Palm Beach recount waits on high court

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 16, 2000

WEST PALM BEACH -- Like a trio of frustrated Olympic runners, Palm Beach County elections officials kneel in the starting blocks of a marathon ballot-by-ballot recount of last week's presidential election results, a recount that could set the course of history.

But the way they hear it, the starter hasn't fired the gun.

Attorneys for the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board have told the three members that unless the state Supreme Court expressly tells them such a recount is legal, it might not be.

It was not enough that a local judge told the board Tuesday it was okay to proceed. It was not enough Wednesday that the Supreme Court refused Secretary of State Katherine Harris' request to prevent hand recounts in several counties.

The canvassing board decided late Wednesday to wait at least until Thursday afternoon when the state's high court might sort out conflicting opinions from Harris and Attorney General Bob Butterworth and clear the way for the recount once and for all.

It was the latest development in a partisan political struggle that has raised tempers and spawned an endless round of finger-pointing and allegations of wrongdoing.

County Commissioner Carol Roberts, a Democrat and member of the canvassing board, has been at the center of the controversy in Palm Beach County and was again Wednesday.

Republican lawyers accused Roberts, an open supporter of the Gore/Lieberman ticket, of bending, poking, twisting and manipulating ballots during a recent partial hand count, presumably to get those famous litter bits called chads to open up or fall out for the Democrats. The GOP suggested Roberts step down. Roberts refused. "I have done nothing that would cause me to be disqualified, and I will not step down," she said.

Whether the charges against the mercurial Roberts were so much political chad is uncertain. But for a profile of Judge Charles Burton, head of the canvassing board, a local television station showed file videotape of him handling ballots in a possibly incorrect manner during the same recount. No one, however, has accused the even-keeled Democratic judge of ulterior motives.

If a hand recount does get under way today, a local judge has cleared the way for elections officials to qualify some votes previously disqualified.

Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga ruled Wednesday that elections officials could count "dimpled" or "pregnant" chads as valid votes if they were convinced it was the intent of the voter to punch all the way through.

Dimpled or pregnant chads are those distended by the stylus punch, but not broken away from the surrounding vote card.

However, Labarga did not order that these votes be counted. Rather, he left it to the canvassing board's discretion.

"They are to use whatever methodology they have at their disposal to determine the intent of the voter," he said, "but it is not up to this court to tell them how to do their jobs."

Labarga also set a hearing for Friday morning to determine the all-important question of whether there is a statutory or constitutional provision that would allow a new election in Palm Beach County.

While he said he didn't immediately see such a legal opening, he insisted he was ready to be convinced and recessed his courtroom by issuing an order to the 50 or so lawyers assembled there.

"I want you to find me a case in the continental United States going back to 1776 when there has been a revote for president of the United States," he said. "That's my homework assignment for you."

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