Barbara Rivera wants to "stand for peace" on behalf of the U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence.

Duke Austin hopes to hold a five-day "this is what democracy looks like" rally with the Students for Peace and Justice.

Adam Jungk proposes to set up a Tent State University. Barbara Cohen applied for a "festival of democracy;" her husband, Mark Cohen, for a "celebration of democracy."

They're just five of the people who submitted more than 200 applications to occupy 14 centrally located Denver parks during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The catch is, they are all associated with the same group: Re-create 68.

City officials will draw names in a park-permit lottery today, and say the multiple applications look like ballot stuffing.

The city's mayoral liaison to convention planning, Katherine Archuleta, said her office is asking the applicants to reconsider their strategy and reduce the overlap, "in the spirit of fairness."

But R-68's Glenn Spagnuolo, who also filed for a permit for "The Free Speech Zone" as an individual, and who freely admits knowing Duke, Adam, Mark and the two Barbaras — and, in all, as many as 40 other applicants friendly to his group — says it's the city that's not playing fair.

"It's the city's fault," Spagnuolo said. "I don't have any remorse about this at all."

Spagnuolo says the city's new permitting rules, which it overhauled to prepare for the deluge of interest in the convention, are meant to exclude protesters.

R-68, as an umbrella group for a variety of protesters, wants to use Civic Center outside city hall as its main staging area for the week of the convention, Aug. 25-28.

Spagnuolo objects to the lottery because it gives equal weight to private and free-speech interests, and because it gives precedence to groups, such as A Taste of Colorado, which have historically sought permits for particular days. The food festival will begin setting up in Civic Center on Aug. 28.

The new system also allots permits for single days, as opposed to multi-day permits.

"My job was to develop a system that considers all applicants and not just what one applicant would want," Archuleta said.

Peace activists were not the only people who submitted multiple applications in multiple parks to improve their chances in today's lottery.

Eleven people are seeking "pray and worship service" permits on identical days in several different parks, including Ron, Alice, Annette, Eric and Daniel Versluys.

Others filed separate applications to use Pioneer Memorial Park on the first day of the convention for a rally evidently intended to support the war in Iraq, with proposed events titled Coloradans Support the Troops, Women for Victory in Iraq, Iraq and America United for Victory, Patriotic Celebration and Go USA!

The Colorado Democratic Party submitted a single application to use middle-north Skyline Park throughout the convention — one of 36 applications for that section of the park alone.

State party chair Pat Waak said the party needs someplace to set up screens so people who lack access to the convention floor can watch the proceedings.

"We applied, I guess, not realizing that everyone else in the world was applying," Waak said. "If the city wants to offer something else, we'd certainly consider it."

David Olinger: 303-954-1498 or dolinger (at) denverpost.com