-term costs come over time. It's not cheap or easy for departments to manage the thousands of hours of video generated by the devices, and a big new source of revenue for Taser International is "Evidence.com" — essentially a cloud storage service that promises police departments greater simplicity in the management of this new "content."

body cameras