gopbi.com
Election turmoil storms into
Seminole County
By Jennifer Peltz, Special to the Post
Tuesday, November 28, 2000
SANFORD -- With ballot recounts over -- at least for the
moment -- in South Florida, a fight over the 15,000
absentee ballots cast here is becoming a flashpoint in the
presidential election.
A short court hearing Monday amounted to the political
equivalent of a tornado touching down in this normally
quiet suburban Orlando town, perhaps best known as the
southern end point of Amtrak's Auto Train.
The scene that became familiar in South Florida last week
-- a cast of lawyers, reporters, and protesters against a
backdrop of government buildings and satellite trucks -- was
briefly recreated at the Seminole County Court House in
Sanford.
As protesters gathered to chants of "Bush Won, Gore Done"
outside the courthouse, at least a dozen lawyers huddled in
a hallway before agreeing to a transfer of the case north to
Tallahassee. That's where Secretary of State Katherine
Harris, who has certified the returns, can be found.
Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, who already had been asked to
recuse himself, was only too glad to agree with the lawyers,
quickly sweeping the trial -- which could overturn Republican candidate George W. Bush's
narrow lead -- right out of town. No hearing date has been set in Tallahassee.
The lawsuit claims an estimated 4,700 absentee ballots were tainted when Elections Supervisor
Sandra Goard, a Republican, "invited" the GOP to fill in missing information on ballot
applications, violating a state law saying that only a guardian or immediate family member
may request an absentee ballot on someone else's behalf.
Meanwhile, Goard told a Democratic candidate's campaign manager that she would not accept
applications that were missing the same information, according to court documents.
"A good way to describe it is just plain cheating on the process," Gerald Richman, the West
Palm Beach lawyer who filed the suit, said Monday.
He wants a judge to throw out the affected ballots -- or, if they can't be picked out, all 15,000
absentee ballots cast in Seminole County.
With them would go Bush's 537-vote lead over Democrat Al Gore, as the Seminole County
absentees netted him about 5,000 votes more than Gore.
GOP lawyers say it would be unfair to dismiss the votes over what they consider a technicality.
They argue that the voters properly requested the ballots, and the Republican workers simply
helped complete the applications.
"To throw these votes out from people who did absolutely nothing wrong is ridiculous," said
Republican spokesman Mark Mills. |
