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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: sunshadow who wrote (87852)11/26/2000 9:22:08 AM
From: puborectalis  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 769667
 
Early Sunday, a spokeswoman said the Palm Beach board has examined 4,037
ballots — fewer than half of some 9,500 ballots in dispute because
voting machines could not clearly read a presidential choice.

The canvassing board said it
would send partial results to the
state if it fails to complete the
hand count by 5 p.m. Sunday,
though state canvassers haven't
decided whether to accept
partial totals.................Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reported Sunday that seven convicted
felons — three Democrats, two Republicans and two independents —
were able to vote in Palm Beach County because election officials
failed to purge voter rolls of felons as they are required to do under
state law. The paper said thousands of felons, who are not allowed
to vote in Florida, remained on the ballot statewide. A Palm Beach
county spokeswoman declined comment on the story.



To: sunshadow who wrote (87852)11/26/2000 9:26:22 AM
From: puborectalis  Respond to of 769667
 
NOVEMBER 26, 08:01 EST

Fla. Count Draws Gore, Bush Closer

By ANNE GEARAN
Associated Press Writer

Around the clock ballot recounts nibbled
slowly at George W. Bush's ultra-thin margin
over Al Gore, drawing the two candidates
even closer in their historically tight race for
the White House.

At the same time, Bush lawyers filed new
county-level suits to squeeze more votes out
of military ballots in time to meet a
court-imposed deadline for certifying Florida's
presidential election.

In an unofficial Associated Press tally of
manual recounts and review of overseas
ballots around the state, Bush led by 408
votes early Sunday, a margin of less than
0.01 percent of the 6 million votes cast in the state and less than half
his 930-vote lead before the recounts.

Broward County finished its hand recount just before midnight
Saturday, cutting deeply into the Republican's lead. Palm Beach
plodded through the night, releasing the results of less than 50
precincts.

The two counties employed
different standards for assessing
ballots.

Republicans and Democrats
weighed whether to cheer or
complain as the court-declared 5
p.m. EST deadline loomed, with
neither side claiming official
certification would be the final
word on the longest, closest White
House race in 124 years.

Florida's top elections official,
Republican Secretary of State
Katherine Harris, planned to
announce a winner shortly after
that hour, unless more lawsuits interfered.

Broward County cut 567 votes from the Bush lead statewide. Some of
that was offset by review of military ballots in several other counties.

Five counties — Hillsborough, Okaloosa, Orange,
Pasco and Polk — faced Republican lawsuits filed
late Saturday or planned Sunday morning to force
review of their overseas ballots.

In Palm Beach County, the three canvass board
members, all Democrats, had examined more than
4,900 of some 9,500 ballots in dispute because
voting machines could not clearly read a presidential choice.

The results released by early Sunday, from 369 of 637 precincts
overall, disappointed Democrats who had hoped to pick up hundreds
of additional votes for Gore.

Observers on both sides said Gore had gained fewer than 100 votes
by early Sunday in Palm Beach, and the only official result had Bush
up by 10 votes.


In a blow to Bush, the Florida Supreme Court ruled
last week that the recounts could continue. Gore
requested hand counts in hopes of turning up
previously uncounted votes in heavily Democratic
counties.

But the court set the Sunday deadline for the
counties to turn in amended results, and that turned
into bad news for Gore. What could have been his richest source of
potential new votes, Miami-Dade County, said it couldn't meet the
deadline and dropped their recount.

Republicans said the Sunday deadline offers at least a public relations
opportunity for the Texas governor — if he still leads Gore.

But they insisted there would be no gloating.

Whether or not Bush declares
outright victory and suggests that
Gore concede depends on the
vote totals Sunday, a senior
official said, speaking on condition
of anonymity.

If he still trails at certification by
such a tiny margin, Gore plans to
protest some county results in
state courts Monday, and the U.S.
Supreme Court is hearing
arguments four days later on Bush's case against recounts — meaning
the nation may not know its 43rd president until legal wrangling wraps
up sometime in December.

Bush, too, was prepared to protest vote counts in the certification,
whether or not Gore overtakes him. Under Florida law, the loser can
challenge the election after it is certified, and the winner can file a
``counter-contest'' raising separate complaints.

``We're preparing contest papers that will be filed Monday, as early in
the day Monday as we can get them done,'' said Gore lawyer David
Boies.

The vice president's staff was
making tentative plans for a
Monday address by Gore, a senior
adviser said on condition of
anonymity. The speech would give
the vice president a chance to
explain why he was fighting the
certification, they said, and set
the stage for the historic clash
before the U.S. Supreme C