Senators Crack Down on Voter Suppression

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., leaves the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iraq, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh - AP)

CONCORD, N.H. -- A top union leader says it's time for Democratic presidential candidates to get up close and personal with union members.

In 2004, Democratic presidential hopefuls seeking the endorsement of the nation's fastest growing labor union faced the "hang test" _ before delivering their stump speeches, they had to hang out with 25 union members for an hour to show how well they could connect with real people.

As the 2008 race gets under way, the Service Employees International Union is going a step further by asking candidates to visit the homes of its members and spend time with them on the job.

"It's the hang test with some depth," said SEIU president Andy Stern. "Instead of just having sort of impressions, you're going to actually going to hear from people just like you talk about what it was like to have dinner with someone or have someone come to work with them."

The SEIU said Wednesday that John Edwards would be the first candidate to spend a day on the job and at the home of a union member.

To promote the "Walk a Day in My Shoes" initiative, Stern spent several hours working at an Iowa school and planned to join a department of transportation worker along a New Hampshire highway Wednesday afternoon. He said he hopes the effort "will give a level of depth to what up to now has been an important but not necessarily substantive evaluation" of the candidates.

"This is a pretty important election for most people who go to work everyday, but reading the press so far, it's almost like a sport or betting contest instead of a contest about some pretty important things," he said in an interview Tuesday night in Concord after having dinner at the home of a local union leader.

Stern's trip to the early voting states followed a weekend during which the union's 60-member executive board interviewed eight of the Democratic presidential hopefuls.

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WASHINGTON (AP) _ Isolated incidents of voter suppression angered Democrats in the 2006 elections, and a few with an eye on 2008 want to toughen the penalties for the next time.

White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the chairman of the Senate campaign committee, introduced legislation Wednesday that would impose penalties of up to five years in prison or a $100,000 fine on people who spread misinformation to keep voters away from the polls.

"There's no room for people who want to gain a partisan advantage from discouraging people from going to the polls," Obama said at a news conference.

During the 2006 midterm elections, some voters in predominantly black areas of Maryland received fliers implying the Republican candidates for governor and U.S. senator were actually Democrats. Voters in Virginia claimed they received threatening phone calls and Hispanics in Arizona complained an armed man questioned them outside a precinct.

"We've seen these problems year after year, election after election," Obama said.

The bill would also increase the maximum penalty for voter intimidation from one year to five, and voters who feel victimized by false information would be able to sue the organizations responsible.

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Associated Press Writer Kasie Hunt contributed to this report.