The Barack Obama campaign will deploy hundreds of bilingual attorneys to Central Florida polling places on Election Day to deal with potential problems Hispanics might encounter with the state's "no match, no vote" law.

The law, which took effect Sept. 8, calls for drivers-license or Social Security numbers to match the information in government databases, including voter-registration records. Thousands of applicants had their registrations rejected under the law, which has withstood court challenges and is supposed to reduce fraud by ensuring that registered voters have valid IDs.

Hispanics, critics say, are particularly vulnerable to problems with the new law.

For example, in many Hispanic cultures, it is customary to use both the father's and mother's surnames. But it is not unusual for some Hispanics to drop one of the names when they adopt U.S. customs. Married Hispanic women sometimes add or substitute their husband's surname, or hyphenate their last name. This can lead to discrepancies.

"That's why we are strongly recommending Hispanics to vote early," said Luis Vizcaino, a spokesman for the Obama Voter Protection Program. "This way, if there's a problem, we can work with them to ensure their votes are counted."

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning, both Republicans, have said they are confident the new law will not disenfranchise voters. The Web site for the McCain-Palin campaign does not mention assistance for voters who encounter problems at polling places. A McCain campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for information about assistance for voters who might encounter problems or whether there was concern about the no-match, no-vote law.

Some of Obama's legal volunteers are already serving as poll watchers during early voting.

"We have put together the most extensive voter's protection operation in presidential campaign history," said Bob Bauer, the campaign's general counsel. "It is meant to identify and remove impediments to voters."

The campaign is pursuing the same strategy in other states with high Latino populations, including Texas and California.Although the law applies only to those registered after Sept. 8, some fear that poorly trained poll workers and confusion about the law might result in a high number of provisional ballots given out. Florida election laws require that voters be given these ballots when there is a discrepancy with official voter rolls. This doesn't mean the ballot will be counted, but instead gives the voter 48 hours to submit identification to election workers. Otherwise, their votes won't count.

Voters who encounter problems should contact one of the campaign's volunteer attorneys through their Web site or at the polling place, Vizcaino said. Volunteers will be wearing baseball caps embossed with "Florida Voting Rights Attorney."

Those who registered after Sept. 8 and whose application did not match the name on their identification were not issued voter cards. In Orange County, Hispanics made up one third of all the applications rejected. Records from the Orange County elections office show that of the 846 rejected voter registrations, 30 were of Hispanics with more than one last name. Florida elections officials are trying to notify people whose registration failed, but some of those potential voters may be unaware they are not registered until they go to the polls. They can still vote on a provisional ballot and follow the verification process.

Jeannette Rivera-Lyles can be reached at jrivera@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5471.