Another British view, this one from The International Observer:
Gore narrows
Bush lead to a
few dozen votes
Special report: the US elections
Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday November 26, 2000
As today's 5pm deadline
approaches for recounting votes in
Florida's contested election, latest
figures show Al Gore narrowing
George W Bush's lead - standing
officially at 550 yesterday morning -
to an agonisingly close margin.
In response, the Republican Party
mounted a campaign of tumult
across Florida's scorched political
earth yesterday, as a mob of
demonstrators accused of shutting
down a recount in Miami that could
have won the election for Gore was
bused up to Fort Lauderdale,
hoping to stifle and stop the count
in Broward County.
The demonstrations were joined by
a phalanx of Republican
heavy-hitters, brought in from
elsewhere in the US to object to the
counting methods and join a local
attempt to stop the count by a
Republican lawyer alleging a
conflict of interests on the
canvassing board.
Projections from Palm Beach and
Broward counties, both counting
frantically yesterday, showed Gore
on course for a shortfall of only 90
votes from Bush's originally
certified win by 930 ballots.
Bush is set to be declared the
winner of the Florida election and
thereby the US Presidency this
afternoon - but by his side only.
The hit squad of politicians
included Marc Racoicot, Governor
of Montana - who said of the
Broward board: 'They are not
counting votes, they are casting
votes' - along with New Jersey
Governor Christine Todd Whitman
and the Governor of Oklahoma
Frank Keating. As allegations of
Republican intimidation fly, the
party insists the demonstrations
are by local supporters of Bush.
However, The Observer has
identified a number of faces that
appear and re-appear at protests
as being senior and hardline party
operatives dispatched from
Washington.
They include an official from the
office of the Republican chief whip
on Capitol Hill, Tom Delay, and a
Republican lobbyist working for the
big pharmaceutical and insurance
companies.
The certification of the result will be
sent to the office of the Secretary of
State for Florida - the hardline
partisan Republican Katherine
Harris - who will proclaim that Bush
has won the state's 25 electoral
college votes and with them the
White House.
But today's moment of hollow
triumph is by no means the end; the
certification is a mere gesture in to
the maelstrom of litigation and
political battle. Both sides have
said they are prepared to contest
the result past today's deadline,
and the certification itself will be
challenged by Gore.
The US Supreme Court will
convene on Friday to determine the
constitutional and federal legality of
recounts across Florida. Its
intervention, which has surprised
some constitutional lawyers, could
determine the presidency.
observer.co.uk |
