Bob Bauer's Election Protection Mission

Barack Obama's campaign predicts that as many as -- if not more than -- 130,000,000 voters will go to the polls this November, by far a record. The man in charge of making sure it all goes smoothly, Bob Bauer, is decidedly calm about the massive endeavor he is coordinating.

At a lunch for election lawyers, corporate and union counsels and a few nerdy reporters this afternoon, Mr. Bauer, Obama's general counsel, outlined the campaign's integrated election protection effort, the largest ever in the party's history.

A team of lawyers works out of an Obama for America pod at the Democratic National Committee. Donna Brazille, the longtime Democratic activist, is coordinating the party's end of the multi-million dollar program. (The DNC's efforts predated Obama's, having been announced in August of 2007.)

Bauer said that state councils have already been established, with volunteers working with state and local officials to preemptively resolve crisis before they're unveiled. Across the country, counties have reported massive increases in voter registration, mostly Democratic, and many municipalities were overwhelmed by larger-than-expected turnout during the Democratic primaries.

Bauer said that "thousands" of lawyers were participating. 

To those in the media who wonder about the effect of thousand of lawyers scrutinizing every polling place, Bauer said: "We're not looking for a fight," he said. "We're looking to prevent a fight."

Mr. Bauer had invited as his guest Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader.

Mr. Daschle recalled his first election to Congress. At age 29, he was elected by 14 votes, but legal disputes held up his victory for more than a year.    In 2004, when Daschle narrowly lost to challenger John Thune, he said that voters on American Indian reservations reported being harassed, and he recalled incidences of voter intimidation in black communities.
Daschle shepherded  through Congress a palette of election reforms after the 2004 election.

"Don't let anyone persuade you the job is done," he said.