Seeing red in Florida
<!-- Deck -->[font=times new roman, times, serif]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.[/font]
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<!-- Byline -->[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]By Farhad Manjoo[/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Oct. 15, 2004 | [/font] [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MIAMI -- [/font]<!-- end default pre content -->"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. Zack himself works daily amid reminders of his last brush with Florida election law. He decorated his office at the Miami branch of Boies, Schiller and Flexner, with what he calls "scars" from the 2000 legal battles. In one corner, there's a courtroom sketch artist's representation of Zack cross-examining a witness during one of the many courtroom battles that occurred in that 36-day national drama. Below that, there are framed front-page articles from the New York Times and from Florida newspapers recounting his legal deftness. In another corner sits a note from Gore, thanking Zack for his work. Zack is cagey about what his team is preparing for in the case of a defeat on Nov. 2 and says he fondly hopes that "everything will go very smoothly and there will be no need for lawyers." But if Zack goes looking for problems on Nov. 2, there will certainly be no shortage of voting irregularities in the state that he might contest, and many here see a legal fight just as nasty as the last one heading this way.
<!-- Deck -->[font=times new roman, times, serif]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.[/font]
[font=times new roman, times, serif][size=-1]- - - - - - - - - - - -[/size][/font]
<!-- Byline -->[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]By Farhad Manjoo[/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Oct. 15, 2004 | [/font] [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MIAMI -- [/font]<!-- end default pre content -->"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. Zack himself works daily amid reminders of his last brush with Florida election law. He decorated his office at the Miami branch of Boies, Schiller and Flexner, with what he calls "scars" from the 2000 legal battles. In one corner, there's a courtroom sketch artist's representation of Zack cross-examining a witness during one of the many courtroom battles that occurred in that 36-day national drama. Below that, there are framed front-page articles from the New York Times and from Florida newspapers recounting his legal deftness. In another corner sits a note from Gore, thanking Zack for his work. Zack is cagey about what his team is preparing for in the case of a defeat on Nov. 2 and says he fondly hopes that "everything will go very smoothly and there will be no need for lawyers." But if Zack goes looking for problems on Nov. 2, there will certainly be no shortage of voting irregularities in the state that he might contest, and many here see a legal fight just as nasty as the last one heading this way.
