Gore Takes His Case to Public as Bush Prepares Transition
Monday, November 27, 2000
George W. Bush's certification as the winner of Florida's electoral votes Sunday night failed Monday to bring the presidential election any closer to a result, as Democrats launched legal challenges and Al Gore pledged to keep on fighting.
How should Al Gore respond
to the Florida election result?
1. Concede defeat
2. Continue to fight
3. Not sure
Not a scientific poll
After a long day of legal maneuvering by both the Gore and Bush camps, the vice president took his case to the American public Monday night, asking for a "single, full and accurate count" of the votes in Florida and saying he is contesting the tallies in three counties because "ignoring votes means ignoring democracy itself."
In a short, nationally televised speech, Gore maintained that many votes had never been counted at all, and alleged that "organized intimidation" stopped the count in one county.
"This is America," he flatly stated. "When votes are cast, we count them."
Gore said the voting process is important in order for the American people to know they're equal.
"They're equal, that is, so long as all of their votes are counted," he said. "We must not let those voices be silenced."
Meanwhile Bush, who won the certified vote in Florida — and possibly the White House — by 537 votes, was assembling his transition team and announced plans to fund the transition through a non-profit organization until the election was resolved and the designated public money was released.
With the recounting at least temporarily finished, the battle for the presidency moved to the courts Monday. Early in the day, Gore's attorneys filed papers to contest the vote totals in three Florida counties and the state's Supreme Court said it would weigh whether to hear an appeal by Palm Beach voters to hold a new election there.
At the same time that Democratic congressional leaders flocked to the vice president's defense in Florida, GOP legislators in the Sunshine State prepared to convene a special session that could give them the authority to choose the state's 25 electors.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court said it won't allow television cameras in its courtroom on Friday, when lawyers for both camps will argue whether the Florida Supreme Court decision that permitted the manual recount was legal.
Transition Plans Move Ahead
Bush was moving forward with plans to build his administration, despite the announcement by the General Services Administration that it would not release $5.2 million in federal transition funds or help the Republicans set up a Washington office.
Dick Cheney, Bush's running mate and transition team leader, said the campaign will use private funds and solicit individual donations to pay for a transition. Cheney, a veteran of five presidential transition teams, said the campaign has already lost three weeks of planning time, adding "it would be irresponsible for us not to move as rapidly as possible."
He said Clay Johnson, who has served as chief of staff to the Texas governor, will serve as executive director of the transition and that campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer will reprise that role on the transition team.
The White House didn't question the GSA ruling, but said it had asked the Justice Department to issue a clarification of the 1963 law that funds presidential transitions.
President Clinton declined to weigh in on the Florida dispute. "An appropriate legal process is now underway; that process will take at least four days to play itself out," he told reporters before meeting with his cabinet.
Sunshine State Challenges
In their Florida challenge, Gore's attorneys took issue with Secretary of State Katherine Harris' decision to exclude results from Palm Beach County; the decision by Miami-Dade County to abandon its recount; and the recount process in Nassau County.
Leon County Circuit Court Judge Sanders Sauls met briefly with attorneys for all sides on Monday afternoon. He set a timetable that gives Bush's attorneys four days to respond to Gore's pleadings and another four days for both sides to submit additional replies.
Gore said he and running mate Joseph Lieberman "believe very strongly that every vote has to be counted" and repeated his contention that the battle represents the right of all voters to have their ballots counted.
"I want to make it very clear, this really is about much more than which candidate wins and which candidate loses," he said during a call to House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Illinois and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
Partisan Wrangling
Daschle and Gephardt were among a handful of elected Democrats acting as foot soldiers for Gore in Florida.
Daschle told reporters in Tallahassee that the certified results didn't included nearly 4,000 excluded ballots in Palm Beach County and 9,000 in Miami-Dade that could swing the outcome in Gore's favor. He and Gephardt also warned that the nation could be further divided if a president is named before all the votes are counted.
"If we don't find out who won and who had the most votes, we're going to find out later," Gephardt said.
Florida's Senate President John McKay, a Republican, said legislators would meet this week to consider calling a special session. Leaders in the GOP-controlled legislature have suggested they could exercise their right to choose the state's electors if the dispute doesn't end by Dec. 12, the deadline for choosing presidential electors.
"If unresolved by the 12th, then the legislature has the authority and may have the responsibility to step in and communicate to Congress its electors," McKay said.
Dave Martin/AP
Sunday: Gore attorneys Dexter Douglass, left, and David Boies describe their legal strategy.
Supreme Questions
Some think that resolution will only come at the nation's highest court. On Monday, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta suspended plans to hear oral arguments in two presidential election cases until Dec. 5, ostensibly because of the pending hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Unlike the proceedings in Florida, that hearing in Washington won't be televised. Chief Justice William Rehnquist denied a request by C-SPAN to air the hearings.
"A majority of the court remains of the view that we should adhere to our present practice of allowing public attendance and print media coverage of argument sessions but not allow camera or audio coverage," Rehnquist said in his letter to C-Span Chairman Brian Lamb.
Bush remained in Austin, holding meetings with his advisors and staying largely out of public view. His only notable comment came when he passed a reporter who asked what Bush would prefer to be called, "president-elect" or "governor," in the wake of the certification.
Bush quipped: "Call me 'sir', at least in your case."
— Fox News' Rita Cosby and Brian Sierra and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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