By Mike Torralba
The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE - Seeking to bar Republican vote challengers from their precincts, residents of predominantly black voting districts filed lawsuits in state and federal court on Friday.

The Kentucky American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the five plaintiffs, claims the Jefferson County Republican Party's planned use of challengers is a political tactic to reduce voter turnout in the largely Democratic districts. The ACLU claims the GOP plan targets black voters in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

The lawsuits, filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court and U.S. District Court, name county GOP chairman Jack Richardson IV as the defendant. They seek injunctions against the placement of the challengers.

Political parties have the option of placing two challengers at any precinct on Election Day, according to state law. Their job is to question a voter's eligibility if they suspect the voter is ineligible. They aren't allowed to confront the voter directly.

Richardson could not immediately be reached for comment.

But state GOP chairwoman Ellen Williams denied claims that black neighborhoods were targeted.

"The challengers are in west Louisville because we were not successful in recruiting Republican volunteer poll workers in those precincts," she said.

Registered poll workers must live in the areas covered by their precincts. Challengers face no such requirement, Williams said, allowing them to stand in as poll workers if the need arises. Nearly all the challengers registered for Tuesday's election live outside their assigned precincts in the west end.

With just one full business day before the election, Kentucky ACLU general counsel David Friedman said he did not know whether an injunction will be issued in time. But he said legal action would not end when the polls close.

"Regardless of what happens - whether we block it Tuesday or not - this is an issue that does not go away on Tuesday," Friedman said.

A hearing was scheduled for Monday in Jefferson County Circuit Court.

The ACLU, the local NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and other groups say the practice is intended to discourage people from voting.

"I have a strong feeling that these tactics will backfire," U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and chairman of the black caucus, said in a statement. "We need to work on ways to expand the electorate, not suppress it."