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Barack Obama has surged to a seven-point lead over John McCain one month before the presidential election, lifted by voters who think the Democrat is better suited to lead the nation through its sudden financial crisis, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that underscores the mounting concerns of some McCain backers.

Likely voters now back Obama 48-41 percent over McCain, a dramatic shift from an AP-GfK survey that gave the Republican a slight edge nearly three weeks ago, before Wall Street collapsed and sent ripples across worldwide markets. On top of that, unrelated surveys show Obama beating McCain in several battlegrounds, including Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania — three states critical in the state-by-state fight for the presidency.

Several GOP strategists close to McCain’s campaign privately fret that his chances for victory are starting to slip away.

These Republicans, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering the campaign, point to several factors: Obama’s gains nationally and in traditionally GOP states, no McCain gain from the first debate, McCain’s struggles with economic issues as the financial crisis has unfolded and deepening public skepticism about his running mate, Sarah Palin.

They said McCain’s options for shaking up the race are essentially limited to game-changing performances in the final presidential debates or in Palin’s vice presidential debate with Joe Biden Thursday night. Short of that, they said, McCain can do little but hope Obama stumbles or an outside event breaks the GOP nominee’s way.

Democrats hope Obama is starting to build a lasting lead.

“We have a light optimism,” said David Redlawsk, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention who teaches political science at the University of Iowa. “We’ve already learned in the last several weeks that we can be whipsawed back very, very quickly.”

Not all Republican insiders are pessimistic.

Obama’s failure to achieve a double-digit lead and maintain it “has given a lot of hope to Republicans,” GOP pollster Whit Ayres said. Yet he also allowed, “You can’t have a playing field that leans this heavily toward the Democrats and not be nervous.”

Added Neil Newhouse, also a Republican pollster: “If anybody thinks we’re in for a straightforward next month of this campaign all they have to do is look back at the last 30 days” of topsy turvy developments.

To be sure, the election is still a month away, plenty of time for anything to happen in politics.

Yet the AP-GfK poll shows McCain faces substantial hurdles.

With the perilous financial situation at the forefront of voters’ minds, 60 percent in the survey say it’s more important to them to choose a president who would make the right economic decisions than a commander in chief who would make the right decisions on national security. Obama leads among economic voters, with 63 percent support, while McCain is ahead among security voters, with 73 percent.

As the two senators prepared to vote late Wednesday on the administration’s $700 billion bailout plan, 16 percent of likely voters said they thought McCain hurt negotiations over the proposal when he bolted back to Washington last week to get involved. Just 5 percent thought Obama did damage when he returned after a summons by President Bush to attend a White House meeting on the crisis.

McCain also lost ground among likely voters on experience, though he still leads on the issue, while Obama’s marks ticked up slightly. And McCain slid a bit as voters measured which candidate “cares about people like me,” while Obama gained.

Adding to McCain’s woes, just 25 percent of likely voters say Palin has the right experience to be president if needed, a huge drop from 41 percent in the previous poll last month. She posted an enormous loss in confidence among Republicans; three in four had called her experienced enough before, but not even half say that now.

“If she was running the helm, she wouldn’t know what she’s doing,” said Caitlyn Pardue, a Republican from Rohnert Park, Calif., who decided last week that she probably would vote for Obama after determining that Palin “doesn’t have the breadth of knowledge.” Pardue, 60, called McCain’s selection of Palin “pretty ill-advised” and added: “It shows irresponsibility to me.”

In Port Orange, Fla., Jaimye Strickland just decided this week that she’ll probably support McCain — even though she’s “hoping and praying” he doesn’t end up following Bush’s path. “I’m afraid of Obama,” the Republican, age 56, said. “He doesn’t have the experience that McCain does.” She also said she worries that “he has some Muslim ties,” even though she knows he’s a Christian.

Outwardly, McCain’s campaign expresses optimism, and advisers say they expect the race to reset itself several more times.

But privately some advisers acknowledge the difficult seas he is trying to navigate as the economy dominates the race. The Republican has previously agreed that the subject is not his forte, and historically the party in power loses elections during economic recessions.

Seeking traction, McCain sought to change the story line as the week began by questioning Obama’s character, particularly during a crisis.

