GOP WILL VIDEOTAPE POLLING PLACE; MISSISSIPPI COUNTY PRECINCTS ON THE LIST

The Missouri Republican Party plans to use cameras today to monitor polling areas for possible vote fraud despite U.S. Justice Department concerns over a similar videotaping plan in North Carolina.

North Carolina's plan to allow Republicans to videotape voters on Election Day might violates the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Justice Department said.

GOP officials in Mecklenburg and Cumberland counties -- home to Charlotte and Fayetteville -- plan to videotape people as they go to the polls today. They say they are trying to prevent voter fraud, citing concerns about people in some heavily Democratic precincts voting twice.

Democrats say the tactics amount to voter intimidation. Some have suggested they are racist because some minority precincts will be targeted.

Missouri Democratic Party officials have voiced similar complaints about this state GOP's plan for Election Day videotaping outside polling places.

Republicans in Missouri said they were on the lookout for voter fraud, citing a guilty plea earlier this year of a Democratic campaign worker in Mississippi County who federal prosecutors said swapped votes for coupons good for beer and other merchandise.

The state GOP plan includes a voter fraud hot line, plans for random vote recounts and additional GOP poll watchers. The hotline is (800) 670-6746.

Democrats have countered with their own toll-free number for Missourians to report any incidents of voter intimidation. That number is (888) 577-VOTE.

Republicans haven't identified the precincts that will be monitored. But GOP spokesman Daryl Duwe said the polls in Mississippi County will be among those Republicans will monitor.

Duwe said it makes no sense for the Justice Department to be concerned about the possible videotaping of voters in North Carolina when it was a Republican campaign official's videotape that helped federal prosecutors in Missouri secure a conviction in the Mississippi County case.

He accused Democrats of portraying Republican actions as racist in an effort to get out the black vote.

Missouri Democratic Party spokeswoman Theresa Walker denied the accusation and denounced the GOP poll-monitoring plan.

"Their plan is clearly a plan to intimidate voters," she said. "Clearly, their effort is to hold down voter turnout."

Walker expects the Justice Department to take a close look nationwide at any videotaping efforts by state Republican parties.

But Duwe said the Missouri GOP only wants to ensure an honest election.

"There's nothing illegal about having a video camera," he said, adding that the cameras won't be in plain view.

"I think a lot of people get intimidated if they see a camera at a family reunion," Duwe said. "We are not trying to intimidate anybody. We will be watching for vote fraud."

But Walker questioned how GOP workers will be able to videotape voters clandestinely without hanging from trees or jumping out of bushes.

In North Carolina, the Justice Department sent a letter last week to Gary Bartlett, director of the state elections board.

"We will not countenance any thinly veiled attempts to intimidate racial and ethnic minorities at the polls," wrote Anita Hodgkiss, deputy assistant attorney general.

Although the letter did not threaten any action, it did ask Bartlett to keep the Justice Department informed of any further developments in the videotaping plan.

North Carolina GOP spokesman Richard Hudson said, "Any poll watching program we've supported targets heavily Democratic voter registration precincts. It doesn't target any racial group."

The Associated Press provided some information for this story.