Democrats say Republicans may use PDAs in challenges

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

State Democratic Party leaders said Monday they have come across another plan by the Republican Party to disrupt the election -- this time by challenging some voters' registration on Election Day, which the Democrats said is intended to create long lines at the polls and discourage others from waiting to vote.

A Republican National Committee spokesman said the accusations were outrageous and part of the Democrats' overall plan to scare voters and cast doubt on the results of an election the Democrats may challenge.

Lisa Moore, a Nevada voter protection coordinator for the Democratic Party, said she attended a poll-monitor seminar at the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV around noon Monday during which she heard a Republican representative tell the group they planned to give poll watchers Palm Pilots, hand-held computers known as PDAs or personal digital assistants, to help them know which voters to challenge on Election Day.

Lynnda Brown, a recent graduate of the law school, attended the seminar and is volunteering as a poll watcher for the Democrats. She said the Republican representative told the group of about 20 potential volunteers that the Republicans would provide them with Palm Pilots or something similar that would have the names of all registered voters in them.

Brown said the Republican claimed he represented the party and said the poll watchers would be there to ensure the identity of voters.

"He kept saying that some people registered as Mickey Mouse or Mary Poppins. My impression was that they would look for people using fake names," she said.

Exactly how they would decide which voters to challenge, and how that challenge would be made were not explained, she said.

"He said he wasn't sure how they would be doing that," Brown said.

Kevin Sheridan, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said the man who spoke to the group and apparently said he was with the Republicans is a member of the College Republicans group, but "has no affiliation with the Republican campaign or Republican National Committee."

"Their intentions are to take anything out of context, to launch preemptive strikes with false charges," he said.

Sheridan said because he's not working with poll watchers he couldn't say exactly what materials the Republican poll watchers might have with them on Election Day. But he said the accusation that the Republicans will try to disrupt the election ludicrous.

"I think our PDAs are only for get-out-the-vote efforts, not to suppress voters," he said, referring to his organization's use of hand-held computers to keep track of who has voted so the party can contact those who haven't.

Chris Carr, executive director of the state Republican party, and the person who Sheridan said could say for sure what the poll watchers will have with them, could not be reached for comment Monday night.

But the Democrats said they are convinced the Republicans intend to disrupt the election by challenging voter registrations.

Adriana Martinez, the state Democratic party chairwoman, said she expects the Republicans will try to target inactive voters, and make other challenges based on residency discrepancies.

"This is part of a larger plan to bottleneck the process," she said, adding that if the Republicans can create long lines at some polling places on Election Day, those lines alone would keep some voters away.

The Democrats have not gone to Clark County elections officials with this specific concern, they said.

Moore said challenges to voter registration on Election Day would have to be made by someone who lives in the district where they are lodging their challenge, and they could only challenge a voter based on a belief that the voter has already cast a ballot, or that they are not who they claim to be.

She said Election Day is too late to challenge a voter registration based on residency rules.

Moore said the Democrats will have lawyers at polling places to help voters whose registrations are challenged.

Sheridan said the Democrats' accusations are baseless.

"I'm absolutely amazed they would throw out charges with absolutely nothing to base it on," he said.

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