As the American public ponders who they’ll vote for in the 2008 presidential election, lawyers behind the scenes are gearing up to ensure that everyone’s vote counts.

In the battleground states like Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Virginia, and Nevada, the Democratic and Republican parties are deploying teams of lawyers at the polls to ensure that bureaucracy and voting violations don’t take place on Nov. 4.

The Ledger.com of Lakeland, Florida reported Oct. 5:

“In the past, the Election Day process wasn’t considered to be as crucial as the campaign that led up to that,” said Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer. “Now we see that the Election Day process is equally as important, or more so.”

Since the historic 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush, voting will never be the same. Many people still remember the notorious “hanging chads” in Florida and going to bed on the eve of the 2000 election thinking Al Gore had won the presidency bid. Since this debacle, Help America Vote Act (NAVA) of 2002 was passed to nix punch card (read: chads) voting systems, create the Election Assistance Commission to watch over Federal elections, and  establish minimum election administration standards. Thus, lawyers are showing up at the polls, especially in key swing states, to ensure NAVA is followed to the letter.

One of the biggest pre-election issues at the moment is the “voter registration verification law,” also known as the “no match, no vote” law in Florida. Basically, for voters who registered after Sept. 8, their photo ID information must match the Social Security or driver license in the state databases. If there isn’t a match, the voters have to use a provisional ballot and provide proof to the election office (at a later date) that they were a legally registered voter.

For many critics, this law could mean thousands of disenfranchised voters as a result of confusion, faulty databases and simple mistakes. And Democrats, who have record numbers of newly registered voters, are worried that legal voters will be denied their right to vote.

Adding fuel to the flame, the Obama camp “has publicly asked for thousands of lawyers to come to Florida and monitor polls for irregularities or problems.”

Of course, Florida’s voting system is receiving a lot of attention but it’s not the only state where pre-election legal battles are brewing. Last week, the McCain campaign won a lawsuit after Ohio’s secretary of state, a Democrat, ruled that absentee ballot requests would not be allowed if a box wasn’t checked. And similar to Florida’s “no match, no vote” dispute, “Wisconsin’s attorney general is suing to force the use of a database to confirm voters’ identification.”

And even the District of Columbia is sending lawyers to the November polls. The Washington Post recently reported:

“Lawyers working pro bono for the District will monitor the polls and will be at elections headquarters Nov. 4 after the debacle that caused thousands of phantom votes to be added to initial tallies of [September's] primary.”

The good news is that there are legal eagles watching the election. The bad news is that there are legal eagles watching the election. Both Democrats and Republicans claim each side is out to prevent the other party’s voters from casting their ballots through the clever use of bureaucracy, laws, misinformation, and intimidation.

Although the pre-election legal battles are intriguing, the important thing to do now is ensure you have registered to vote. If you haven’t registered, it may not be too late. Check out RocktheVote.org or use Google’s 2008 Voter information for help with voter registration.

Tags: democrats, District of Columbia, florida, Google Vote Info, Help America Vote Act 2002, lawyers, no match no vote, presidential, republicans, rock the vote, voting, Wisconsin