Florida Judge May Decide Today on Election Recount (Update1)
By William McQuillen, Anna Marie Stolley, Bob Gravely and Glen Justice
Tallahassee, Florida, Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- A judge in Florida's Leon County aims to decide today whether to allow a recount of thousands of ballots in the state, in a case that may determine who wins the U.S. presidency.
Lawyers spent more than 22 hours over the weekend debating whether a recount should be allowed. Judge N. Sanders Sauls last night began his deliberations in the case, which may be one of Vice President Al Gore's last chances to win his battle with Texas Governor George W. Bush for the White House.
``It was a case well tried and argued,'' Sauls said. ``I will give you a decision in the morning.''
Gore, the Democratic candidate, is asking Sauls to order a hand recount of about 14,000 ballots in Florida's Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties in his challenge to Republican Bush's 537-vote lead in the state's Nov. 7 presidential balloting.
Either candidate needs Florida's 25 electoral votes to gain a 270-vote majority in the Electoral College, which determines who wins the White House. Unless Gore can succeed in Sauls's courtroom, or in one of several other legal actions nationwide, Bush is likely to be the 43rd U.S. president.
Most Americans want the disputed South Florida ballots to be counted by hand, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found. Respondents were divided on whether all 6 million presidential votes in Florida should be manually recounted, the Washington Post's Web site reported.
The proportion that said Gore should concede the election was 57 percent, unchanged from a Post-ABC poll one week ago. Forty percent said the vice president should continue to contest the election in court. The poll, conducted yesterday, has a margin of error of four percentage points.
Room for Doubt
After arguments were completed yesterday in the Leon County court, David Boies, an attorney for Gore, said he thought things went well, though ``I never predict what judges are going to do.''
In his arguments Sunday, Boies said there were plenty of questionable ballots that could turn the tide of the election or, at least, place the results in doubt.
Barry Richard, an attorney for Bush, said after the hearing ended that the Republicans ``do not feel the Gore camp has come close to reaching the burden it has to reach.''
In his arguments over the past two days, Richard said county canvassing boards didn't abuse their discretion by declining to conduct complete hand recounts, which Democrats argue could turn the tide of the election. Any problems in the election have come from errors by the voters, Richard said.
``The voter can't come into court and say, `I forgot to go to the polls on Election Day -- you need to give me another chance,'' Richard said. ``Why is it any different when a voter walks into the booth and fails to read the instructions properly ... and votes wrong?''
Appeals Likely
The one thing both sides agreed on was to expect an appeals process.
``We know it from essentially every piece of information that we have that there are ballots that the machine cannot read but from which the voter intent can be discerned by a manual review,'' Boies said in his closing argument.
During the hearing, lawyers for Gore and Bush brought in experts, ballot machines, a voter and a pile of chads -- the pieces punched out of ballot cards -- to make their cases.
The Republicans then presented testimony to refute Democratic assertions that dimpled ballots, those whose perforated areas are indented by machine pressure rather than removed, should be counted because they show an intent to vote.
As the hearing drew to a close late Sunday, Boies repeatedly rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn or two. A Gore lawyer, Steve Zack, drummed his fingers, and the judge rocked in his chair as he's done throughout the trial. Richard leaned over and chatted with co-counsel.
One Dimpled Chad
Earlier in the day, Republicans presented William Rohloff, a Broward County voter, who said he may have left a dimple in the chad for one presidential candidate. Rohloff, a law enforcement officer, said that upon arriving at the polls, he was undecided and that he began voting for one candidate, then chose not to vote in that race.
``I don't believe anyone can interpret my intent when I only make a dimple mark,'' he said.
Democratic lawyers have presented testimony designed to show Florida's voting system is so error-plagued that ballots must be re-examined.
Republican lawyers argued that Democratic contentions are contrary to Florida's election laws, and that Gore is attempting to take ``three free shots at the basket'' based on a legal interpretation that amounts to an ``election code omelet.''
Republicans have also argued that if any ballots in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties are recounted, then all ballots in the other counties should be recounted as well.
Dec. 12 Deadline
Because Sauls's opinion is expected to be appealed, Democrats need a speedy conclusion as the Dec. 12 deadline for appointing Florida's members to the Electoral College approaches.
So far, Gore has had little luck in having the disputed ballots counted quickly. Sauls denied a motion for an immediate recount days ago, saying he wanted to see the evidence presented today. The Florida Supreme Court denied an appeal.
Still, Sauls directed that all the ballots from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, more than 1 million, be shipped to Tallahassee, where they are being kept under guard at the courthouse in case Sauls orders another recount.
Gore's lawyers have produced witnesses, voting machines, and ballots in an effort to prove judicial intervention is justified. Lawyers opened machines and shook them, and one witness emptied chads onto Sauls's bench to make Gore's case.
They argued that as a result of ``chad buildup,'' a voter might have left only a dimple, which should be counted as a vote. That count can be done only by hand, they said.
Sauls has authority to order that Florida's certified overall vote totals be changed. There were 6 million votes cast.
As the hearing took place Saturday, attorneys for Bush filed court papers seeking a recount in Volusia and Broward counties, both heavily Democratic areas where recounts were completed in time for the certification deadline. |
