Party lawyers converge on Ohio to fight for victory

Republican and Democratic lawyers converged on Ohio today for a potential new overtime presidential court fight, with the focus this time on tens of thousands of uncounted ballots cast by people who would otherwise have been turned away from the polls.

John Kerry, trailing in the Electoral College count and among regular voters in Ohio, did not vow a Florida-style legal battle, but did not concede the election either.

President Bush held a lead of more than 100,000 votes but that total was exceeded by the number of provisional and outstanding votes, leaving a window for Democrats to pick up enough votes to win the state, and with it probably the White House.

Election law specialists said either side could file lawsuits today to try to get the best footing for evaluating and counting provisional or absentee ballots.

“There are two questions here,” said George Washington University law professor Spencer Overton. “One is how to develop uniform standards for reviewing the ballots, and the other is to decide how generous those uniform standards should be."

Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell said the number of provisional ballots in the state could be as high as 175,000, or much lower.

Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for Kerry in Ohio, said: “We think that a good bit of those voters will be our voters.”

“We think that is more than enough voters to win the state,” Palmieri said. “Those votes have to be counted before we know who won the state.”

Ohio State University law professors said numerous potential legal fights loom:

:: Disputes about which provisional ballots and absentee ballots are legitimate and should be counted.

:: Disputes about inconsistent rules from precinct to precinct in counting provisional ballots.

:: Further appeals about Election Day problems, especially in precincts with long lines.

:: Recounts of all Ohio votes.

Republicans would try to preserve their lead by pressing for strict counting standards and firm deadlines, while Democrats could seek looser rules.

The Republicans had already sued over Ohio provisional ballots even before polls closed yesterday.

A Republican-sponsored lawsuit demanded better ground rules for evaluating the ballots, and a guarantee that they could watch, alongside Democrats, as state officials prepare the provisional ballots to be counted.

Provisional ballots are a backup system, new nationwide this year, to protect voters mistakenly dropped from the rolls or wrongly disqualified.

In Ohio and other states, provisional ballots will be examined in the coming days, and eligible votes added to the totals for president and other races.

In states that offered some kind of provisional voting before this year, relatively few of the set-aside ballots eventually counted.

States have varying standards and deadlines for counting provisional ballots, an issue that yielded numerous lawsuits before the election and could resurface now.

Ohio was the scene of the fiercest court skirmishing in the days leading to the election.

Democrats had massed thousands of lawyers in the state, where Kerry and Bush ran neck and neck for weeks, and added several more through the day Tuesday.

Lawyers and political strategists for President Bush boarded a plane in Washington before dawn, bound for Ohio.