11/23 17:53
Gore May Contest Florida Vote After Court Setback (Update2)
By Paul Horvitz
Tallahassee, Florida, Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Lawyers for Vice President Al Gore plan to contest the outcome of voting in Florida after the state Supreme Court refused to order Miami-Dade officials to resume a manual tally of presidential ballots.
The Democratic candidate's legal team said that unless it saw evidence of ``a fair and accurate count'' throughout Florida, it would contest the election in a Tallahassee court, as permitted by Florida law.
The plan indicates Gore isn't confident he can gain enough votes in recounts in Broward and Palm Beach counties to win Florida's 25 electoral votes and beat his Republican rival, George W. Bush, to the White House. Bush has 246 electoral votes to Gore's 267. While the vice president leads in the popular vote by more than 300,000, electoral votes determine the winner.
``We fully expect'' to be filing ``a contest action no later than Monday in Leon County Circuit Court'' in the state capital, said Ron Klain, a Gore attorney and former chief of staff, on a conference call with reporters.
Gore's lawyers appealed early today to the Florida Supreme Court to force Miami-Dade county to resume a manual tally of more than 10,000 disputed ballots. County officials halted their recount yesterday, saying it was impossible to meet a deadline of 5 p.m. Sunday set by the high court. The seven justices rejected the appeal in a unanimous decision this afternoon.
Gore Gains in Broward
In Broward County, officials worked through the Thanksgiving holiday to review 327 disputed ballots, and recorded a gain of 88 votes for Gore. That narrowed Bush's lead in Florida to 755. The process will continue tomorrow, officials said, with about 1,500 ballots yet to be tallied.
With manual counting scheduled to resume in Palm Beach County tomorrow morning, a conclusion to the Nov. 7 election was little closer.
For all that, ``I'm thankful I live in a country with enough faith in its democracy that we're all letting it play out,'' President Bill Clinton said. `I think it's going to work out,'' he said at the Maple Run Golf Course in Thurmont, Maryland. ``Let's hope we don't run out of time.''
In rejecting the Gore appeal over the recount in Miami, the Florida justices ``have made clear that these issues are to be taken up in a contest proceeding,'' said Gore's top lawyer, David Boies. ``You have from Monday through Dec. 11 for it to be resolved.''
County by County
Boies said the election results would be contested county by county, and in Miami-Dade ``for certain.'' He raised the possibility that disputed ballots would be reviewed by Florida judges, or by a court-appointed master.
The Gore motion had argued that Florida law and the Supreme Court ruling require a canvassing board to manually recount votes once it determines that a sample count -- of 1 percent of the vote -- shows discrepancies that could affect the outcome of an election.
The motion also said the Miami board's decision was made yesterday in the face of ``personal attacks'' and ``near mob-like action'' as Republican protesters sought to enter the room where the board intended to separate out 10,750 disputed ballots for the recount.
The disputed ballots could be counted in two days, the motion said. At the very least, the Gore team argued, the 156-vote gain for the vice president reflected in Miami's count so far should be certified, not discarded.
Legal Wrangling
The latest maneuver added to legal and political wrangling that has escalated since the inconclusive national election. Neither camp is closing off any options -- including the option of contesting the outcome once final returns are validated by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. That step is expected Sunday night or Monday morning.
The pivotal votes in Florida are hundreds of contested ballots, chiefly those where a machine count registered no vote for president. State law gives canvassing boards the right to determine the ``intent'' of a voter by hand counting.
Bush officials contend, however, that such recounts lack standards and violate the wording in the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing citizens equal protection under the law. This is the basis on which the Bush campaign went yesterday to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the manual recount.
In many cases, these punch-card ballots contain indentations, known as dimples, next to a candidate's name, without being fully punched through.
Voter Intent
``We have to look at the totality of the ballot for the voter's intent,'' Charles Lichtman, a Democratic Party lawyer in Broward County, said today.
The Republican Party chairman in Broward County, Ed Pozzuoli, saw flaws in the counting process. ``The more we do this divine intervention,'' he said, ``the more vulnerable the results will be.''
In Palm Beach County, a state judge ruled yesterday that dimpled ballots must be examined for voter intent, though he did not order that they be registered as a vote. That is still up to the canvassing board, and there was little indication that the Gore camp would gain much ground in Palm Beach.
Another potential outcome in Florida involves the Republican- controlled state legislature, which has the right under federal law to appoint electors to the Electoral College should the balloting fail to yield a winner by Dec. 12.
``It's hard to believe that politicians in Tallahassee would step in to overturn what we know to be the vote,'' Hattaway told journalists outside the state Supreme Court building.
As if to underscore the level of political friction that is likely even after a president is chosen, officials in Washington State announced vote returns in a U.S. Senate race there that would give the new Senate a 50-50 party split. That outcome is subject to its own recount, starting Monday. |
