Lawyers to keep eyes on polling stations

PORTLAND – Lawyers will be stationed in many voting precincts in anticipation of ballot fights in a hotly contested presidential race.

Officials for the campaign of Democrat John Kerry say they have recruited more than 100 Maine lawyers.

One area of focus will be precincts near college campuses in the 2nd Congressional District, such as the University of Maine, where Republicans in 2002 challenged the residency of student voters.

“There may be a [Republican] effort to exclude as many students as possible,” said Portland lawyer Jeffrey Thaler, a Democrat. “I’ll be there as an observer, making sure that people who are eligible to vote can vote, and not be ordered away or have unfair objections made.”

President Bush’s campaign also has organized a network of lawyers who will be available to answer legal questions on Election Day.

But GOP activists have no plans to show up at the polls unless there is a problem, says Kenneth M. Cole III, a Portland lawyer and former state Republican Party chairman.

Cole says that recent changes in state law make it a crime to challenge voters without a factual basis. He says this year poll watchers will focus on turning out their voters rather than finding ways to turn away students.

“We’re playing offense; we’re not playing defense,” Cole said. “In the past we have had people [challenging voters] in Orono, Brunswick and Portland, but with the change in the law, I don’t expect to see any of that this year.”

Nationally, thousands of lawyers are being recruited as the two parties prepare for the kind of legal tangles that could arise in a close finish, such as Florida’s presidential vote in 2000.

Democratic lawyers have filed lawsuits in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, attacking election practices. Republicans have charged that voter registration drives run by pro-Kerry activists in Michigan and Ohio have put names of nonexistent or dead people on the voter rolls.

This year in Maine, both parties have registered thousands of young voters on the state’s college campuses.

Kate Simmons, the Maine director of the nonpartisan Young Voters Project, which has registered 2,000 new voters, says college students are encouraged to vote and can register in Maine right up to and on Election Day.

Campus political leaders also are encouraging their classmates to go to the polls. “I think college students should vote in the town where their colleges are,” said Oliver Wolf, a junior at Bates College and president of the Maine College Republicans.

Maine has some of the most open voter registration laws in the country, accounting for its traditionally high rate of voter turnout, especially among young voters, says Deputy Secretary of State Doug Dunbar.

According to state law, a voter’s residence is any place that he has established as a home to which he intends to return, no matter how long he has lived there. That can even include a “nontraditional residence” such as a park or an underpass, and a dorm room qualifies, Dunbar says.

To register, a voter is asked to show proof of identity and proof of residence, which can include a fishing license, vehicle registration or a piece of mail with a name and street address. Voters who lack proof can sign an affidavit swearing the information is true.

With the stakes so high, Maine’s Democratic operatives are planning for a fight over the student residency issue on Election Day.

“The Republicans have a troubling history of trying to suppress our vote on college campuses,” said Jesse Derris, spokesman for Kerry’s Maine campaign. “We want every student who wants to vote to have the right to.”

Republicans say the Democrats are engaging in pre-election posturing designed to motivate their base.

“They’re screaming ‘voter intimidation’ at us, but they are the ones sending attorneys,” said Dwayne Bickford, executive director of the Maine Republican Party. “That sounds a little intimidating, doesn’t it?”