Gore Won't Concede After Florida Recount, Daley Says
Tallahassee, Florida, Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Al Gore won't concede even if the initial recount of Florida's vote shows Texas Governor George W. Bush won the U.S. presidential election, Gore's campaign chairman William Daley said.
``We will wait until the end of the process that shows who really won the election in Florida,'' Daley told a news conference.
Daley said Gore will give his support to legal challenges of the Florida vote, which will determine whether Bush or Gore wins the presidency. A complaint in federal court was withdrawn this afternoon. Two other suits have been filed in state courts.
U.S. stocks fell and Treasury securities rose after Daley's comments. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 1.3 percent and the price of Treasury's 10-year bond rose, pushing down its yield by 4 basis points to 5.76 percent.
``The market hates uncertainty, what could more clearly be defined as uncertainty than this?'' said Bill Schneider, head of listed block trading for UBS Warburg LLC.
Results from the other 49 states left both Bush and Gore shy of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Whoever wins Florida will therefore become the 43rd president the U.S.
The first tally of Florida ballots put Bush ahead by 1,784. With 57 of 67 counties reporting in the recount, Bush leads by 931 votes, out of almost 6 million that were cast, according to the Fox News.
Focus on West Palm
Charges of voting irregularities and possible fraud intensified last night after election officials said 19,120 ballots in Palm Beach county had been disqualified because voters had marked the ballots for more than one presidential candidate, County Commissioner Carol Roberts said.
Daley said more than 1,000 residents of Palm Beach County had complained to the Gore campaign, and he blasted the Bush campaign for ``blithely'' dismissing such complaints.
``Here in Florida it seems very likely that more people went to the polls believing for Al Gore,'' Daley said. ``Technicalities should not determine the presidency of the United States; the will of the people should,'' Daley said.
Daley said the Gore campaign wants the ballots counted by hand in four east coast Florida counties: Dade, Broward, West Palm Beach and Volusia. In the recount now under way, machines are being used.
Ballots Debated
Palm Beach County's election supervisor, Democrat Theresa LePore, said she designed the ballot to be easier for voters to read. ``Hindsight is 20-20, but I'll never do it again,'' LePore told the Palm Beach Post.
LaPore's office defended its handling of the balloting, giving reporters a copy of a notice it gave all poll workers. The notice told poll workers to make sure that voters only punch one presidential candidate and that they follow the arrow next to the candidate's name.
The nationwide popular vote is almost as close as the Florida tally, with Gore holding a lead of 98,000 votes out of more than 100 million votes cast. The congressional elections were also close. Republicans will control both the House and Senate next year by razor-thin margins.
``It's becoming increasingly clear that not only did Al Gore win the popular vote in the country, he won the popular vote in Florida as well,'' Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said at Gore headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, as the Florida gap narrowed.
NAACP President Kweisi Mfume asked U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to probe ``reported instances of disproportionate disqualifications of black voters and the failure to pick up at least one ballot box from a heavily black precinct.''
Reno, at her regular news conference, said state law governs ``the conduct of an election, it governs the form of the ballot.''
``It is important that we adhere to principles of federalism and recognize it is primarily a state matter,'' Reno said.
``We may have to have a revote,'' Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said on the NBC ``Today'' show this morning. ``But it's too early for that and I think we just have to take this a step at a time.''
``We're not ruling anything on or off the table,'' Lehane said.
Suits Filed
At least two suits have been filed by Palm Beach County residents seeking recourse -- including a new vote -- for what they call a confusing ballot that caused them to vote for conservative Pat Buchanan rather than the Democratic Gore- Lieberman ticket.
``There's a whole large population down here that are angry and upset and feel their vote has been taken away,'' said David Friedman, an attorney with the Boca Raton firm Weiss & Hander who filed one of the suits. Both the firm's principals were contributors to Gore's campaign.
The two suits filed in state court name officials in Palm Beach County and Tallahassee, as well as Bush, Gore and their running mates.
The plaintiffs include Palm Beach residents Andre Fladell, a local chiropractor and Democrat; Alberta McCarthy, a Democratic city council member in Delray Beach; Lillian Gains, Kenneth Horowitz, Catherine Nowser and Sylvia Szymoniak.
Nov/09/2000 15:02 ET
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