Seeing red in Florida

Four years after the biggest voting debacle in U.S. history, many suspect that GOP officials in the crucial state are planning dirty tricks again.

By Farhad Manjoo

Oct. 15, 2004 | MIAMI -- "I'll tell you an interesting story about lawyer recruitment," says Stephen Zack, the smooth-talking Miami attorney leading John Kerry's army of election lawyers in Florida. "When I first started to do this a few months ago, I sent out an e-mail to 50 lawyers I'd worked with around the state asking for help," he said. "I got 65 yes answers, from 50 e-mails. They'd sent it on to friends saying, 'I got this e-mail. You ought to get involved.'" With a typical pro-bono query, Zack estimates, he might get a 10 percent reply rate. But this isn't just any pro-bono job. Zack needs smart attorneys to work on the thorny legal questions that could arise on Election Day, amidst the tight election returns everyone expects in this state. Zack won't say exactly how many lawyers he's recruited to work for Kerry on Nov. 2, but local media have reported the number at around 2,000. "There isn't a day that I don't walk down the street here in Downtown Miami that I don't have a lawyer come up to me and volunteer," he says.

Lawyers are lining up to help Kerry in Florida for the same reason Kerry hired Zack before Election Day rather than after --memories of the 2000 recount disaster and of widespread voting irregularities, and the fear that something similar could happen -- is already happening, even -- again.

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