Re: With the Dade out of the way, can we hope that there maybe a finality by Sunday?
Doubtful - just saw this posted...
LEGAL BATTLE DEVELOPS OVER DISCARDING ABSENTEE BALLOTS
A judge order a hearing on attempts to throw out 15,000 absentee ballots in a republican stronghold. By Phil Long and Mark Silva Knight Ridder News Service
Miami- A potenitally explosive legal battle over the presidential election is developing in Seminole County, where a judge has ordered a hearing in a lawsuit that seeks to throw out more than 15,000 absentee ballots in one of the GOP's biggest strongholds.
Circuit Judge Debra Nelson has scheduled a hearing Monday in the suit, filed last week by Central Florida attorney Harry Jacobs. Earlier this week she rejected a Republican motion to dismiss this suit.
If the court were to rule for Jacobs, the math would certainly break Al Gore's way. In Seminole County, Bush got 10,006 absentee ballots to gore's 5,209. With recounts under way in three South Florida counties, Bush leads by just 930 votes. Eliminating Seminole's absentees would give Gore more than a 4,000 vote lead over Bush. (The democratic absentees applications and votes were apparently valid however, which would give Gore a 9,000 vote lead in Florida.)
At issue is whether Seminole County Elections Supervisor Sandra Goard violated state law by giving two GOP workers what the suit call "unrestricted" and "unsupervised" access to ballot applications.
Jacobs suit claims that for TWO WEEKS before the election, the two Republican volunteers sat in an office in Goard's department "correcting" several thousand republican absentee ballot requests that lacked essential information and already had been rejected. Similar provisions were NOT made for democratic and independent absentee ballot requests, says Jacobs.
"Ms. Goard's misconduct resulted in the counting of thousands of illegal votes by absentee ballots," the suit says. The stakes are high.
..... "This is not an official action of the Gore campaign," said Gerald Richman, a Miami lawyer and former candidate for Congress who represents Jacobs.....
..... The suit is the outcome of a push by both parties to press for the absentee vote. Both parties printed up thousands of separate applications for absentee ballots and sent them to voters. Those who wanted to vote absentee filled in the requests and sent them to the elections office.
But the Republican's preprinted form left off CRITICAL information required by law: the applicant's voter registration number.
When the ballot applications came in without voter ID numbers, they were rejected and placed in storage, the suit says.
When Republicans learned of the problem, they persuaded Goard to let them use their records to add voter ID numbers to the requests, the suit says.
Democrats and others were not made aware of potential problems with any of their ballots. Goard, A Republican, has declined comment.
...A university of Miami law professor said allowing the Republicans to change the forms was akin to "putting a thumb on the scale.
"If the supervisor of elections staff had been going through the requests and adding the information, that would be one thing," Professor Terence Anderson said. "But to let the Republican come in and do it, WOW, that's tricky."
He added: "This one is a serious lawsuit. I don't know why we didn't hear about it sooner." |
