IN A SWEEPING VICTORY FOR BUSH, JUDGE REJECTS GORE RECOUNT BID [NYT's on-line headline]
December 04, 2000
[Headline following front page headline stated above:]
Leon County Judge Denies Gore's Challenge of Vote
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Florida state judge refused today to order manual counts of 14,000 contested votes in two counties that Vice President Al Gore believed would erase George W. Bush's victory in Florida and in the presidential election.
Judge N. Sanders Sauls of Leon County Circuit Court in Tallahassee swept away every argument in the legal challenge brought by Mr. Gore, saying his legal team had failed to meet the standard to successfully contest the election.
Within minutes of the ruling, Mr. Gore's side announced it was sending an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, which was the subject hours earlier of a United States Supreme Court decision. In that case, the justices in Washington sent back to the state court a decision extending a deadline to allow manual recounts.
The high court decision caused Judge Sauls to hold off on his ruling for hours today so he could digest the high court's decision. At 4:45 p.m., after a grinding trial over the weekend, he appeared before a courtroom brimming with lawyers.
"The court finds that the plaintiffs have failed to carry the requisite burden of proof," the judge said. He said the Gore team had failed to establish "a reasonable probability that the results of the statewide election in the state of Florida would be different from the result which has been certified."
Judge Sauls's decision, though keenly awaited, was by no means the last word on the election. In addition to pending legal issues was the promise by Florida's Republican-controlled legislature that it would consider appointing its own slate of delegates for Mr. Bush to the electoral college.
Mr. Gore's lead lawyer, David Boies, speaking to reporters immediately after the ruling, stressed the upcoming Democratic appeal.
"We have moved one step closer to this being finally resolved," he said.
A lawyer for Katherine Harris, the Republican secretary of state who refused to allow for manual recounts, praised the ruling.
"This is a very thoughtful judge," said the lawyer, Joseph Klock. "He paid great attention to the law."
The contest case before Judge Sauls focused on 14,000 disputed ballots from Palm Peach and Miami-Dade counties. Mr. Gore argued that those votes were never properly recorded and should be counted by hand, while Mr. Bush said they had been counted but rejected as invalid. The Democrats said they believed Mr. Gore would recover enough votes in the manual count to overcome Mr. Bush's 537-vote margin in Florida. That would deliver the state and its 25 electoral votes to Mr. Gore, and give him the majority in the electoral college.
Mr. Gore wanted several hundred net votes in his favor from incomplete manual recounts included into the final, certified numbers, and he wanted 3,300 ballots set aside by Palm Beach County as faulty and 10,500 contested ballots from Miami-Dade scrutinized to determine the voter's choice for president.
The judge said Florida law did not permit certification of an "incomplete manual recount," nor did it allow returns to be submitted past the deadline set by the state Supreme Court.
He acknowledged that there was "voter error and less than total accuracy" in the two counties, but not enough to justify a recount with the "reasonable probability" that the result would have been different. And that was not established, the judge said.
Further, he found that Palm Beach County properly set aside the 3,300 ballots, that Miami-Dade was right to suspend its counting before the Nov. 26 deadline imposed by the state Supreme Court because, it said, time was too short and that Nassau County acted properly in reversing itself and discarding a machine recount that had resulted in a 51-vote net gain for Mr. Gore.
The decision, nearly a month after the election, followed two marathon days of testimony and argument that only ended shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday.
While lawyers for Mr. Gore and Governor Bush were awaiting word from Judge Sauls, the Supreme Court justices in Washington set aside the Florida Supreme Court ruling that had extended by 12 days the state's deadline for counting votes.
But the justices sent the case back to the Florida high court for "further proceedings," namely, to clarify why it had extended the deadline.
The court was ruling on a lawsuit by the Bush campaign challenging the deadline's extension.
The exact effect of the ruling on the state contest case was not clear.
Attorneys for Mr. Gore said they did not think the Supreme Court case would have an impact on the contest case.
Ron Klain, one of the lawyers, said the justices were "neither agreeing or disagreeing" with the deadline extension. "I think it's a no-decision, and leaves the decision for another day," he said.
In a brief meeting with reporters in Austin, Texas, Mr. Bush called the Supreme Court ruling "a very positive statement on our behalf."
"I am comforted by the fact the highest court of our land heard our case and will make sure the election is fair," he said.
He declined to call for Mr. Gore to concede, as his running mate, Dick Cheney, did Sunday. "The vice president is going to have to make a decision he thinks is necessary," Mr. Bush said, "and I know the best interests of the country will be important to him."
In the Bush federal challenge, the Florida justices may move quickly to resolve the High Court's questions, and could still rule in a way that favors Mr. Gore. |