“A vote for Senator Obama will leave this country at risk,” McCain said in a scathing speech. “We need a president who will always tell the American people the truth. … Country first or Obama first?”

Efforts also were under way Wednesday that suggested McCain and the Republican National Committee would start ramping up TV advertising — and going on the air in more media markets — to close the spending gap in Florida, Missouri and other key states. Industry officials say Obama is shelling out $13 million this week compared with $11 million by McCain and the RNC combined.

Meanwhile, it appears Obama may be padding his edge in the Electoral College vote count in battleground states.

Polls show he has started pulling away from McCain in pivotal vote-rich states that Democrat John Kerry won four years ago and that McCain has made targets this year, including Michigan and Pennsylvania. Surveys also show that Obama is a few percentage points or more ahead in Ohio and Florida, two critical states that Bush won four years ago and that McCain must retain to have any hope of winning the White House.

Quinnipiac University surveys released Wednesday found that Obama’s support jumped to 50 percent or more in three of those states: Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. Combined, they offer 68 of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory on Nov. 4. New CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corp. polls also showed Obama ahead in Nevada, Virginia, Minnesota and Florida, and tied in Missouri.

At the same time, McCain and his Republicans find themselves in the undesirable position of having to defend traditionally GOP states they hadn’t anticipated would be competitive. Obama successfully put Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina into play by pouring money and manpower into the states at levels until recently unmatched by Republicans.

The AP-GfK poll involved telephone interviews of a nationwide sample of 1,160 adults, including 808 likely voters, from Saturday through Tuesday. Interviews were conducted on both landline and cell phones. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, 3.4 percentage points for likely voters.

The House on Monday sent to President Bush a bill sponsored by Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama that would eventually ban the export of elemental mercury.’

The United States is one of the world’s biggest exporters of mercury, a neurotoxin that is harmful to humans, especially pregnant women, newborns and children. In the 2000-2004 period the United States exported 506 more metric tons than it imported and the legislation notes that the export ban would have a notable affect on the market availability of elemental mercury.

Elemental mercury can be found in thermometers, barometers, dental amalgams and batteries. The main source of pollution comes from mercury exported for use in foreign mining operations and other industrial processes.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement that the measure “puts an end to the cycle of poison where this dangerous neurotoxin is being phased out by industry and the government here in the United States, but then our surplus mercury is shipped overseas to developing countries.”

Under the legislation, passed by the House on a 393-5 vote, the ban on federal sale and export of elemental mercury would take effect as soon as the president signs the bill into law.

All exports of elemental mercury would be banned as of Jan. 1, 2013. As of 2010 the bill would provide a long-term management and storage option for elemental mercury generated by the private sector.

Within a year after the bill is enacted, the Environmental Protection Agency is to report to Congress on the sources and amounts of mercury compounds used, processed and imported into or exported from the United States.

Elemental mercury, a dense, shiny, silver-colored metal, is the pure form of mercury. There are also inorganic mercury compounds used in fungicides and antiseptics and organic mercury compounds such as methylmercury.

As many as 630,000 children born annually in the United States are at risk of neurological problems related to mercury.

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and by Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine in the House, passed the Senate on Friday.

With his father looking on, President Bush on Thursday signed legislation expanding the protections afforded by the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act to those who can use medication or other devices to treat impairments.

The original law was enacted in 1990, when former President George H.W. Bush, the current president’s father, was in office. The act is widely regarded as one of the major features of civil rights legislation
in the 20th century because it ensured that the disabled have access to
public buildings and accommodations, thus giving them better access to
the workforce.

But since its passage, the Supreme Court
has generally exempted from the law’s anti-discrimination protections
those with partial physical disabilities or impairments that can be
treated with medication or devices such as hearing aids.

The bill Bush signed on Thursday in the Oval Office
directs the courts to a more generous application of the ADA’s
definition of disability, making it clear that Congress intended the
law’s coverage to be broad and to cover anyone facing discrimination
because of a disability. It took months of difficult negotiations with
the business community to arrive at a compromise.

Bush signed the bill without public comment or fanfare.

The Alaska lawmaker directing an abuse-of-power investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin promised Friday the probe will be finished before the election, despite refusals by key witnesses to testify, including the governor’s husband.

