Seminole ballot case
may hinge on 1996
ruling
By Rene Stutzman and Kevin
Connolly
of the Sentinel Staff
Published in The Orlando Sentinel on
December 05, 2000
Four years ago, employees in
the Volusia County elections
office altered 6,000 absentee
ballots, re-marking them with
a felt-tipped pen because a
machine couldn`t read the
marks made by voters.
The loser in the race for
sheriff, Gus Beckstrom Jr.,
sued. The case went to the
Florida Supreme Court. The
justices harshly criticized
Volusia Supervisor of
Elections Deanie Lowe for what
happened, but they didn`t
throw out the votes in that
race. Incumbent Sheriff Bob
Vogel held on to his win.
Four years later, lawyers and
legal experts predict the
ruling in the Volusia case
signals what is likely to
happen in the lawsuit over
Seminole County`s 15,000
absentee ballots. Longwood
Democrat Harry Jacobs is
asking that they all be thrown
out. If he prevails, it could
tip the election to Vice
President Al Gore.
Gerald Richman, Jacobs`
attorney, said Monday that he
had not analyzed the Beckstrom
case. But legal experts have
been saying for weeks that
Jacobs is unlikely to win.
"Will this bird fly? In my
view, no way," said Don
Weidner, a Jacksonville
attorney who represented
Beckstrom.
In the Volusia case, the court
ruled that elections officials
don`t have to be perfect. All
they have to do is
substantially comply with the
law, said Donald Lively, dean
of Florida Coastal School of
Law in Jacksonville.
That will be one of the key
issues before state Circuit
Judge Nikki Clark, who is
scheduled to preside over the
Seminole case Wednesday in
Tallahassee. A pre-trial
hearing is scheduled today.
Attorneys for Seminole
Supervisor of Elections Sandy
Goard are expected to ask that
the case be dismissed.
Goard allowed GOP employees to
work for three weeks out of a
back room of her office,
writing in
voter-identification numbers
on postcards from voters
requesting absentee ballots.
The cards had originated from
a Florida GOP mass mailing.
Goard had thrown them into a
discard box because they
lacked the numbers, something
required by state law.
Jacobs` lawsuit alleges that
by writing in the numbers on
2,130 cards, the GOP committed
vote fraud, and by letting
them do it, Goard did, too. It
is now impossible to identify
specifically which ballots
were involved, so Clark is
left with little option but to
rule in favor of Goard or
throw out all 15,000 absentee
ballots. If she does the
latter, that would mean a
4,800-vote swing for Gore.
Ken Wright, an attorney for
the Florida GOP, calls the
suit a dispute over "a
hypertechnicality."
Still, the suit continues to
attract attention for its
potential to upend the
election results.
Nevertheless, the Gore
campaign won`t join in, said
Dexter Douglas, one of his
attorneys.
The vice president told his
staff directly to stay out of
the Seminole case, a source
close to his legal team said
Monday.
To jump in would mean Gore --
who has fought for weeks in
court to have more votes
counted -- would be working to
have unquestionably legitimate
votes thrown out.
Jacobs and his lawyers insist
they are acting independently
of Gore and the Democratic
Party.
But the Democrats clearly are
paying close attention. An
attorney for the Democratic
National Committee said Monday
that he gave advice to Jacobs
and read a draft of his first
complaint before Jacobs
delivered it Nov. 12 to the
Seminole County canvassing
board.
Mark Herron said he did not
encourage or discourage Jacobs
from filing the complaint or,
later, the lawsuit, which he
also read before it was filed.
"My role is just to advise
people on what Florida
election law is," he said.
He was vague about the
specifics of his conversation
with Jacobs and didn`t
remember who called whom, but
he said that most likely he
warned Jacobs about the
deadline for filing a
complaint.
In a deposition Saturday,
Jacobs said he also contacted
Mitchell Berger, a Fort
Lauderdale lawyer, Gore
adviser and one of Gore`s
biggest fund-raisers in
Florida, for advice about what
to do.
Berger did not return phone
calls Monday.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen
Seminole absentee voters have
joined with the supervisor to
fight the suit, seeking to
keep the judge from throwing
out theirs and all the other
absentee ballots.
Mathew Staver, their lawyer,
said Monday that he would
argue that the judge in this
case should do what the
Florida Supreme Court did in
the Beckstrom case.
"If you can doctor a ballot
after it`s cast to make it so
a machine can read it, then
you certainly should be able
to add a voter ID to an
application for a ballot and
not void that person`s vote,"
Staver said.
Michael Griffin and Susan
Clary of the Sentinel staff
contributed to this report.
Posted Dec 4 2000 9:30PM
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