A Look at Lawsuits, Voting Problems

COLORADO:

- Republican poll watchers filed a complaint claiming election officials in the Democratic stronghold of Pueblo County failed to require early voters to produce identification.

- The machines that Boulder County uses to count votes bogged down in a recent test, choking on improperly marked ballots and prompting a three-day review to determine the final result.

FLORIDA:

- Broward County officials are mailing out a second batch of absentee ballots after a glitch kept them from reaching their intended destinations. Broward County, the state's biggest Democratic county, figured prominently in the messy recount of 2000.

- A state appeals court ruled that Florida acted properly when it adopted a rule for manual recounts in 15 counties that use touch-screen voting machines.

- Republicans alerted Florida law enforcement officials that 925 convicted felons who have lost voting rights have either already voted or have requested absentee ballots.

GEORGIA:

Nearly 100 Hispanic voters were summoned to a Georgia courthouse to defend their right to vote, based on a complaint that an Atkinson County board ultimately threw out. Three men filed the complaint against 78 percent of the rural county's Hispanics, alleging that a county commissioner had attempted to register non-U.S. citizens to vote.

IOWA:

The attorney general said election officials will not count ballots cast in the wrong precincts on election night, but will set them aside in the event of a lawsuit seeking to determine their legality.

OHIO:

- The state Republican Party asked a federal appeals court to allow hearings on thousands of voters whose registrations have been challenged. A judge had placed the challenges on hold Wednesday. Democrats believe the GOP is unfairly targeting the poor and minorities.

- A former Cincinnati City Council member and her husband sued to stop GOP representatives who plan to challenge voters about their identity and voting qualifications in Hamilton County.

WASHINGTON, D.C.:

The Justice Department will send out three times as many poll watchers on Election Day than in 2000. The watchers will be looking for difficulties with absentee ballots and the handling of ballots cast in the wrong precinct.

WISCONSIN:

- The superintendent of Milwaukee schools halted a get-out-the-vote program involving students after complaints were raised about its link to a pro-Kerry organization.

- Milwaukee's election commission threw out a complaint alleging that more than 5,600 addresses on the city's voter rolls may not exist, saying Republicans had not proven the registrations were invalid. GOP officials said they visited 37 of the addresses and took pictures showing vacant lots, a gyro stand and a park. Democrats said typographical errors and old registrations could have accounted for the discrepancies.

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- Pre-election tension mounted Thursday in Florida amid claims of voter intimidation, promises absentee ballots will reach the Broward County citizens who are missing them and concerns Republicans will question the authenticity of thousands of votes on election day.

Workers at Broward's elections office prepared 1,000 absentee ballots for overnight shipment to Floridians in other states and expected to send up to 14,000 ballots by Friday to residents who requested them weeks ago.

Meanwhile, state Republican leaders said they are protecting "the integrity of the process" by compiling a list of voters who they said are improperly registered and should not be allowed to cast ballots Tuesday.

"I presume they will use it as a basis for challenges," said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida.

"And when they're using a list that's very likely inaccurate for challenges, I think we're in for hand-to-hand combat at the precincts."

Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie said he was "disconcerted" by claims supporters of Democratic challenger John Kerry are clogging early voting locations and attempting to dissuade backers of President George W. Bush from voting.

"Some folks have been intimidated to the point where they turned away from the lines," Gillespie alleged.

Democrats dismissed Gillespie's accusation and said Republicans are the ones trying to keep Tuesday's turnout low. They pointed to a series of announcements in recent weeks by the Republican National Committee, calling them "empty fraud allegations" designed to suppress voting.

"Yet again, we're hearing that the Republican party is crying fraud," Kerry campaign spokeswoman Christine Anderson said.

"This is a very clear strategy on their part to lay the groundwork for election day challenges. We have clearly stated that we do not plan to challenge voters on election day and that's a promise they simply can't make."

Republican officials acknowledged names of voters who may be improperly registered have been forwarded to county officials. The list will not be used for challenges, said state Republican adviser Mindy Tucker Fletcher, who added the list is of addresses where the state Republican party sent mail, only to have it returned as undeliverable.

The Broward County absentee ballot issue was murkier than ever.

About 58,000 ballots were mailed Oct. 7 and 8, said county officials, who added many either did not arrive at residents' homes or didn't arrive in a timely way.

Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes said Thursday her office has sent out some 128,000 absentee ballots this year, that 72,000 completed ballots have already been returned and she expects 40,000 more by Tuesday.

Residents who requested ballots but haven't received them are being told to call the election office for replacements by overnight mail. There are concerns, however, the mailing glitch could create confusion with individuals having two ballots or being forced to file provisional ballots on election day.

"I think it was more of a delay than ballots being lost...The extent of the problem is not going to be as great as it may appear," Snipes said.

In Palm Beach County, meanwhile, hundreds of members of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans said they haven't received their absentee ballots. Other large Florida counties, such as Miami-Dade and Pinellas, report no such trouble.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041028/w1028108.html