|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
 |
|
 |
World | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Army of lawyers monitor US election as legal battles break out WASHINGTON, Tuesday (AFP) Tens of thousands of lawyers took up positions across the United States Monday ahead of the presidential election amid fears of a repeat of irregularities that tainted the 2000 polls. Legal battles have already broken out in many states, including battleground states Iowa, Ohio and Florida, as Republicans and Democrats turned to courts to determine voter eligibility, electronic voting and handling of absentee and provisional ballots. Two federal judges ruled that representatives from US political parties were barred from appearing at polling places in the Midwestern state of Ohio and questioning voters' right to cast ballots. The rulings came in response to lawsuits filed by a black couple and Democratic Party officials. The Republican Party said it would appeal. In Florida, which could be pivotal in determining whether the Republican president will remain in the White House, civic rights groups warned that legal challenges could again delay the outcome of the presidential election for weeks if the race was as close as opinion polls suggested. "There is an election emergency occurring in Florida as we speak because authorities in Broward, one of the counties in the state, have failed to send out nearly 60,000 absentee ballots," Grace Ali, spokeswoman for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told AFP by telephone.. President George W. Bush's Republican party vowed it would match or even outnumber the 10,000 lawyers monitoring battleground states for Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry on election day. "When the other side says they're going to have 10,000 lawyers on the ground, we went out and got some for ourselves," Republican party chairman Ed Gillespie said. "But the fact is if it's a contest of which party has the most lawyers, I can tell you who will win that," he told CNN television. Not taking any chances this time, the US Justice Department has announced it will send more than 1,000 federal election observers into 25 states - three times as many poll watchers on election day four years ago. Independent legal and civil rights groups have also recruited their own volunteers and set up hotlines to assist voters. The Election Protection Coalition, comprising 60 groups to protect voters rights, has received more than 50,000 calls since it opened hotlines in mid-October. The Center For Voting and Democracy, another independent and non-profit group helping to monitor elections, charged that tens of thousands of people were on the voting rolls of more than one state. Yet, overall, states had failed to register nearly one out of every three American adults, it said. "The expected chaos and confusion has inspired swarms of lawyers to pounce on flaws, meaning one again judges could effectively pick our president," said Rob Richie, the center's executive director. Meanwhile George W. Bush and John Kerry took their presidential race down to the wire, barnstorming across key battleground states in a last-ditch push for votes to swing a contest that remained stubbornly deadlocked. With poll after poll showing the rivals still level, one survey stood out in suggesting an erosion in support for president Bush on the key issues of terrorism and the war in Iraq. The candidates' final-day marathons coincided with a massive voter mobilisation drive involving millions of Republican and Democrat volunteers charged with securing a big turnout. At rallies that focused on crucial midwestern swing states, Bush and his Democratic challenger hammered home the same national security themes that have dominated the campaign, while reaching out to small but potentially pivotal groups of undecided voters. A Gallup poll for CNN/USA Today, conducted after the broadcast Friday of a videotaped message by Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, showed Kerry cutting Bush's 14-point lead on Iraq to four points and halving a 22-point deficit on terrorism. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
