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  • From: "Toni Hawryluk" <tonihawr AT msn.com>
  • To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] voting ? bring your own lawyer ....
  • Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 11:18:47 -0700

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6366503/



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."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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





  • [Homestead] voting ? bring your own lawyer ...., Toni Hawryluk, 10/30/2004

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