Oregon Democrats say Republicans trying to block new voters

PORTLAND — Democrats accused Republicans yesterday of trying to block thousands of young people's votes, after a formal request by GOP lawyers to review ballots cast by first-time voters in Oregon's most populous county.

In a letter issued Friday, Oregon Republican Party lawyers demanded officials set aside ballots cast by new voters in Multnomah County who have not provided proof of identification.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the demand flies in the face of Oregon law, which does not require voters to show proof of identification when registering.

"This is not Florida. We are about empowering citizens," said Wyden, who helped draft the relevant portion of Oregon's election law.

Statewide, 207,053 first-time voters registered after May, and 73,226 of them are under age 25, according to numbers from Sunlight Data Systems, a database manager working for groups for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Twenty percent of the new voters live in Multnomah County, home to liberal Portland.

Two years after the voting controversy in Florida, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, aimed at curbing irregularities. One of its provisions requires people to show proof of identification when voting.

Oregon's congressional delegation took issue with that requirement because of the state's vote-by-mail system, which allowed citizens to simply send in their ballots.

It's harder for a person voting by mail to copy their driver's license and include it with their mail-in ballot than it is for a person voting at a polling booth to show identification, the delegation argued.

The bipartisan "Oregon Compromise," drafted by Wyden and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., added an exception for Oregon as a way to preserve its vote-by-mail system.

Oregon Elections Director John Lindback said the state will fight the Republican request and stressed that the GOP concern is unfounded.

The Republican challenge is set out in a letter signed by Matthew Lowe, an attorney in a Portland law firm that, according to the letter, represents the Oregon Republican Party.

"The purpose of this letter is to demand that those ballots cast by persons who have yet to provide valid identification be set aside so that voter's registration can be reviewed and verified, and the ballots challenged if necessary," Lowe wrote.