The Headline in the Dallas Morning News.
Bush appeals to Supreme Court
Gore insists recounts a matter for Florida law
11/23/2000
By David Jackson / The Dallas Morning News
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida's wild post-election roller coaster lurched and swerved again Wednesday, this time on a track that could put the outcome in the hands of the nation's highest court.
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Lawyers for Republican candidate George W. Bush asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a ruling by Florida's highest court that would allow late hand-counted ballots for president.
Mr. Bush asked the Supreme Court to shut down all the recounts or risk a constitutional crisis.
"I won the vote in Florida," he said, accusing the Democrats of monkeying with laws to reverse the election's "legitimate result."
But a spokesman for Vice President Al Gore – who also believes that he won Florida and thus the presidency – said the recount was a matter for state law and that the justices should not intervene.
"It's a question for the Florida courts to resolve under Florida laws," spokesman Ron Klain said Wednesday. "I don't think the Supreme Court will get involved."
Citing "chaos" in the recounting of votes in Florida, Bush attorney Theodore B. Olson said the Supreme Court should take the case because the hand counts violate the constitutional rights of other presidential voters nationwide.
"The right to vote in a presidential election is our most important vote," Mr. Olson told reporters as the petitions were being filed. "Our votes must be counted fully, but they must be counted equally and according to rules."
Mr. Olson said the Bush camp was asking the justices to expedite briefings and hearings so that the issues could be decided before the Electoral College casts ballots for president on Dec. 18.
"We're prepared to go forward and file briefs almost immediately and be prepared to do oral arguments almost immediately," he said.
First, however, four of the court's nine justices would have to agree to hear the case. There was no indication of when the court would act, but most legal experts said it was unlikely the justices would intervene without compelling evidence of a federal issue.
Action on several fronts
Meanwhile, even as Mr. Bush and his lawyers challenged the Florida hand counts, they were asking a state judge to require 13 counties with large military populations to accept absentee ballots from overseas that were rejected for technical reasons.
And as the Bush camp weighed these steps, Republican vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney suffered what doctors first insisted was chest pain and later acknowledged was "a very minor heart attack" Wednesday while visiting family in Washington.
Doctors at George Washington University Hospital inserted a stent into an artery in Mr. Cheney's heart that had narrowed since his last heart checkup in 1996. The doctors said that Mr. Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble and has had three previous heart attacks, should be released from the hospital in two or three days.
Mr. Bush, who awoke to news of his running mate's heart problem, spent much of the day with legal advisers in Austin deciding how best to challenge the Florida Supreme Court ruling.
The Bush campaign has steadfastly fought to block hand recounts of ballots from three heavily Democratic counties in South Florida, losing twice in federal court and a third time Tuesday in Florida's Supreme Court.
The campaign called manual recounts in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties an invitation to political mischief, and Mr. Bush publicly criticized the state court ruling.
"We believe the justices have used the bench to change Florida's election laws," he said.
A change in Miami-Dade
But the Bush campaign appeared to win a partial victory without court intervention as election officials in Miami-Dade County, Florida's largest county, abruptly abandoned their hand count of ballots from the Nov. 7 election.
Early results in the recount seemed to offer Mr. Al Gore his best chance of overtaking Mr. Bush's narrow lead in Florida and claiming the state's 25 electoral votes and the presidency. But members of the county's canvassing board, after saying they intended to accelerate the hand count, voted unanimously to halt the count, saying they couldn't possibly finish by the Sunday night deadline.
The Gore campaign quickly asked a state appeals court to order the recount resumed, but that court upheld Miami-Dade's action late Wednesday. Democrats said they would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
While much of Mr. Bush's legal strategy now centers on the U.S. Supreme Court, his attorneys were in state court as well. They were filing lawsuits against election officials in the 13 counties where Mr. Bush seeks to have more absentee ballots – many from military personnel overseas – validated. Many of the ballots were disqualified last week on various technical grounds, including missing postmarks.
The Bush team also assessed other options should the disputes and court battles continue.
For example, state House Majority Leader Mike Fasano said, the GOP-controlled state Legislature could call a special session to choose electors.
"At some point in time you have to have some finality here," said Mr. Fasano, who is from the Tampa area. "The Legislature may have to step in and select the electors."
Democrats predicted voters would object to an idea that, among other things, might require approval from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of the Republican presidential candidate.
"It seems hard to believe that politicians in the Legislature would want to change the results if it's clear who the voters voted for," Gore spokesman Douglas Hattaway said.
Focus on state ruling
But most of the focus Wednesday was on the Florida Supreme Court ruling, which requires Secretary of State Katherine Harris to accept recounts submitted by 5 p.m. Sunday. And Ms. Harris has said her office will be open at that hour to do so.
Ms. Harris, a Republican and co-chairman of the Bush campaign in Florida, had said state law required her to certify the election by Nov. 14.
But the state court, ruling unanimously, said the law allows candidates to seek manual recounts. If the required deadlines don't give larger counties enough time to complete the recounts, the rights of the voters must come first, the court ruled.
Bush aides said they fear that Democratic-run canvassing boards in South Florida might tilt the scales to Mr. Gore. They complained about plans to count "dimpled" ballots, which feature an indentation but not a punched-through hole next to a candidate's name.
"Every day we have a new story about changing the process," Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said.
The Bush campaign criticized the Florida Supreme Court for substituting its judgment for that of the Florida Legislature, which set the seven-day deadline for counting and certifying Election Day votes.
"It is simply not fair ... to change the rules, either in the middle of the game or after the game has been played," said former Secretary of State James Baker, Mr. Bush's top adviser in Florida.
David Boies, an attorney for the Gore campaign, said he doubted the U.S. Supreme Court would take the case.
"Regardless of whether you're winning or losing, it's a matter of Florida law," Mr. Boies said.
But Mr. Baker said it was still possible the Florida Legislature could intervene.
Staff writers Michael E. Young in Dallas and G. Robert Hillman in Washington contributed to this report.
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