Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (313248)	11/1/2002 1:37:30 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Democrats sue over alleged GOP stacking of poll watchers By KEN THOMAS The Associated Press 11/1/02 12:08 AM MIAMI (AP) -- Democrats filed a lawsuit Thursday to prevent Republicans from stacking polling sites in Miami-Dade County with GOP-picked poll watchers. A judge set an emergency hearing for Friday to consider whether Republicans and a political action committee called the Emergency Committee to Stop Bill McBride had an unfair advantage in assigning poll watchers for Tuesday's elections. McBride is the Democratic nominee for governor. State law allows each party and candidate to have one watcher in each polling room during the election. Poll watchers can challenge the eligibility of voters. The Democrats, led by former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, said in the complaint that GOP officials unfairly benefited from new rules the Democrats learned of only after it was too late to submit forms. The new rules make it easier for parties and candidates to submit lists of names of poll watchers. As a result, the plaintiffs said, the Miami-Dade Elections office accepted hundreds of Republican poll watchers designated under less restrictive rules. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said Democrats had signed about 145 poll watchers. The committee opposing McBride said on its web site Thursday that it had submitted 456 signed poll watcher forms. The plaintiffs want the judge to either reject all the poll workers not submitted under the previous rules or allow Democrats to submit names under the same rules. Also Thursday, some voters faced long lines during early voting in Broward and Miami-Dade. Many faced lines of nearly two hours in one early voting site in Broward. But election officials said it was unfair to compare the early voting system at six sites with voting at more than 774 precincts on Election Day. CC