Cardin Backs Bill to Protect Voters

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin joined forces with two other Democratic senators yesterday to introduce a voter-intimidation bill that would outlaw practices such as the distribution of misleading fliers, which occurred at Maryland polls in November.

Cardin (Md.), a co-sponsor, said he got involved with drafting the bill when one of its sponsors, Barack Obama (Ill.), told him about it after the election.

"It's about signaling to candidates and political parties that it's not appropriate to have a strategy to win based upon suppressing the minority vote," Cardin said after a news conference with Obama and the bill's other original sponsor, Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.).

Dozens of homeless men were recruited last November to hand out deceptive voter guides in Baltimore and Prince George's County that suggested that several prominent black Democrats were backing two Republicans: then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and U.S. Senate candidate Michael S. Steele.

Cardin, who has been seeking an investigation of that incident, said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told him that current laws are not specific enough to deal with such cases. The bill introduced yesterday would set penalties of up to $100,000 and five years in prison for deceptive practices in elections. It would also increase the maximum penalty for voter intimidation from one year to five years in jail.

The bill now goes to the Judiciary Committee for consideration.