The Trail

DEMOCRATS' EVANGELICAL OUTREACH

Pastor to Deliver Closing Prayer

Barack Obama's team will continue its aggressive outreach to evangelical voters at the Democratic National Convention next week. Making a prime-time appearance Thursday night will be Joel C. Hunter, a Florida megachurch pastor, who will deliver the convention's closing prayer after Obama's speech accepting the party's presidential nomination.

Hunter is a registered Republican, opposes abortion and, at one point, had been chosen to lead the Christian Coalition. He has not endorsed Obama and says he agreed to give the benediction because he was asked to do so. For years, he has pushed for evangelicals to not align themselves with a political party and has been a part of new evangelical movement, which is interested in getting away from traditional culture-war flashpoints.

"I'll kind of be the elephant in the room, but it really says something about how far Senator Obama is reaching out," Hunter said in a phone interview Thursday. "We are expanding the agenda of what's pro-life. When you consider poverty, environmentalism and war . . . those are the issues that are being addressed by the Democratic Party."

Hunter was initially brought into the Democratic conversation through discussions about the abortion language in the party platform organized by Third Way, a progressive group that is trying to find compromises on cultural issues. The group was in the background of tense negotiations between Hunter, evangelicals and abortion rights groups during the reworking of the party platform. It resulted in a strong affirmation of Roe v. Wade and an addition of language that encourages a reduction in the number of abortions.

Rachel Laser of Third Way said Hunter's inclusion proves that "the Democratic Party is open to faith in a new way."

-- Krissah Williams Thompson

MORE ISSUES IN OHIO

Voting Machine Flaws Acknowledged

A voting system used in 34 states contains a critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point, the manufacturer acknowledges. The problem was identified after complaints from Ohio elections officials after the March primary there, but the logic error that is the root of the problem has been part of the software for 10 years, said Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold.