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Parties poised to send lawyers to state's polls

By NEIL MODIE

The Seattle Post Intelligencer

USA - At your polling place Tuesday, expect to encounter two lines: one of 
voters waiting to vote, the other of lawyers waiting to sue.For the most 
hotly contested general election in decades, both major parties are 
dispatching armadas of attorneys to local polling places and 
ballot-tabulating locations throughout Washington to keep an eye out for 
irregularities. They'll be ready to rush into court for an injunction if they 
think they see any wrongdoing.

Five hundred volunteer lawyers will blanket Washington for the state 
Democratic Party and the Kerry-Edwards campaign. The state Republican Party 
and the Bush-Cheney campaign are sending out 150 volunteer lawyers.

It's a reflection of the highly polarized presidential campaign, each party's 
fear of sneaky tactics by the other party and the Florida balloting fiasco of 
2000, which exposed vulnerabilities in the election process. Even though 
Washington isn't a presidential battleground state, the litigation-poised 
atmosphere here mirrors what's going on in the states that are.

"I hope there won't be any problems. There never have been in Washington 
state," state Republican Chairman Chris Vance said yesterday. "But this is 
what Florida has done to all of us. ... It makes us paranoid. It makes us 
armed to the teeth and prepared for the worst."

Dean Logan, King County's director of records, elections and licensing 
services, said election observers, whether lawyers or non-lawyers, are 
welcome to watch the polls and the counting rooms -- as long as they don't 
interfere with people voting.

For what is expected to be the heaviest election turnout since at least 1992 
-- Logan expects 82 percent of King County's 1.08 million voters to cast 
ballots -- "we don't want the elections process to be inhibited" by 
overzealous observers, he said.

Nobody who wants a ballot will be denied one, he said. 

Anyone whose voter registration is questionable is entitled to a provisional 
ballot, the validity of which will be decided later by the county canvassing 
board.

The Democrats and the GOP will each have at least one lawyer in every county 
in Washington to coordinate responses to complaints. Additional poll 
observers volunteering for the parties and various interest groups will 
supplement the attorneys.

Vance and Mike McKay, state vice chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign, wrote 
to county auditors and election officials Oct. 20, notifying them that their 
lawyers will be watching and ready to litigate.

"On Election Day, we will have poll watchers in precincts around the state 
who will be able to call on our volunteer lawyers to address any problems 
that arise in polling places," they said. "We will also have lawyers assigned 
to each county in the state in the event it is necessary to seek a court 
order or injunction to preserve the integrity of the election process.

"The intention of our program is to ensure that no voter is disenfranchised 
and that their votes are not compromised by any improper voting or procedure."

State Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt said his party's lawyers "are going to 
be doing some direct observation of polling places in communities of color 
and places where we are concerned that there might be intimidation going on."

He said they will be dispersed throughout the state but in "the Hispanic and 
black communities in particular" -- two constituencies that traditionally 
tilt Democratic.

Berendt said he isn't worried about deliberate attempts to intimidate or 
discourage voters so much as "voters who don't know their rights coming in 
and asking to vote from a poll worker who doesn't know the correct policies 
and procedures," and who might be culturally insensitive toward racial and 
ethnic minorities.

The Democratic and Republican leaders expressed opposite concerns about 
college-age voters.

Vance said Republicans are worried that some college students vote at home 
and then go back to campus and cast provisional ballots. The Secretary of 
State's Office lacks a statewide voter database, "so that's problematic," he 
said.

Berendt said he is worried about election officials in college towns who 
periodically purge registration rolls of voters who no longer live there. 

Democrats on one campus signed up new voters before school let out for the 
summer, so many of those students didn't receive queries from the county 
auditor asking if they were still active voters.

"The auditor placed all their names into the inactive file, which means their 
names won't be on the poll list," Berendt said.

Alluding to Vance and McKay's letter to county auditors, the Democratic chief 
said his party's goal is "to protect voter rights and to ensure that people 
have the ability to vote. And this is in direct contrast to the Republicans, 
who (in their letter) are essentially trying to make sure there are people 
who don't get to vote."

Vance scoffed at the charge, saying, "The Democratic Party put out nationally 
an Election Day manual where they encouraged people like Paul Berendt to lie 
and to accuse us (Republicans) of voter intimidation where none of that is 
going on." He said he and McKay wrote to the auditors "as a courtesy" to let 
them know party lawyers would be present.

"I've been doing elections in this state for 24 years, and I don't think 
there's going to be a problem," Vance said. "But we're now part of a national 
campaign and a national election, and given what happened in Florida, both 
national parties and both national campaigns are insisting that the election 
be scrutinized."


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P-I reporter Neil Modie can be reached at 206-448-8321 or 
neilmodie AT seattlepi.com