Election '04 Already In Court

The cases moving forward Friday are not the first legal battles over the 2004 vote. State courts in New Jersey and Florida have already dealt with cases concerning electronic voting. Federal courts in a few states have weighed the handling of provisional ballots. Criminal investigations are open across the country into alleged voter registration fraud.

But the disputes escalating Friday are key because Florida was the linchpin of the last election, and Ohio could end up deciding who wins this one.

No Republican has ever been elected president without taking Ohio; only two Democrats have done so in 100 years. Polls show the race is too close to call in the state.

A fresh challenge arose there Thursday over the presence of polling-place witnesses who can question voters' identities. In federal court in Ohio, the Summit County Democratic Party sued the state to block those witnesses, saying voters who end up being disqualified are unconstitutionally denied the right to appeal in time to cast their ballots.

Democrats and Republicans have signed up thousands of polling place representatives, although Democrats say they do not plan to challenge registrations and will monitor the conduct of Republican representatives.

Republicans lost an attempt Friday to restart hearings on thousands of voter registrations contested by the GOP, and the court's action could mean the hearings will never be held.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati turned down several Republican appeals, clearing the way for a lower-court judge to decide whether to extend her temporary order stopping the hearings.

The court action could prevent the hearings from ever taking place because they must be held within two days of the election, state Republicans have said.

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, who filed one of the appeals, said stopping the hearings "has just thrown Ohio's electoral process into disarray, and has opened the door to voter fraud."

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott in Cincinnati was holding a hearing Friday to determine whether to extend her order halting hearings on Republican challenges of registrations in six counties.

Republicans say challenged voters still could cast a provisional ballot regardless of the outcome of the hearings. If the margin of the election is close, the race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry could come down to provisional ballots.

Provisional ballots are cast by voters whose names don't show up on a poll list in their precinct or who have moved and haven't updated their registration. The counting of such ballots doesn't occur until 10 days after the election as voters' registrations are verified.

Democrats, who sued to stop the Republican challenges, say the voters being challenged should have the right to cast a regular ballot.

In the Sunshine State, tensions have been mounting in the runup to the presidential vote as politicians trade accusations over claims of fraud, missing absentee ballots and concerns that thousands of voter registrations will be challenged in "hand-to-hand combat at the precincts" on Nov. 2.

State elections chief Dawn Roberts, responding Thursday night to calls for help from county election chiefs, reminded county workers to keep lines moving next Tuesday by handing out provisional ballots if they are confronted with a blizzard of disputes over eligibility of voters.

In Broward County, where the problem was late-arriving absentee ballots, elections office prepared 1,000 ballots for overnight shipment to Floridians in other states, and expected to send up to 14,000 ballots Friday to residents who requested them weeks ago.

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

The Republican Party alerted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement about the alleged felons on the rolls. Civil liberties groups warned the list of felons could be inaccurate, because such lists have in the past included innocent people with common names and even listed crimes that had not yet occurred.