The Barack Obama campaign's top lawyer, Bob Bauer, asked to have a special prosecutor step in, the same special prosecutor that is currently investigating the U.S. Justice Department's dismissal of attorneys.
Bauer cited "an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics."
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court refused to a GOP challenge of 200,000 of the 600,000 new registrations in Ohio.
Here is the full story, as printed in Agence France Presse:
"Obama camp accuses Republicans of 'plotting' to suppress votes"
CHICAGO – Barack Obama's campaign accused rival John McCain of using a false crusade against voter fraud to suppress legitimate votes Friday as battles over who ought to be able to cast a ballot in the November 4 election intensified.
The Obama campaign's top lawyer, Bob Bauer, accused Republicans of recklessly "plotting" to suppress legitimate votes and to "sow confusion and harass voters and complicate the process for millions of Americans."
An estimated nine million new voters have registered for the hotly contested presidential election, and the Obama campaign says Democratic registrations are outpacing Republican ones by four to one.
The McCain campaign contends that an untold number of those registration forms are false and warned that illegally cast ballots could alter the results of the election and undermine the public's faith in democracy.
Republicans have launched a slew of lawsuits aimed at preventing false ballots from being cast, the most high-profile an attempt to challenge as many as 200,000 of the more than 600,000 new registrations submitted in the battleground state of Ohio.
That challenge was blocked by a Supreme Court ruling Friday.
Republicans point to investigations into whether liberal-leaning community organization ACORN had submitted false voter registrations as proof of "rampant" and widespread fraud which McCain said Wednesday could be "destroying the fabric of democracy."
But Bauer told reporters the fact that senior officials from the Justice Department leaked news of an FBI investigation into ACORN a day after McCain lobbed that attack shows that "an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics" may have returned.
He said the matter should be turned over to a special prosecutor currently investigating allegations that US attorneys were fired by the Bush administration for failing to bring indictments of voter fraud and public corruption in the leadup to the 2006 election.
The McCain campaign dismissed Bauer's accusations as an "absurd" attempt to "criminalize political discourse."
"In case Senator Obama's lawyer did not notice, we are in the midst of a political campaign, not a coronation, and the alleged criminal activity he calls 'recent partisan Republican activities' are what the rest of us call campaign speeches and debates," spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement.
Gallup's latest national tracking poll of registered voters had Obama at 50 percent to 43 percent for McCain.
Polls of battleground states by CNN and Time on Wednesday showed Obama up five points among registered voters in Colorado, by eight in Florida, by three in Missouri and by a yawning 10 points in Virginia.
McCain, who campaigned Friday in Florida, is pinning his hopes for a late comeback on "Joe the Plumber," the unlikely blue-collar hero of his final presidential debate with Obama on Wednesday.
The Arizona senator is banking that the low-tax mantra espoused by Ohio tradesman Joe Wurzelbacher, 34, in a chance encounter with Obama this week will resonate with voters at a time of economic crisis.
"The question Joe asked about our economy is important, because Senator Obama's plan would raise taxes on small businesses that employ 16 million Americans," McCain told a rally in Miami.
"Senator Obama's plan will kill those jobs at just the time when we need to be creating more jobs. My plan will create jobs, and that's what America needs."
Obama says that only individuals making over 200,000 dollars and families making more than a quarter of a million will face higher taxes if he is president, and most middle-class people will pay less.
Targeting a demographic that has proven resistant to his call for change, Obama said in Roanoke, Virginia: "When you've worked hard your whole life, and paid into the system, and done everything right, you shouldn't have the carpet pulled out from under you when you least expect it and can least afford it."
Obama was set to address a rally in St. Louis, Missouri on Saturday afternoon after spending the night at home in Chicago.
McCain had events scheduled in North Carolina and Virginia on Saturday while his running mate, Sarah Palin , was set to fly to New York to appear on the comedy show Saturday Night Live which has seen its popularity spike with a series of sketches mimicking the Alaska governor.
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