After waiting 35 minutes for Todd Palin and two state administrative employees to appear under subpoena before the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Hollis French condemned their refusal to testify and the attorney general’s broken promise that seven other witnesses would testify who were not subpoenaed.

French said the retired prosecutor hired by the Alaska Legislature to investigate Palin, Stephen Branchflower, will conclude his investigation by Oct. 10. Still, that report will not include testimony from the Republican vice presidential nominee, her husband or most of the top aides Branchflower hoped to interview.

Sarah Palin’s allies hoped the investigation would be delayed past the election to spare her any troublesome revelations — or at least the distraction — before voters have made their choice. Palin’s reputation as clean-government advocate who takes on entrenched interests is central to her appeal as Republican John McCain’s running mate, and possibly at risk in the probe.

Palin initially promised to cooperate in the investigation, telling the Legislature to “hold me accountable.” Lawmakers were investigating accusations she dismissed the state’s public safety commissioner because he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper. She now opposes the investigation.

Palin spokesman Bill McAllister declined to comment Friday. The McCain campaign said there are concerns about the effect of political influence on the Legislature’s inquiry and Palin will provide any information needed to a separate investigation by the Alaska State Personnel Board.

The committee subpoenaed six people to appear Friday to testify or meet for private interviews with Branchflower. French said three of those six had complied. Todd Palin, special assistant Ivy Frye and Randy Ruaro, who is the governor’s deputy chief of staff, did not.

Todd Palin’s attorney sent French a letter Thursday listing Palin’s objections to the Legislature’s investigation of his wife. Among them, the attorney said, were jurisdiction questions, separation of power issues and an inconvenient travel schedule.

Subpoenas were approved on seven other government employees, but not served because the state attorney general’s office had agreed to cooperate, French said. But Attorney General Talis Colberg earlier this week reversed himself, saying the governor declined to participate and that Palin administration employees would not appear.

French said subpoenas will be issued for those seven people, ordering them to testify on Sept. 26.

Witnesses who refuse to testify can be found in contempt under Alaska law. But the full Legislature must be in session, which won’t happen until January. That means witnesses can stonewall without penalty beyond the Nov. 4 election, lawmakers said.

One of them, Sen. Gene Therriault, opposed the subpoenas. He said Friday the investigation was intended to uncover whether the governor was justified in firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, and he believes she was.

Palin fired Monegan in July. It later emerged that Palin, her husband and several high-level staffers had contacted Monegan about state trooper Mike Wooten. Palin maintains she fired Monegan over budget disagreements.

Wooten had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin’s sister before Palin became governor. Monegan has said no one from the administration ever told him directly to fire Wooten, but he said their repeated contacts made it clear they wanted Wooten gone.

There are many types of cases that personal injury lawyers pursue. They include motor vehicle accidents, slip and fall cases, dog bites, construction accidents, wrongful death, medical negligence and nursing home malpractice cases. They all are processed with similar strategies and techniques. If you or a love one have been seriously injured by the negligence of a third person, you may be eligible for just compensation. If you are an Arizona resident who has suffered such harm, then you shouldn’t hesitate to contact an Arizona personal injury lawyer.

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As Hurricane Gustav threatens the Gulf Coast, President Bush is out to show the nation that his government has learned the haunting lessons of Katrina and is ready to act. That includes a rapid response by Bush himself, who will be planted near the danger zone even before the storm hits home.

Bush leaves Monday morning for Texas, a staging ground for emergency response efforts and a shelter state for Gulf Coast evacuees. The president is expected to visit Austin and San Antonio on the same day that Gustav, already a deadly force, is likely to make landfall in the United States.

Hurricane conditions are predicted anywhere from the coast of Texas to the Alabama-Florida line, including New Orleans in between.

This was supposed to be the day that Bush stepped into the 2008 presidential race in his most prominent way to date. But he scuttled his prominent speech at the Republican National Convention, which was to tout Sen. John McCain, in favor of his own presidential duty.

The entire convention lineup was cut back, in fact, as a nation still scarred by the disastrous Hurricane Katrina turned its attention to the new storm.

