Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
TAMARA LUSHThe group of lawyers plans to be at the ready to assist voters if any problems crop up in the coming elections.
MIAMI - A group of lawyers plans to fan out across the state for Florida's upcoming elections, intent on helping any citizens who have problems at the polls.
"We want to make sure we do not have a repeat of the fiasco in 2000," said Alma Gonzalez, special counsel for the Tallahassee office of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Representatives and lawyers from several groups, including the ACLU, NAACP and People for the American Way, are meeting here today to discuss strategy for the upcoming election, Gonzalez said. The plan includes training lawyers for the Aug. 31 primaries and the Nov. 2 general election.
"This is an esoteric area of the law," said Gonzalez. "Not everyone knows it."
Lawyers will be positioned in almost every county in Florida,she said.
The groups also will unveil a toll-free number voters can call if they experience problems voting and want to discuss the matter with a lawyer.
Gonzalez and other organizers of today's conference say the effort with the lawyers is non-partisan one. It is similar to a tack taken by Gov. Jeb Bush during the 2002 gubernatorial election.
"Republicans were much more prepared in terms if having their cadre of troops in place in response to the election," Gonzalez said.
While Democrats talked a lot about the need to remember what happened in 2000, the Republicans formed a legal response team of 350 lawyers, stationed in every county in Florida in 2002.
They researched the political ties of local election officials. They prepared legal briefs that could be filed instantly in any courthouse in Florida. Then they waited for Democrats to make the first move.
The goal was to make sure Gov. Bush's re-election would not be threatened by lawsuits or recounts as happened to Bush's brother in the 2000 Presidential election.
Most of all, Gonzalez said she and the other representatives want to make sure everyone's vote counts this election day. She said she is skeptical that things will run smoothly in certain counties.
"I want to make sure there is no disenfranchisement of voters, by any county or by any supervisor of election," she said.