Efforts to pre-challenge voters in urban centers in Ohio, Wisconsin and Nevada have been thrown out by courts or election officials, but GOP officials plan to proceed with placing thousands of at-the-poll challengers across the country. Democrats argue with Republican tactics for rooting out alleged fraud -- such as mailing letters to see which are returned as undeliverable (proving nothing other than the person having moved) -- and complain that the efforts are aimed at minority voters likely to support Kerry.
U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise of Newark ruled yesterday that the Republican National Committee violated a 1980s-era court order that prohibits it from singling out minority voters for anti-fraud initiatives. The judge ruled that Republicans cannot use a list of 23,000 registered voters to challenge people at the polls in Ohio. The list was based on returned mail sent by the Ohio GOP, which Debevoise said proves nothing, and he found that it targeted areas with large concentrations of minority voters.
The ruling was a political setback to Republicans, who were appealing it last night. But lawyers on both sides acknowledged that it has a limited practical effect because under the ruling, GOP challenges of Ohio voters can proceed as long as they are not based on the disputed mailing list.
A federal appellate court based in Cincinnati threw out two related rulings by lower courts that would have banned challenges in Ohio, and the state Supreme Court overturned another ruling that would have limited the number of challengers at each polling place.
The ferocity of such disputes in Ohio and elsewhere has many election officials on edge.
"I'm preparing for war," said Ion Sancho, election supervisor in Leon County, Fla. "I'm not worried about long lines, I'm worried about civil disobedience and riots. People, particularly African Americans who believe that they were systematically disenfranchised by the 2000 election, are simply not going to take this."
Registration Woes
Election officials overwhelmed by a record number of new voter registrations have been working round-the-clock processing them, but many people may show up to the polls to find that they are not listed on the rolls. In Florida and Ohio, Democrats unsuccessfully sued after state election officials instructed local election officials to reject new voter applicants who signed an oath but forgot to check a box attesting to the same.
Republicans are concerned that bloated registration rolls could lead to double-voting and other types of Election Day fraud. Florida Republicans charge that 14,000 ineligible felons are registered and more than 900 have already voted or have requested absentee ballots because of problems with a statewide list of felons who have lost their voting rights.
Adding to the potential for trouble is the fact that two critical swing states, Minnesota and Pennsylvania, have adopted statewide registration systems that are getting their first presidential election test.
Voters who registered through the mail and did not include acceptable identification must, for the first time nationally, produce identification at the polls. Some states have gone further than the new federal law requires, mandating that everyone show identification. In Milwaukee, more than 5,000 voters with questionable addresses may be required to show proof of residency as part of an agreement with state Republicans.
The new requirements have caused confusion in recent elections across the country, with some poll workers incorrectly applying the rules. That could be compounded by the Election Day crush and the Election Assistance Commission's belief that there is a shortage of poll workers in every battleground state except Florida.
Provisional Ballots
Election legislation passed by Congress in 2002 requires that any voter whose name does not appear on the rolls be given a "provisional ballot" that will be counted after Election Day if it can be determined that the voter was eligible.
But Congress left it to the states to determine when and how those ballots should be counted, a decision that has resulted in many lawsuits in recent months. Some states will count those ballots regardless of where they are cast, but 27 states will do so only if they are cast in a voter's proper precinct.
By law, provisional ballots cannot be tallied until after Election Day. In Ohio, election officials predict that a quarter-million such ballots will be cast -- far more than the 165,000 votes by which Bush won the state four years ago.
