The fight for Florida: the story so far

Compiled by CARYN BAIRD

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 13, 2000

The battle for Florida's 25 electoral votes has all the ebb and flow of Tampa Bay's tides. Virtually every hour has brought a new shift, new revelation, charges and counter charges.

TUESDAY, NOV. 7

7 p.m. EST -- Polls close in most of Florida.

7:50 p.m. -- MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC and the Associated Press news services call Florida for Gore based on exit poll interviews by Voter News Service.

9:55 p.m.- Sid Bedingfield, the executive vice president of CNN/US, makes the decision to move Florida back into the too-close-to-call category. Other networks and media outlets soon follow.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8

2:20 a.m. -- George W. Bush is declared the winner of the state's 25 electoral votes, and the presidency, by the television networks.

2:30 a.m. -- Gore telephones Bush to concede.

3:11 a.m. -- AP sends cautionary advisory that Bush's lead in Florida had dwindled to about 6,000 votes and that results from uncounted votes in two predominantly Democratic counties could change the outcome.

3:27 a.m. -- CBS' Dan Rather announces there is a difference of just 629 votes between Bush and Gore in Florida.

3:45 a.m. -- Gore calls Bush back and retracts his concession.

4 a.m. -- The networks begin putting Florida back in undecided category. Spokesmen for both the Bush and Gore campaigns say the race is too close to call.

Florida election officials are ordered to begin a recount of nearly 6-million votes.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the Republican nominee's younger brother, disqualifies himself from theelection panel that will certify the results of the recount.

Gore campaign criticizes the confusing butterfly ballots used in Palm Beach County.

Three Palm Beach residents file a lawsuit. The lawsuit is a complaint seeking to have the election results declared null and void, that the ballots be declared invalid and a new election be ordered in Palm Beach County.

THURSDAY, NOV. 9

The Bush campaign sends a letter to Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark saying it "strongly objected" to recount numbers favoring Gore. Pinellas' presidential vote change after the recount was the second-largest of Florida's 67 counties. The Bush campaign asks Clark to refrain from certifying the recount results before the GOP could finish its review.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Kathleen Kroll issues a preliminary injunction barring the canvassing commission in the county from certifying the final recount results until a hearing is held on Tuesday.

The Gore campaign requests all votes be recounted by hand in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Volusia counties.

Palm Beach officials vote to hand count votes in just three precincts to sample the margin of error.

Tampa voter Willie Dickens files two lawsuits Thursday in state court and federal court in Tallahassee, seeking to stop the state canvassing board from certifying Tuesday's election.Federal Judge Robert Hinkle denies Dickens' request for an emergency injunction, but set a hearing for Nov. 21, according to his attorney, Sidney Matthew.

Palm Beach voter Kenneth Horowitz, owner of the Miami Fusion soccer team, files a lawsuit Thursday, saying poll workers told voters they had only five minutes to cast their ballots, and anyone who took longer would have their ballot tossed out.

A separate federal suit over the confusion over the Palm Beach ballot design is abruptly withdrawn. It had sought a new election.

FRIDAY NOV. 10

Gore wins Oregon's seven electoral votes.

Gore's lawyers ask state elections officials not to certifythe county-by-county results as scheduled on Tuesday until the hand recountsare complete.

State elections officials and Bush campaign officials say the Palm Beach ballot was legal.Gore campaign officials disagree and begin helping voters who had their ballots discounted prepare lawsuits.

New Mexico's five electoral votes are thrown back into the undecided column.

SATURDAY NOV. 11

9:40 a.m. -- In Miami, the Bush campaign files a lawsuit to halt scheduled hand recounts in Palm Beach, Broward and Volusia counties. Seven Florida voters and "Gov. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, as candidates for president and vice president of the United States of America" file suit against 11 Florida elections officials. The complaint is filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The suit is assigned to Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, who was appointed to the bench in 1997 by President Clinton.

Republicans examine more than 12,000 envelopes used by voters to return Pinellas absentee ballots, in addition to envelopes used to mail 584 absentee ballots that eventually were rejected by elections officials and left uncounted.

SUNDAY NOV. 12

Shortly before 2 a.m. -- A motion for a full county recount was made by canvasing board member Carol Roberts, who is also a commissioner of Palm Beach County.

2:30 a.m -- Palm Beach County canvasing board voted 2-1 to manually recount the more than 425,000 votes cast countywide in the presidential election for Al Gore and George W. Bush after a hand recount of more than 4,000 votes, or 1 percent of the total cast, located 33 additional votes for Vice President Al Gore and 14 additional votes for Gov. George W. Bush. That rate of change, if consistent throughout the county, could sway the battle for Florida's 25 electoral votes.

Volusia County, which includes DeLand and Daytona Beach, begins recounting all 184,018 ballots by hand.

TODAY

U.S. District Court in Miami will hold a hearing to review request from Bush to stop the hand recounts in four Florida counties. The hearing was to occur even as Palm Beach, Broward and Volusia counties were to begin those counts.

TUESDAY

The Miami-Dade County canvasing board is to meet to consider Gore's request for a hand recount. The Florida Canvasing Board is to meet in Tallahassee to certify the state results, although Gore has asked for a delay.

FRIDAY, NOV. 17

Deadline for absentee ballots from overseas and still be counted in the election.

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