Ahead of his trip, Bush got a briefing Sunday at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the operation of so much scorn under Bush’s leadership during Katrina.

He promised to get state and local officials what they need. He implored residents to evacuate as ordered. He warned that serious flooding could return.

“The message to the people of the Gulf Coast is, this storm is dangerous,” Bush said.

His underlying message was that the government will do better this time. More preparation. Faster response. Better coordination. Total attention.

The enduring memory of Katrina is not the ferocity of the storm, but the bungled reaction that led to preventable deaths and chaos. Disaster response has undoubtedly improved since then. But Katrina was a low chapter in American history, and it deeply eroded credibility in Bush’s administration.

Scott McClellan, the president’s press secretary at the time, wrote this year that the White House was in a “state of denial” for the whole first week of Katrina. The White House has taken issue with McClellan’s book, which described the Katrina response as “one of the biggest disasters in Bush’s presidency.”

By flying to Texas, Bush clearly wanted to show the nation, and particularly people of the Gulf Coast, that he is committed to answering their needs. He said he hopes to get to Louisiana, too, but will choose a time that does not interfere with emergency response efforts.

Thousands fled New Orleans under a mandatory evacuation orders as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin warned that looters will be sent to jail. Bush called Nagin on Sunday and told the mayor he was “ready to go through this again with him,” according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Bush has had a visible role in relief efforts, especially after Katrina, but also in natural disasters that preceded it.

But heading to the site of a disaster even before it is expected to happen is highly unusual, and a measure of the stakes surrounding this storm.

Bush said local leaders should get “everything they need from the federal government to prepare for what all anticipate will be a difficult situation.” As for the people of the battered Gulf Coast, Bush said: “They’ve made it through great challenges in the past and they’re going to make it through this one.”

Still, he was also careful not to be rosy during his comments at the emergency response headquarters in Washington.

Even though the president said levees are “stronger than they’ve ever been,” he said people throughout the Gulf Coast, especially in New Orleans, “need to understand that in a storm of this size there is serious risk of significant flooding.”

Kelly Jacobs will be wearing dresses made from a “peace flag” every day at the Democratic National Convention. As a delegate and a CodePink activist, she’ll don bright pink earrings, shoes and backpacks — and hundreds of peace and pink-colored buttons.

“There’s no getting away from the peace message. It’s on my neck down to my waist,” said Jacobs, 49.

The Mississippi activist, who is a delegate for Hillary Rodham Clinton, is one of about 20 CodePink women attending the Democratic convention. They probably won’t be disruptive inside. But CodePink members outside the Denver convention are planning to stage parades, protests, concerts and other theatrics — anything to keep the anti-war message alive.

These are hard times for peace activists. Despite CodePink’s flashy costumes and willingness to disrupt campaign events and congressional hearings — sometimes facing arrest for it — the women are finding it more difficult to maintain public attention on the Iraq war.

Americans are now focused more on the gasoline prices they’re paying, declining values of their homes and other economic issues. The ups and downs in a highly contested presidential election also have edged Iraq off the front page and evening newscasts most days.

“We do feel to some extent that these elections have sabotaged our peace actions and messaging because … the media is completely focused on the two candidates,” said CodePink activist Liz Hourican, who moved here from Arizona a year and a half ago to devote her time to ending the war. “It’s a lot more challenging.”

And while Iraqi and American officials are discussing a pullout of U.S. combat troops from major Iraqi cities by next June and a broader withdrawal by 2011, CodePink members say they won’t be satisfied until all U.S. forces are back from Iraq. “We’d like a timeline that is shorter,” said co-founder Medea Benjamin.

Congress’ decision this summer to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next year with $162 billion was a setback, but CodePink already was on the campaign trail, “bird-dogging” presidential candidates and unfurling anti-war banners at their events.

Republican John McCain is a favorite target. “Just about every place McCain goes, we have somebody confronting him,” Benjamin said. “We want the undecided voters … to see we associate McCain with more war and with the failed Bush policy, and, of course, we want the media to cover it.”

The activists’ campaign on Capitol Hill didn’t stop. Before Congress left for recess, the women in their pink outfits scoured the halls almost daily. They seated themselves behind witnesses at hearings unrelated to the war, flashing pink anti-war posters at TV cameras recording, for example, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke talking about the collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns.

“There’s a lot of very creative people in the group,” Hourican said. “They make so many different crafty, visually brilliant things, and they love using their talents to push this along and see their costume on the news.”

Obama’s people haven’t exactly welcomed them. A group of women went to his Washington office last month seeking to meet with a foreign policy aide but only got a promise in the hallway they would be contacted and given more information on the Democratic candidate’s policies. His office never called back.

When Congress returns in September, so will the women in their pink garb. Without a war funding bill to protest, they’ll lobby against going to war in Iran and protest alleged abuses by military contractors. “As long as Congress is sitting and not doing the people’s bidding, then we’re going to be here,” said Gael Murphy, another CodePink co-founder.

CodePink — a mocking reference to the government’s color-coded terror alert system — started as a vigil in front of the White House in November 2002 to protest a war with Iraq. The vigil culminated in a women’s peace march to the Capitol four months later when the war began.

Soon afterward, other chapters “spontaneously started all over the country,” Murphy said. The group now has 250 chapters and 200,000 people on its mailing list.

At any given time, at least six CodePink members live in a three-story group house near Capitol Hill that is decorated with pink curtains and “peace” banners. Times and locations of major congressional hearings and demonstrations for the day are written on a self-erase board. Just as prominent is the phone number for U.S. Capitol Police, a source for learning which activists have been arrested, the charges against them and the bail needed.

In Denver this week and at the Republican nominating convention next week in St. Paul, Minn., CodePink has orchestrated an array of anti-war protests. “Pink Police” riding in-line skates who will hold signs reading “stop war, yield for peace” and bicycle brigades will rally against what the activists call America’s addiction to oil and war.

“You can’t be green and be pro-war,” said co-founder Benjamin. “In general, both parties have kept us down this militaristic path and neglected our basic needs.”

John McCain may have created his own housing crisis.

Hours after a report that the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting didn’t know how many homes he and his multimillionaire wife own, Democratic rival Barack Obama launched a national TV ad and a series of campaign stops aimed at portraying McCain as wealthy and out of touch.

With the economy the top issue in the race, Obama sought to turn McCain’s gaffe into one of those symbolic moments that stick in voters’ minds.

Think John Kerry sailboarding or the first President Bush wowed by a grocery store checkout scanner, Michael Dukakis riding in a tank or Gerald Ford eating a tamale with the husk still on.

“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told the Politico online site when asked Wednesday how many houses he owns. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”

Later, the McCain campaign told Politico that McCain and his wife, Cindy, have at least four in three states — Arizona, California and Virginia.

Property records reviewed by The Associated Press show McCain and his family appear to own at least eight homes: A ranch and two condos in Arizona; three condos in Coronado, Calif.; a condo in La Jolla, Calif.; and another in Arlington, Va. The number of houses is a bit trickier to determine since the ranch has at least four houses and a two-story cabin on it.

Last week McCain cracked that being rich in the U.S. meant earning at least $5 million a year. His latest comments gave Democrats an opportunity to suggest that McCain cannot relate to ordinary voters.

Campaigning in Chester, Va., Obama said: “I guess if you think being rich means you’ve got to make $5 million and if you don’t know how many houses you have, it’s not surprising you might think the economy is fundamentally strong.” He returned to the McCain remark later, saying of teachers: “Most teachers hold themselves accountable. They didn’t go into teaching to make money. They don’t have seven houses.”

The Obama campaign also announced 16 campaign events across the country to highlight the comment and try to turn the tables on McCain’s effort to cast him as an elitist. In the battleground state of Michigan, Obama’s campaign asked volunteers to guess how many houses McCain owns, a contest dubbed, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: McCain Edition.”

While both sides are trying cast the other as too rich to understand the working class, the truth is neither candidate is hurting for money.

McCain’s tax returns showed a total income of $405,409 in 2007. According to her 2006 tax returns, Cindy McCain had a total income of $6 million. Her wealth is estimated by some at $100 million, based on her late father’s Arizona beer distributorship. She has not released her 2007 returns, which she files separately from her husband.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported making $4.2 million in 2007.

