Deadline Looms As Recount Continues
By Jackie Hallifax
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Nov. 13, 2000; 9:44 p.m. EST
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –– Florida's secretary of state had this message Monday for election
workers weary from the tedious task of counting presidential votes: hurry up.
Sticking to a firm state deadline, Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris said all 67
counties must finish their recounts by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
But her decision was challenged hours later in court by lawyers for Palm Beach and Volusia
counties, Democrat Al Gore and the Florida Democratic Party, who said counties should have
as much time as they need to complete their hand counts.
Broward County, one of the four Florida counties weighing full recounts by hand, rejected the
idea late Monday after workers performed a manual count in three precincts and turned up no
major problems.
The strong Democratic county, which includes Fort Lauderdale, found only four additional
votes for Gore after hand counting 3,892 ballots in three precincts.
Attorneys for George W. Bush and Harris' office defended the deadline.
Circuit Judge Terry Lewis said he would issue a ruling Tuesday morning.
The deadline is a major concern for Democratic officials because the manual recounts they
requested cannot all be completed by the end of the day Tuesday. The state said counties that
don't certify their vote by the deadline "shall be ignored."
Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that
he was asking Florida election officials to halt the recounts until his representatives can get in
place to monitor the action. Some Democratic voters in Palm Beach County have complained
that a confusing ballot may have led them to vote for Buchanan by mistake.
Weary workers, meanwhile, continued the counts Monday in scattered counties:
– Volusia County, home of Daytona Beach, resumed hand counting 184,339 ballots and might
finish by late Monday. Election workers also were recounting roughly 29,000 absentee ballots.
– Palm Beach County, home of West Palm Beach, prepared to start hand counting 425,000
ballots Tuesday. They expect to continue through Sunday, working 14 hours a day. Palm
Beach is strongly supporting Gore.
– In Miami-Dade County, the largest, officials planned to meet Tuesday to consider the
Democrats' request for a hand recount.
– In Osceola County, south of Orlando, Democrats withdrew their request for a manual
recount.
An informal survey of 61 of Florida's 67 election supervisors found that they had mailed out
more than 18,500 overseas ballots. Of those, about half had been returned and the majority of
them counted. It was not immediately known how many ballots were outstanding. Election
supervisors plan to count the remaining ballots on Friday and send the results to the Harris's
office.
Volusia and Palm Beach counties want to continue their manual counts through Saturday.
Gore's lawyers sought an indefinite postponement of the deadline.
"Our most sacred right ... is to have our vote counted to pick the leader of our country and the
free world," said Gore lawyer Dexter Douglass.
Jon Sjostrom, a lawyer representing Harris' department, told the judge: "There simply is no
showing that would permit you at this point to interfere in the electoral process."
Bush lawyer Barry Richard told the judge: "No candidate, no political committee, no voter has
a right to a manual recount at any time."
Democrats won a court victory in Miami, where a federal judge rejected a Republican lawsuit
seeking to stop the manual recounts. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said the issue
was not for a federal court to decide.
The latest unofficial tally by The Associated Press gave Republican Bush a 388-vote lead in
Florida, but hand recounts and overseas ballots due by Friday will determine the final margin –
and likely the winner of the presidency.
Harris, the state's top election official, said she wants the Florida winner certified by Saturday.
"The law unambiguously states when the process of counting and recounting the votes cast on
Election Day must end," she said in a statement distributed in Tallahassee.
Warren Christopher, overseeing Gore's recount effort, met briefly with Harris and said her
stance was politically motivated. He noted that she has campaigned for Bush, and is a political
supporter of Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
"There's no reason why the full, fair and lawful" balloting shouldn't continue, Christopher said
at a news conference in Tallahassee.
After counting in 140 of Volusia County's 172 precincts, Gore picked up a net of 24 votes.
Polk County, east of Tampa, announced new totals Monday that pushed Bush's lead statewide
to 388 votes, according to an unofficial AP canvass of the presidential vote. Palm Beach
awarded Gore a net gain of 39 votes after a weekend rescan.
On Friday, Harris said Bush had a 960-vote lead over Gore, but with one county still to be
recounted, Palm Beach, where the AP showed a big gain for Gore.
The state has been unable to include updated Palm Beach County figures in its tally because a
state judge issued an injunction last week in response to lawsuits by voters claiming they were
confused over the ballot design.
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
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