Parties Assign Lawyers to Watch Polls, Turnout

The race for Virginia, one of the country's key battlegrounds, has become so intense that lawyers from across the country are coming to work the polls. Shaw McDermott, a civil litigation lawyer in Boston and member of the New England steering committee of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), is traveling to Virginia because he has long wanted a Democrat to win the state.

"I have a strong interest in being in a place where I can make even a small difference," said McDermott, a graduate of the University of Virginia's law school.

The political parties and campaigns are not the only ones sending out lawyers. Some civil rights groups and voter rights advocates also will be dispatching teams of attorneys. The U.S. Department of Justice will send 800 observers and staff members to 23 states on Election Day. One of the places they will monitor is Chesterfield County, Va., which experienced ballot shortages and delays during the presidential primary that some voters said cost them a chance to cast ballots.

The AFL-CIO will have teams of poll watchers in nine swing states in a nonpartisan effort to protect voter rights, said Bill Lurye, the labor group's associate general counsel. A team of about 300, more than half of whom are lawyers, will come to Virginia, some from as far away as California and Michigan, he said.

"They are going to be looking at a whole range -- from the most aggressive forms of voter suppression to election-line intimidation and attempts to discourage people from voting," he said.

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, is sending out hundreds of "mobile legal volunteers" who will be responsible for keeping tabs on three to five precincts each, said Cynthia Alcantara, a lawyer who is helping to coordinate the program.

The lawyers will promote a voter hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE, in case voters have questions the lawyers cannot answer.