The Republican National Committee responded with a Web site highlighting Obama’s ties to Chicago businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a friend and contributor who was convicted in June on more than a dozen felonies in a corruption scandal.

Obama and his wife bought their home in Chicago in 2005 for $1.6 million after getting advice and some assistance from Rezko. The corruption case had no connection to Obama, and Obama has said it was a mistake to work with Rezko on buying the house.

McCain’s campaign also released a new television ad highlighting the Obama-Rezko connection.

“Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses?” asked McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s name will be placed in nomination along with nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, an emblematic move intended to unite the party after a divisive primary.

During the Denver gathering, Democrats will officially choose Obama to run against Republican John McCain this fall, but the state delegations will do a traditional roll call for their nominee’s vanquished primary opponent as well.

Obama and Clinton — fierce rivals then, reluctant allies now — agreed to the arrangement after weeks of negotiations between their respective aides. The two sides made the announcement Thursday in a collegial joint statement.

“I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton’s historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion,” said Obama, an Illinois senator.

Added Clinton, a New York senator: “With every voice heard and the party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama president of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again.”

The move is intended to ensure a convention free of rancor and help the Democratic Party heal after a bruising primary. The goal also is to mollify still-disgruntled Clinton backers and acknowledge the former first lady’s groundbreaking presidential run. She was the first woman to compete in all of the Democratic Party primaries, though she fell short of becoming the first to achieve a major party nomination for the White House.

Obama’s campaign said he encouraged Clinton’s name to be placed in nomination to show unity and recognize her accomplishment.

Earlier, he gave both Clinton and her husband, former President Clinton, prime speaking slots during the convention.

All that ensures an enormous presence for the couple who have been national fixtures in the Democratic Party since 1992.

Clinton will speak on Aug. 26, the second night of the convention.

The next day, the state-by-state roll call of her name will take place.

While Democrats say the mechanics of how that will play out still are being determined, Clinton — herself a superdelegate who gets a vote — is expected to release her delegates to Obama, announce her support for him and ask her backers to do the same.

Her husband is slated to address the delegates that day, too, as is Obama’s still unnamed vice presidential nominee — yet another strong indication that he won’t ask Clinton to be his running mate.

Some 35 million people participated in the protracted Democratic primary, and Obama and Clinton said they wanted to “honor and celebrate these voices and votes” by putting both of their names into nomination.

Certainly, they also hoped to head off any disruptions that could give Republicans — and the national media televising the four-day event — an opening to claim Democratic disarray.

Obama needs Clinton’s supporters to beat McCain in November.

While polls show that Obama has won over most of the Clinton faithful, some simply don’t like Obama or still feel Clinton was treated unfairly during the primaries.

Critics have indicated they would make their voices heard during the party’s Denver party in less than two weeks.

One group intends to paper the city with fliers, promote a video detailing what they contend were irregularities in the nominating process and unleash bloggers to give their take on the proceedings.

These Democrats have accused Obama of manipulating party caucuses for extra delegates while others complain that Clinton was the victim of sexist party leaders or media mistreatment. Many vent over the way the party divvied up delegates from the Florida and Michigan primaries, two states that were punished for violating national rules by holding their contests early.

Over the years, there have been numerous difficulties regarding the complexities and intricacies of federal tax laws and policies. The administration of federal tax laws relies on the efficiency of the Internal Revenue Service, which has recently been advocating the electronic or online filing of tax returns.

By making this online or internet service free to eligible taxpayers (which actually compose a majority of the population), the settlement of federal tax matters has been made a lot easier. Some affiliate member-companies of the Free File Alliance LLC even offer a free federal return based on your state of residence. In this way, federal tax services are made available indiscriminately to the public at large.

The reduced burden of filing federal taxes

One of the most obvious advantages of online free filing is the diminished complexities and difficulties usually faced by the taxpayer. Through the participation of the affiliate companies, software is made available to the taxpayer for the easier preparation of their returns. This minimizes the chances for mistakes or errors on your return.

And since online tax filing is more convenient than the more burdensome traditional methods, there is less hassle for both the taxpayers and the IRS. Anybody can easily access these services online by visiting the IRS website, which is the starting point for the Free File Program.