Voters (and lawyers) will head to the polls tomorrow

Voters (and lawyers) will head to the polls tomorrow

Voters won’t be the only ones heading to the polls Tuesday.

A army of lawyers will be on hand as well. Barack Obama's campaign team has recruited 5,000 volunteer lawyers to attend polling stations in battleground states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and

other states where the vote could be close. They will fan out across polling stations to ensure the Republicans do not "steal" the election, as - Democrats claim - George Bush did eight years ago.

Polling stations in Florida will get the lion’s share, in part because of its history and also because polls suggest the vote will be tight.

The lawyers will be on hand to help any voters denied a ballot on spurious grounds, or fight to keep polling stations open late if they become overwhelmed by the expected high turnout. The Republicans will have their own lawyers across Florida too.

After the voting debacle of the deadlocked 2000 presidential election, Congress passed a new Help America Vote Act, which provided states with millions of dollars to upgrade voting equipment and procedures, and create centralized databases to check voter registrations. The system still has some bugs and little things like a nickname or error in a digit on an official record can disqualify a voter.

Under the law, voters whose eligibility is challenged can cast a provisional ballot, which is set aside to be counted later after a voter's qualification is cleared up.

Tony Wang, of the voter rights group Common Cause, predicts that provisional ballots may easily become the hanging chad of the 2008 election.

With polls showing Barack Obama and John McCain neck-and-neck in a half-dozen crucial swing states, election day controversies could determine the outcome of the vote and even turn election day into weeks-long legal challenges.

"Sky-high voter interest, coupled with changes in voting machines, record numbers of new registrants in many places, and new procedures including voter identification rules in some states will mean voters and election administrators could have a long day on Nov. 4," said Doug Chapin, director of electionline.org, a non-partisan election reform watchdog.