Democratic officials are charging that a Republican poll watcher?s manual represents what Rep. Elijah Cummings called “a conscious premeditated plan of voter intimidation and voter suppression.” Joseph Sandler, general counsel for the Democratic National Committee and the state party, said Thursday, if implemented, “it would violate state law” in that “it would challenge voters without any basis.”
Republicans fired back that the manual was something they had used before as required by law, and Democrats are making just the sort of “pre-emptive strike” recommended in a 2004 Kerry-Edwards election day manual from Colorado, accusing Republicans of trying to suppress the vote.
The charges and countercharges are the latest in the series of partisan wrangles growing out of serious voting problems in the Sept. 12 primary, when electronic registration books malfunctioned and polls did not open on time.
Cummings said the Maryland GOP is making an effort “to deny Marylanders the right to vote” and the people “most harmed ? would be Maryland?s black voters.”
He and other officials called on Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael Steele to “back away from this tactic.”
The Washington Post first reported on the manual on Thursday, and Democrats responded by releasing its contents at a news conference. The manual says: “Your most important duty as a poll watcher is to challenge people who present themselves to vote but who are not authorized to vote.”
The manual goes into some detail in explaining how to challenge election judges if they seem to be doing their job of screening voters improperly, even telling them that they might be committing a criminal offense punishable with jail time.
Montgomery County state?s attorney and Democratic attorney general nominee Doug Gansler called the manual “absolutely outrageous. This is not Mississippi in the 1960s.”
Republican Party Chairman John Kane said the program “was designed to ensure that poll watchers carry out their statutory duties in accordance with state law (and) that every eligible voter is able to vote.”
Democrats are “trying to fire up their base” since they are particularly concerned about African American turnout, said Audra Miller, spokesperson for the state GOP.
Both parties are planning to have large contingents of lawyers available Election Day to deal with any legal challenges.
Part of the Baltimore Examiner’s 2006 Election Coverage
