Organized Labor Will Monitor Polls

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The AFL-CIO will monitor polls in battleground states on Election Day to guard against voting abuses, and is launching a new effort to educate voters about the process and their rights.

The "My Vote, My Right" campaign is intended to help prevent problems that arose in the 2000 election, including technological glitches with voting machines, confusing ballots, inadequately staffed polls, polls that opened late and closed early, and registered voters erroneously removed from rolls.

Voter advocacy teams have been created in 32 cities in 12 states to help monitor implementation and enforcement of election laws, and to educate voters about the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

The law mandated provisional ballots for voters claiming to be registered but whose names are not listed on the rolls because of clerical or other errors. If registration is verified later, the ballot gets included in the vote count. The act also requires that newly registered voters show an ID on Election Day if the state hasn't verified their identities.

The AFL-CIO, which has endorsed Democrat John Kerry, says voters on Nov. 2 should call their local election offices to ensure they are registered, make sure they received registration cards, locate polling sites in advance and inquire about opportunities to practice on new voting machines.

Already this year, voters in Georgia, Maryland and California encountered problems with electronic voting systems. A software flaw in Florida's touch-screen machines has raised concerns there about a repeat of 2000.