Army of Democratic Party Lawyers Keep Eagle Eyes on Florida’s Polls

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Joyce Rogers has given up her vacation and traveled 1,000 miles to stand for 10 hours a day until November 2 on the frontlines of the 2000 post-election legal war in Florida: home of contested punch card ballots and their dimpled, hanging, and pregnant chads.The 38-year-old lawyer is one of 10,000 attorneys the Democratic Party has dispatched across the country to ensure, they say, that every vote is counted in an election that could be as close – and as beset with technical glitches – as the last presidential election.The chairman of the Republican Party, Edward Gillespie, has called the army of lawyers part of a strategy to drag the election results into courts where “activist judges” could deliver a pro-Kerry result.In a dark pin-striped suit and patent leather pumps, Ms. Rogers stands out among the voters who snake in single file at a rate of about 100 an hour through the downtown public library here, many clad in shorts, sundresses, and flip-flops, to cast their early votes.She holds a degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and carries a black 100-page binder of the minutiae of Florida election law. Her day job is as a Washington lobbyist on transportation issues, but she has studied her role online, received coaching over the phone, and attended seminars to prepare for this assignment. And even though she said she feels prepared for every possibility – from an unregistered voter to an electrical blackout – the Democrats have supplied her with a hot-line number to call more lawyers in case of a legal emergency.In the morning, she perches on a blue plastic chair roughly 10 paces from a row of 16 electronic voting machines that have replaced the disastrous paper ballots that confused voters in 2000. The new machines have created new worries among some voters and inspired a lawsuit against the state because they leave no paper trail (a federal judge ruled such a trail was not necessary). Next to her sits a Republican election observer, who is not a lawyer.In the afternoon, Ms. Rogers patrols the steps of the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, a few miles away, trying to ensure that no one who comes by to vote leaves without casting their ballot.Since Ms. Rogers arrived on Saturday to supervise early voting in the closely divided state, there have been a string of fresh voting snags, raising alarms that Florida’s 2000 debacle may be repeated.Some 60,000 absentee ballots have gone missing on their way to voters’ homes, and the postal service is investigating. A convicted felon who worked for a voter registration group, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, recently turned up a mysterious box containing 180 filled-out voter registration cards. The group is under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement after some workers were caught paying people to register.Republican voters have called the practices fraud. They have also reported harassment by Democratic demonstrators, with one altercation resulting in a fractured wrist, prompting Governor Bush, the president’s brother, to threaten to remove unruly people from voting sites.A Miami judge this week refused to allow voters to register if their registration forms are incomplete – potentially preventing thousands of Floridians from voting. Republicans have promised to challenge fraudulent registrations, while Democrats accuse them of suppressing minority voters.With the election still days away and several lawsuits already under way, the groundwork is set for another legal showdown should the election be close. But Ms. Rogers insists her role is to avoid litigation, not to create it.So far, that has not required any legal wizardry. The most complex questions she has had to answer have been whether a person may vote at the polls if they have already received an absentee ballot (yes, she said, but the ballot should be destroyed) and whether a driver’s license is required to vote (it is not.)“Today was pretty easy. The early voting is going pretty well,” she said, eyeing the lineup that continued outside into the library’s parking lot. “I can’t believe the turnout.”Ms. Rogers estimates that her presence has helped some 30 people cast a vote this week who otherwise would have given up or been sent home. That may be a modest number compared to the tens of thousands of voters casting early votes across the state, but given that President Bush’s margin of victory over Vice President Gore in 2000 was 537 votes, it is not insignificant.She has helped elderly and infirm voters use portable voting machines curb-side in their vehicles. She interjected when she overheard a young woman prepare to leave the line because she did not have a driver’s license, assuring her that a student identification would suffice. She also found a Creole interpreter to assist one voter.Ms. Rogers said she made the trip at her own expense because she wants to see Senator Kerry elected. And because she was outraged that not all African-American votes were counted in Florida in 2000.“To me, this is serious. I think that as an American you should be able to come, cast a vote, and have it counted,” said Ms. Rogers, who is African-American.A spokesman for the Florida Democratic voting rights team, Brian Richardson, said the early voting is “going extremely well” and “problem-free.”A spokeswoman for the Florida Republican Party, Mindy Fletcher, said conflict at the polls has “calmed down.”The presence of the lawyers has increased the number of votes cast, Mr. Richardson said.When a voting machine in Boca Raton broke down and officials told the voters to go home, the Democratic lawyer insisted on having paper ballots rushed in, and everyone voted, he said.In Palm Beach County, a lawyer intervened to have senior state officials allow an elderly disabled woman to vote despite the fact that her name had been dropped from the voter list because she had not voted in years.Voters yesterday had mixed opinions about whether the elections would go smoothly, and whether the lawyers would help or hurt the process.A Fort Lauderdale homemaker, Barbara Hartley, a Democrat who said she was voting for Mr. Bush for national security reasons, said she was worried about voter fraud and post-election litigation.“This place is ready to go with lawyers on both sides….Each side is going to feel they were cheated and blame it on the other side,” she predicted.A Kerry voter, Penny Mondani of Fort Lauderdale, said she was grateful for the lawyers. “The poll workers are swamped. I’m glad the attorneys are here and are helping out,” she said.Rosa Miller, a precinct captain for Palm Beach County who carried a Kerry sign outside the library, said that to this day she is unsure if her vote was counted for Mr. Gore or Pat Buchanan in 2000.“I think it’s going to be smoother this time,” she said.

Army of Democratic Party Lawyers Keep Eagle Eyes on Florida’s Polls

Army of Democratic Party Lawyers Keep Eagle Eyes on Florida’s Polls

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