Lawyers for President Bush boarded a plane in
Washington before dawn, bound for Ohio. They will join hundreds of Republicans
lawyers already there.
Democrats have thousands of lawyers in Ohio already, and held off sending any
of their trained "SWAT teams" of election lawyers, a precaution this year
because of the close presidential race and the bitter memory of the 36-day
recount battle in Florida in 2000.
Trailing in the Electoral College count, the Kerry campaign did not concede
the election. "Tonight, we are keeping our word, and we will fight for every
vote," vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards said.
Election law specialists said either side could file lawsuits Wednesday to
try to get the best footing for evaluating and counting provisional ballots.
"There are two questions here," said George Washington University law
professor Spencer Overton. "One is how to develop uniform standards" for
reviewing the ballots, and how generous those uniform standards should be,
Overton said.
There was another, even more basic question: Were there enough votes in limbo
to jeopardize the lead President Bush holds over Kerry in Ohio?
Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell said early Wednesday that the
number of provisional ballots in the state could be as high as 250,000, or much
lower.
Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for Kerry in Ohio, said: "We think that a
good bit of those voters will be our voters."
"We think that is more than enough voters to win the state," Palmieri said.
"Those votes have to be counted before we know who won the state."
The Bush campaign scoffed at the notion that the uncounted ballots could make
a difference in Ohio.
"There are 140,000 provisional ballots. Historically, only 7 to 20 percent of
those would be counted," said Bush-Cheney communications director Nicolle
Devenish. "Even if twice that many end up getting counted, he can't close the
gap of his defeat in the state. It's desperate."
Democrats have thousands of lawyers in Ohio already. With polls closed, they
considered whether to deploy any of their trained "SWAT teams" of election
lawyers, a precaution this year because of the close presidential race and the
bitter memory of the 36-day recount battle in Florida in 2000.
Meanwhile, armies of lawyers sent to other battleground states found
themselves with little to do.
Even in Ohio, scene of the fiercest legal skirmishing in the days leading to
the election, generally smooth voting produced less partisan finger-pointing
than expected, and fewer lawsuits.
Florida went handily into Bush's column before midnight, putting some 3,000
Democratic lawyers largely off duty.
Earlier Tuesday, lawsuits in key states sought to extend deadlines to count
absentee ballots and to clarify rules for evaluating backup ballots cast by
voters who would otherwise get no vote this year.
A Republican-sponsored suit filed before polls closed in Ohio asked a federal
judge to force the state's Republican chief election official to rework rules
for counting provisional ballots.
Republicans asked for a guarantee that they could watch, alongside Democrats,
as state officials prepare the provisional ballots to be counted. That process
will take several days.
Provisional ballots are not counted until after the election ¡ª 10 days
afterward in Ohio's case.
They are cast by voters who come to the polls but find they are not listed on
the rolls, or that their qualifications to vote are in question.
The lawsuit said Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state, issued "vague,
incomplete and insufficient" directions for evaluating which provisional ballots
should count.
Even before Election Day, Ohio was the scene of lengthy and complicated legal
battles over provisional ballots and other issues. Plans for counting
provisional ballots changed several times as Blackwell issued conflicting
instructions and courts rewrote the rules.
Outside Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union asked that Florida absentee
ballots mailed within the United States be subject to the same deadline, Nov.
12, as overseas ballots.
In Pennsylvania, Republicans went to federal court Tuesday to get a list of
everyone who received an absentee ballot and to ask for more time to investigate
whether any absentee ballots are illegitimate.
