More judicial misconduct in FLA:
<< Dimpled Chad Count, Judge Rules
Wednesday, November 22, 2000
In a major victory for Al Gore's presidential campaign, a Florida circuit judge ruled Wednesday afternoon that Palm Beach County must consider dimpled chad in its manual recount.
Marta Lavandier/AP
Wednesday: Two New York men wearing Bush and Gore masks rally in front of the Stephen P. Clark Goverment Center in Miami.
Democrats had asked Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga to force the county elections board to use a broader definition of a valid ballot. The dimpled ballots could help Gore gain hundreds of votes in the critical recount.
"Since the will of the people is the paramount consideration, and the purpose of our election laws is to obtain a correct expression of the intent of the voters ... that intention should be given effect," Labarga wrote in the court's ruling.
By contrast, the county election supervisors must reject any vote in which they cannot discern the voters' intent.
Labarga's decision came on the heels of a ruling in Miami-Dade County that works in George W. Bush's favor: Election officials in the state's largest electoral district unanimously voted to stop all hand counting of presidential ballots.
Labarga's ruling means that Palm Beach County's canvassing board, which has two Democratic members, must consider up to 2,000 questionable ballots that had been set aside while the judge considered the case. Bush, who holds a 930-vote lead over Gore statewide, is battling in court to halt the hand recounts as error-prone.
By Wednesday morning, workers had recounted all but 102,000 of the 462,350 ballots cast in Palm Beach County on Election Day, and Burton said he expects the job to be finished by the end of the day. The canvassing board plans to meet Friday and Saturday to go through the objectionable ballots and, if necessary, workers would return Sunday to finish up the hand count.
Palm Beach has worked since 1990 under a rule saying at least one corner of a chad — the bit of paper that gets pushed through on a punchcard ballot — must be dislodged for a ballot to count.
But Democratic lawyer Dennis Newman said 557 "dimpled" ballots for Gore and 260 for Republican George W. Bush have been left out of the count.
Dimpled ballots have an indentation, possibly showing a voter's intent to select a candidate, but are not pushed all the way through.
Meanwhile, the Palm Beach Post reported on Wednesday that Dennis Newman, one of Gore's leading men in pushing for the counting of dimpled chads in the election results, was vehemently opposed to them being use in the final tally of a 1996 election in which he represented a Democratic Congressional candidate ahead by a slim margin of votes.
The Post quoted Newman as making arguments similar to those of Republicans today, arguing to the Boston Globe that too much handling led to distorted results, saying "I don't think they are handled with kid gloves."
Given the narrowness of Bush's lead, those dimpled ballots in Palm Beach county could make a big difference in the presidential race. On Tuesday alone, officials set aside 1,979 questionable ballots, including dimples and others. About 30,000 ballots were thrown out during the initial machine counts, including about 10,000 on which no vote was registered by the machines.
On Tuesday, no new official numbers were released. Gore had gained three votes with about one-fifth of the 531 precincts counted in this county.
Miami-Dade Stops Hand Recount
"I do not believe we have the ability to conduct a full, accurate recount" under the Sunday deadline fixed by the state Supreme Court on Tuesday night, said Lawrence King, chairman of the Miami-Dade canvassing board, in explaining the board's surprising decision to stop the hand recount in the county.
Instead, the three-member panel voted to submit the machine recount from Nov. 8 as the county's final tally.
Gore adviser William Daley immediately attacked the ruling: "We hope the counts continue. That's what the Supreme Court wanted," he told reporters in Washington. He indicated the campaign would seek an appeal in the courts.
The most likely route was the state circuit court, though Gore's legal team was considering an appeal directly to the state Supreme Court, several official said.
The Bush camp took the ruling as a long-awaited sign that the county was coming to its senses.
"All Americans should breathe a sigh of relief that finally, common sense has taken over in Miami-Dade County," said Bush spokesman and Montana Gov. Marc Racicot. "We would encourage ... Palm Beach and Broward counties to follow this precedent."
Miami-Dade had been on track to complete a hand recount of its 654,000 presidential ballots by Dec. 1. But late Tuesday, the state Supreme Court said the manual tallies must be completed by this Sunday.
Colin Braley/Reuters
Wednesday: Miami-Dade County election workers protest after the county's canvassing board decided to halt the full count of ballots and only hand-count 'undervote' ballots.
The Miami-Dade decision came after Republicans protested the panel's vote earlier Wednesday to count only the 10,000 votes that didn't register a presidential choice when put through a machine.
The board's action was seen by both camps as a setback for the Gore campaign, which was hoping to make major vote gains in the Miami-Dade recount.
With the White House at stake, Gore hoped to pick up more votes in Florida to overcome George W. Bush, who held a 930-vote lead statewide before hand counts began in three Democratic-leaning counties.
Miami-Dade started its manual tallying on Monday, several days later than Palm Beach and Broward counties. By Tuesday night, the county had hand counted only 135 of its 614 precincts — with Gore picking up 157 votes.
Broward May Be First to Finish
Meanwhile, the full hand recount of 588,000 Broward County ballots neared completion as the state Supreme Court ruled that counters' days of tedium and tallies were not in vain.
Broward County appeared poised to be the first of the three counties to complete the process when the counting resumed Wednesday. With all 609 precincts and 41,500 absentee ballots tallied, Gore received a net gain of 56 votes from the county.
There was even talk of counters working Thanksgiving to ensure the job was done by the Sunday 5 p.m. deadline.
"I'm very pleased that the Supreme Court of Florida has decided that the voters who wanted to make a difference in the 43rd president of the United States will be heard," said Suzanne Gunzburger, a Democrat and Broward County canvassing board member.
Canvassing board chairman Robert W. Lee said there were 1,000 to 2,000 ballots with dimpled or partially removed chads — the tiny pieces of paper in punchcard ballots.
— The Associated Press contributed to this story>> |
