Lawyers Descend on Presidential Election

By Steve Roeder
Talon News
October 20, 2004

As U.S. citizens prepare to vote for the next president of the United States, lawyers will be observing their every move. "SWAT teams" of Democratic lawyers are prepared to rapidly go to whichever state might be this election's version of Florida in 2000. Likewise, Republicans can counter with a robust network of lawyers ready for deployment.

Republican and Democratic lawyers alike say at least one court challenge is likely and claim to be ready for the fight this year.

Aside from the SWAT teams, the Democrats say they have recruited an additional 10,000 lawyers. Republicans have not divulged their count, although it is believed to be similar.

"We are going to have five teams of lawyers who can be deployed to fight five simultaneous recounts," said Marc Elias, general counsel for Kerry.

In 2000, neither side was prepared to concurrently deal with the close races in New Mexico and Iowa while they focused on Florida.

"There's no perfect process, and there are always creative lawyers who can come up with something to complain about if the election is close," said Bobby Burchfield, a Republican election lawyer who represented President Bush in 2000.

"A lot of it is a reaction to 2000 when both sides learned how to be more prepared," said Ben Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer who was involved in the recount battle.

Swing states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and their associated large number of Electoral College votes, are the best candidates to be this year's version of 2000 Florida.

The lawsuits could focus on problematic voting machinery, election procedures, and state election laws that allow post-election challenges. Also, voter registration problems and recent changes in state laws and procedures could warrant the lawyers to exercise a challenge.

Punch card and new touch screen voting machines, along with absentee and overseas or military ballots also present potential hot spots for challenges.

Legal experts say that the marked increase of registered voters could create problems, as new voters typically have problems with the voting machines.

Legal challenges could also be tied to provisional ballots, which, under federal law, now must be provided to voters if their name does not appear on the registration list.

Nearly 30,000 precincts have been targeted by both sides as competitive or potentially problematic, and lawyers will be present in many of those precincts on Election Day. Lawyers will be ready to intervene if they see problems or gather evidence for a later court case.

Although both sides have top lawyers throughout the U.S., local lawyers will play a critical role in any potential procedures, as they are the ones most knowledgeable of both the local election procedures and the local judges.

Lawyers on both sides have already filed suit over election procedures and equipment in some key states.

For all their planning, lawyers from both campaigns say they did not see Florida coming and might be similarly caught off guard this election.

Florida's controversies resulted from technical problems with voting itself. Approximately 32 million voters in 19 states will use punch cards during this election.

The Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore ruling that ended Florida recounts 36 days after the 2000 election does not provide much guidance for a court battle this year. The Supreme Court was clear to point out that the ruling applied only to the unique circumstances of Florida in 2000.

State party officials acknowledge that lawyers will descend amongst them during the election.

"We don't want this election to be decided by a group of lawyers working for a political party," said Jason Mauk, spokesman for the Republican Party in Ohio.