Both sides gird for legal challenges in U.S. election

By Andrea Hopkins

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Americans used to wait for problems on election day before crying vote fraud, but both sides have already launched charges of disenfranchisement and cheating ahead of the November 4 U.S. presidential election.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain vaulted state squabbles over voter registration onto the national agenda this month when he said one group was on the brink of pulling off the greatest election fraud in history.

The community group ACORN, which fights poverty and registers voters, is "on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy," McCain told a television audience of some 56 million during his final debate with his Democratic rival Barack Obama.

And the race was on.

There are now complaints or legal challenges over voting lists, absentee voting and erratic voting machines, and lawyers for both sides have descended on states where a close outcome is expected in case problems arise on election day.

The charges and counter-charges boil down to two basic concerns: conservatives worry ineligible voters will cast a ballot on election day, while liberals worry marginalized groups like racial minorities and the poor -- who tend to vote Democrat -- will be prevented from voting.

The concern is exacerbated this year because Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, has inspired millions of people who have never voted before, including young people and blacks, overwhelming what critics say was an already underfunded and piecemeal balloting system.

PERENNIAL PROBLEM