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Democrats to field 5,000 lawyers in Florida

Orlando: A team of 5,000 volunteer lawyers representing the Democrats will fan out across polling stations in Florida next Tuesday to ensure the Republicans do not “steal” the election, as — Democrats claim — George Bush did eight years ago.

Heading the biggest team of lawyers ever assembled is Charles Lichtman, a partner in the Fort Lauderdale law firm Berger Singerman, who has been working as an unpaid volunteer for up to 18 hours a day since August. His drive comes from the experience of being what he describes as “the Hanging Chad Guy,” leading a group of lawyers based in the infamous Broward County for weeks during the recount in 2000.

“Legitimate votes of citizens did not get counted. If they had been counted, we would not have been in Iraq and the economy would not have tanked,” said Mr. Lichtman (53), who is from Chicago. He vowed he would do his best to ensure it never happened again and began planning the operation that will be in place on November 4.

Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign team has recruited thousands of volunteer lawyers to attend polling stations in battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, and other states where the vote could be close. But the biggest push is in Florida, in part because of its history and also because polls suggest the vote will be tight.

The lawyers will be on hand to help any voters denied a ballot on spurious grounds, or fight to keep polling stations open late if they become overwhelmed by the expected high turnout. The Republicans will have their own lawyers across Florida too.

So far, said Mr. Lichtman, there had been no serious problems, other than long queues — with waits of two hours or more — as people take advantage of the early voting that has been in place for the last two weeks. “The only issue is the long lines but I think that is a good thing. It shows an enthusiasm for democracy. It is a great problem to have,” he said. He was not anticipating any major legal challenges from the Republican side.

An Obama campaign worker in Florida, who requested anonymity because he had signed a pledge not to speak to the press, agreed that Republicans had not so far been mounting challenges to voter eligibility at polling stations.

But that, he said, was because the Republicans in Florida had adopted a different strategy, passing legislation that set stringent rules on voter registration. As a result, people were disqualified if there were minor discrepancies, for example between the name on a driving licence and on a registration form.

The Obama campaign worker, who comes from outside the state, said: “I have never seen such shameless manipulation of a process as I have seen here.”

Mr. Lichtman’s equivalent on the Republican side is Ed Pozzuoli, another Fort Lauderdale-based lawyer. Mr. Pozzuoli (46), who was also involved in the Broward recount, described Mr. Lichtman as an old friend, though they are on different political sides.

Mr. Pozzuoli, a partner at the Tripp Scott law firm who was the lead Florida lawyer for Mr. Bush in the 2000 recount, would not say how many lawyers the Republicans would have in place on Tuesday. “We will have enough,” he said.

Also a volunteer, he expressed concern about the number of Democrat lawyers. “Five thousand lawyers with nothing to do seems likely an ingredient for mischief,” he said, adding: “I was there in 2000 and the more lawyers the Democrats had, the more mischief there was.”

The Republicans want everyone who is entitled to vote to be allowed to do so, he said. That meant the integrity of the process had to be protected. The legislation on registration did not apply to existing voters but only 3,00,000 new ones, and of those only a couple of thousand were at issue, including those with names like Mickey Mouse, said Mr. Pozzuoli, adding: “When you allow Mickey Mouse to vote, that diminishes everyone’s right.”

Charlie Crist, Republican Governor of Florida, extended early voting hours this week by three hours a day, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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