Broward might recount after all

By THOMAS C. TOBIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 15, 2000

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Broward County, thought to be out of the recount picture on Monday, was suddenly back in play Tuesday as Democratic lawyers took the offensive in court.

In a confusing but decisive ruling, Circuit Judge John A. Miller said Secretary of State Katherine Harris' 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for certified results should not prevent the Broward canvassing board from proceeding with a manual recount of ballots.

Joking to a packed courtroom about the heightened interest in his decision, the 63-year-old Republican judge said: "If only Mother could see me now."

After Miller's ruling, Democratic lawyer Leonard Samuels put his arm around a party operative and excitedly whispered: "We hit a home run."

Republicans, meanwhile, derided the continuing Democratic legal challenge as a transparent, harmful "vote harvest" for Gore.

At stake are up to 600 Gore votes that, according to Democrats, may not have been counted. A test of three heavily Democratic precincts turned up four Gore votes Monday. Factor in the remaining 606 precincts and it is a big number, the Democrats said.

Broward is a Democratic stronghold, where Gore so far has 66 percent of the vote. But with time ticking away, Broward's canvassing board is not scheduled to meet again until Friday.

Also Tuesday, the county's canvassing board reopened the legal door it slammed on the Democrats Monday night. The board voted 2-1 to reconsider its decision to stop the manual recount after testing only three precincts.

The reason: a new legal opinion by Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth.

In a letter Tuesday, Butterworth, a Democrat, said the board had acted on bad legal information from Harris, a Republican.

As the board prepared to decide whether to expand the three-precinct test to a countywide hand recount, Republicans provided a letter from Harris that said a recount was allowed only if there was a problem with vote tabulation machines. While the Nov. 7 results indicated a possible problem -- several thousand people voted twice -- there was no machine problem.

Harris' opinion swayed Robert W. Lee, a Democrat and a Broward judge who sits on the canvassing board. On Monday, he voted against the recount.

By Tuesday, however, Lee moved to reconsider, swayed this time by Butterworth's letter, which said in part that Harris' opinion "is wrong in several respects."

The canvassing board also voted to join other counties in an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. Waiting for the high court's direction, the board adjourned Tuesday without voting on whether to have a manual recount of the 588,007 ballots cast Nov. 7.

Democratic lawyers exulted in Tuesday's events, proclaiming victory for "re-enfranchised" voters.

Republicans said it was no such thing.

"If this weren't so serious, that statement would be laughable," said Ed Pozzuoli, the Broward Republican chairman. "This is not a question of intending to protect the voters of Broward County. . . . It's an attempt to find more votes for Al Gore, post-election night."

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