Bush Leads by 1,784, Florida Says; 14 Counties Out
Tallahassee, Florida, Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Republican George W. Bush's lead over Democrat Al Gore in Florida is 1,784 votes based on recount results received from 53 of 67 counties, according to Florida's Secretary of State.
Results from the remaining 14 counties weren't in by 5 p.m., said Katherine Harris. These counties ``have until Tuesday'' to submit their recount results and the state won't begin its certification process until all these forms are in, she said.
The margin of 1,784 votes is the same as the state's initial count of Tuesday's vote. Whoever wins Florida will become the 43rd president the U.S. because results from the other 49 states left both Bush and Gore shy of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Harris said the state's recount process is at odds with reports by television networks and the Associated Press that have sought information on their own. AP's latest count showed Bush's lead had narrowed to 362 votes, based on results from 64 of the 67 counties.
``Many of the news stations are contacting the (election) supervisors or some of their staff directly and posting those results,'' Harris said.
The final, official count must also include about 2,000 absentee ballots from overseas. These ballots can be postmarked as late as election day, November 7, and the window for receiving and counting them remains open for 10 days thereafter or until Friday, November 17.
Gore's campaign manager said the vice president won't concede the U.S. presidential election if the final tally shows Bush ahead.
William Daley said Gore will give his support to legal challenges of the Florida vote, which will determine whether Republican Bush or Democrat Gore wins the presidency. At least five suits have been filed in state courts.
``We will wait until the end of the process that shows who really won the election in Florida,'' campaign manager Daley told a news conference.
Bush Campaign Confident
Bush campaign chairman Don Evans expressed confidence that the recount will show Bush the winner.
``Vice President Gore's campaign did not like the results on election day,'' Evans said. ``Our democratic process calls for us to vote on Election Day, it does not call for us to continue voting until someone likes the outcome.''
Charges of voting irregularities and possible fraud intensified 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 that they were voting 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, Palm Beach and Volusia. In the recount now under way, machines are being used.
Suits Filed
Palm Beach County residents have filed at least five suits 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 five suits filed in state court name various officials in Palm Beach County and Tallahassee, as well as Bush, Gore and their running mates. No calendar for hearings has been set.
The plaintiffs include Palm Beach residents, a Democratic city council member in Delray Beach, and others.
Bush Campaign Rebuttal
The Bush campaign issued a statement it said ``puts in perspective the results of the vote in Palm Beach County.
``Palm Beach County is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why Pat Buchanan received 3,407 votes there,'' Bush campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Fleischer said that according to the Florida Department of State, 16,695 voters in Palm Beach County are registered to the Independent Party, the Reform Party or the American Reform Party, a 110 percent increase since the 1996 presidential election.
He also said that in the 1996 election, 14,872 ballots were invalidated for double counting in Palm Beach County.
``The Democrats who are politicizing and distorting these routine and predictable events are doing our democracy a disservice,'' Fleischer said.
`I'll Never Do It Again'
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.
LePore'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's name 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.
The state doesn't have to certify the final result until Nov. 17 to allow time to receive and count absentee ballots that were postmarked on election day, Nov. 7.
The results are certified by the state Election Canvassing Commission. Florida's Republican Governor Jeb Bush, a member of the commission and George W. Bush's brother, recused himself from the process.
He was replaced by Bob Crawford, Florida's agriculture commissioner and a Democrat. Crawford accepted the job today, according to his spokesman, Terry McElroy.
Nov/09/2000 18:50 ET
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