For that reason, he added, canvassing boards like judges to make the decision, "and if a judge thinks it's a vote, it's a vote".
In addition, the statewide standard for recounts would eliminate confusion over counting questionable ballots, which became a point of contention and prompted several lawsuits when canvassing boards like those in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties used different criteria than when canvassers counted them by hand.
If it is not quite a dirty little secret, it is at least a rarely considered component of American politics: from local canvassing boards, like those in Palm Beach County, to the Federal Election Commission, people with a partisan stake can play a significant role in determining winners and losers.
This was like canvassing a low-income housing project in Chicago and discovering a groundswell for Ben Bernanke.
The arrival of one of these miracle-workers in a constituency risks giving harried candidates and disengaged activists the perfect opportunity to dump boring grunt work like canvassing and envelope-stuffing on the new recruit.
The Justice Department has said that these interviews are voluntary, that those questioned are not suspected of wrongdoing, and that the effort is simply to gather information, like canvassing a neighborhood after a crime.
But the group also includes younger voters, so in addition to canvassing in places like Newark and Camden, Mr. Corzine's campaign has obtained some voter data and contact information from Mr. Obama's presidential campaign Web site, and is trying to reach them through online appeals and social networking.
"It has given an extended platform and broad audiences to a range of Indigenous commentators including Noel Pearson, Josephine Cashman, Marcia Langton and others to canvass issues like welfare dependency, alcohol abuse and violence against women," he said.
It felt almost like speed canvassing at times.
But in an effort to push the effort forward, Mr. O'Neill has been canvassing leading tax thinkers like Joel B. Slemrod of the University of Michigan, David F. Bradford of Princeton, Michael J. Graetz of Yale, Ronald A. Pearlman of Georgetown and Alan J. Auerbach of the University of California at Berkeley.
