Kerry Building Legal Network for Vote Fights

[Rose Siding]

Mindful of the election problems in Florida four years ago, aides to Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, say his campaign is putting together a far more intricate set of legal safeguards than any presidential candidate before him has, in an effort to monitor the election.

Aides to Mr. Kerry say the campaign is taking the unprecedented step of setting up a nationwide legal network under its own umbrella, rather than relying, as in the past, on lawyers associated with state Democratic parties. The aides said they were recruiting people based on their skills as litigators and election lawyers, rather than rewarding political connections or big donors.

Lawyers for the campaign are gathering intelligence and preparing litigation over the ballot machines being used and the rules concerning how voters will be registered or their votes disqualified. In some cases, the lawyers are compiling dossiers on the people involved and their track records on enforcing voting rights. The disputed 2000 presidential election remains a fresh wound for Democrats, and Mr. Kerry has been referring to it on the stump while assuring his audiences that he will not let this year's election be a repeat of the 2000 vote.
...
"The U.S. has had a policy of being able to fight two regional conflicts and still defend the homeland," said Marc E. Elias, the Kerry campaign's general counsel. "We want to be able to fight five statewide recounts and still have resources available to the campaign."
...
At the Democratic convention next week in Boston, they say, any lawyers interested in volunteering will be offered training. And dozens of the lawyers already recruited by the Kerry organization will hold two days of intensive meetings to finalize strategy, tactics and assignments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/19/politics/campaign/19VOTE.html?hp

[meti57b]

1. That sounds great!

[Democat]

2. They need to organize a lot of people with video cameras!

Record everything that goes on in Florida that day - Florida will be ground zero for Bush's attempt to steal this election.

[Sparkly]

3. Great news, and smart move!

Too bad it takes a legion of lawyers to preserve democracy, but the fact is these days it does.

[Rose Siding]

10. Surprisingly good news!

:D Coupled with MoveOn's legal challenge of "fair and balanced", I may sleep better tonight.

[TroglodyteScholar]

4. See? He may not say it openly, but...

...even Kerry knows the 2000 election was stolen.

[Cocoa]

9. he did say it openly

back in April:

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/clips/news_2004_0420c.html

"This race was stolen from <Joe Lieberman> and from Al Gore and the Democratic Party," Kerry told a nodding dinner crowd. "They won the race. And to know that you won, and not be inaugurated and not be able to serve is an unbelievable scar to carry."

[Mountainman]

5. But I thought we were supposed to just get over it?

I knew most Dems will never get over it. 2000 will be the repubs most regretable year. Take the anger over the 2000 election and the hard charging work of the Deaniacs and put that together with ABB and verification, we just might kick some ass this time around.

[SpiralHawk]

6. Beware the moles -- in the volunteer legal network

beWarE the mOLeS

[Senior citizen]

7. Hooray for Bev and Andy!

It looks to me like Kerry's legal team knows what to look for.

I'm concerned about how absentee ballots are counted, who counts them, and whether there is any accountability in the process.

It isn't enough to get rid of BBV and demand paper ballots. Lots of people will vote absentee and we have to know that these ballots are fairly counted. The counting of absentee ballots is usually done after the polls are closed, and is not usually observed. I think the people who count absentee ballots might be political appointees--not good if true.

[CANDO]

31. Considering the absentee ballots.

I bought the Outfoxed DVD and came to the realization of how *'s cousin at Faux News knew how to call it for * that night. They knew in advance that they planned on flooding the process with those infamous late arriving military absentee ballots. As the DVD points out, no one should have been able to call that close an election for one side or another without knowing something was in the pipeline to save the day. And remember how the super-patriots were right ready to pounce when the Gore camp called those absentee votes into question because many of them were not postmarked. That's my opinion of how the cousin at Faux knew what was going to happen. The DVD also points out how this created in the nation's minds the concept that * was the winner pending any recount or whatever.

[creeksneakers2]

8. They should spend some of that money

getting out public service announcements reminding people to bring their ID this year.

[Dr Fate]

11. Thank goodness Kerry is "not over it"...

...this is great news...

[gratuitous]

12. Very good strategic move

I read Jeffrey Toobin's book about the Florida theft, "Too Close to Call," and one of the BIG advantages the Bush campaign had was having a legal shop set up and ready to go almost immediately. Of course, the fact that it operated partially out of the Secretary of State's office (statewide chairwoman of the Bush Florida campaign and the person responsible for certifying the vote) didn't hurt either.

Get the lawyers in place, in force, and ready to generate paperwork now, not on November 3 or November 10 or later. It will be far too late then.

[Beetwasher]

30. Cheney Was Ready In 2000

because they knew ahead of time what they were going to do and knew they would need the lawyers. Gore was caught off guard.

I think Kerry should not only have the lawyers ready to generate the paperwork, they should fill it all out ahead of time, except for the date and any specific details...

[Chicago Democrat]

13. GOod move SenATOR kERry

:bounce:

[VolcanoJen]

14. Excellent signal to the base, too.

He's letting the millions of Americans who voted for Gore that he's prepared, and ready to fight, if it happens again.

Excellent strategic move.

[IndianaGreen]

15. Why didn't the DNC be more proactive about this in the first place?

We have already seen that there are serious problems in Florida that still remain unresolved. The time to challenge the computerized voting machines is today, not the day after the election.

Kerry must get better lawyers than the ones Gore had in 2000.

[Pachamama]

16. Anyone on DU know what Jimmy Carter's take on all this election biz is?

Especially since Jimmy Carter has been involved for the last 25 years monitoring int'l elections for fraud, I nominate Ex-pres & Nobel Peace Award winner Carter along with another represenative from the Republican side (for bi-partisanship) to head up a commission to monitor the elections in November...

I just wondered if anyone had heard anything from him....

[TrogL]

17. Did I read "ballot machines"?

This is gonna be fun.

[LizW]

20. Yes, and "five statewide recounts"

Yeeoooowww. Strap in, folks.

It is a guarantee that Kerry's campaign is not just doing this for the heck of it. They have info that election theft is in the works in five states.

:wow:

[truthisfreedom]

18. excellent!

i love it. real thinking going on this time. real planning. a counter-insurgency.

[dbt]

19. Kick for the Morning Crew!

Get over it, hell!

:evilgrin:
dbt

[Cooley Hurd]

21. The question is... do we employ Davis Boise this time around?

His legal strategy in Bush v Gore led to the USSC's "equal-protection" ruling that ultimately gave the election to Bush...

[Judi Lynn]

22. Does this look familiar to you?

There's something really ugly about these people, wouldn't you say?
They stole the election, then made fun of the elected President's supporters.

Consider the source.

[wildeyed]

27. I would like to see those

two bitchy looking young women in fatigues on the front lines in Iraq. Then see how they feel about the Sore Loserman.

[dusty64]

23. This is great news

and it WILL no doubt be needed.

[komplex]

24. That's what we need to see.

Getting the long knives sharp.

[natrat]

25. ultimately it

would be nice to see anyone involved with committing vote fraud be treated like someone who has committed treason--ie long time in the stripey hole

[bitchkitty]

26. I surrender! JK, you've got me!

I'm on board, I love this article. He knows what to do! I might still have some issues with the man, but I'll save them until next year.

[wildeyed]

28. Give 'em hell, Mr. Kerry!

n/t

[Beetwasher]

29. Damn! Kerry is ON THE BALL!!!

Hell yeah!!!