News 21 readers are by now familiar with the purpling of Virginia, a state that was long part of the solid conservative south, but where Barack Obama is now slightly ahead of John McCain. Some of this shift has to do with Asian and Latino immigrants. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick takes a look:

[T]here are more than 400,000 newly registered voters in Virginia this year, and while they aren’t required to state their party affiliations, 40 percent of them are under 35, a group that skews Obama-ward. But all you really have to do to understand why Virginia is turning purple is to walk down some of those leafy small-town streets in Lynchburg, Danville, Leesburg, or Harrisonburg. These streets may have launched a half-dozen or more presidents, but today they boast Vietnamese restaurants, Brazilian music, and tapas bars….

[T]oday, five of 10 Virginians were born out of state, and one in 10 was born in a foreign country. Of those, 40 percent are from Asian countries and 30 percent from Latin America.