President Barack
Obama's campaign has recruited a legion of lawyers to be on standby for
this year's election as legal disputes surrounding the voting process
escalate.
Thousands of attorneys and support staffers have agreed to aid in the effort, providing a mass of legal support that
appears to be
unrivaled by Republicans or precedent. Obama's campaign says it is
particularly concerned about the implementation of new voter ID laws
across the country, the possibility of anti-fraud activists challenging
legitimate voters and the handling of voter registrations in the most
competitive states.
Republicans are building
their own legal teams for the election. They say they're focused on
preventing fraud - making sure people don't vote unless they're eligible
- rather than turning away qualified voters.
Since
the disputed 2000 presidential election, both parties have increasingly
concentrated on building legal teams - including high-priced lawyers
who are well-known in political circles - for the Election Day run-up.
The Bush-Gore election demonstrated to both sides the importance of
every vote and the fact that the rules for voting and counting might
actually determine the outcome. The Florida count in 2000 was decided by
just 537 votes and ultimately landed in the Supreme Court.
This
year in that state alone, Obama and his Democratic allies are poised to
have thousands of lawyers ready for the election and hope to have more
than the 5,800 attorneys available four years ago. That figure was
nearly twice the 3,200 lawyers the Democrats had at their disposal in
2004.
No comments:
Post a Comment