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They are all part of the confusing equation that may be headed toward a solution after today's arguments before the Florida Supreme Court.
By DAVID BALLINGRUD and WES ALLISON
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 20, 2000
Against a backdrop of bitter, vote-by-vote combat, the Democratic and Republican parties Sunday laid their arguments before the Florida Supreme Court.
Democrats asked the court to set a generous standard for deciding what voters really meant when they punched ballots in the disputed Nov. 7 presidential election.
Republicans countered that it is unfair "to keep the state and nation on hold," and that there was not "a scintilla of evidence" that vote recounts couldn't have met a deadline set by Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
The state's seven-member high court -- six Democrats, one independent -- will hear historic oral arguments today that could decide the winner of balloting held almost two weeks ago.
The candidates -- Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore -- tried to stay above the fray Sunday. Each went for a jog and to church.
Elsewhere, there was furor aplenty.
In Broward County on Sunday, voting officials made a dramatic switch that could give hundreds of new votes to Gore, potentially tilting the state his way. The county's canvassing board said it intends to count hundreds of "dimpled chads" and other ballots that weren't clearly punched and which previously had been disqualified.
Recounts moved ahead, albeit slowly, in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, too.
The Broward board plans to start counting the set-aside ballots as soon as it completes the recount of all the other ballots cast, perhaps as early as tonight.
Democrats and Republicans alike agree the change would likely give hundreds of new votes to Gore. Bush maintained only a 930-vote lead in Florida. With 25 electoral votes at stake, whoever wins Florida wins the White House.
Gore running mate Joseph Lieberman said Florida election officials should reconsider their rejection of hundreds of military ballots from overseas, even if they might not comply with the law.
Lieberman's remarks came after Democrats were stung by Republican charges that they had mounted a concerted effort to disenfranchise service men and women abroad. The comments, on NBC's Meet the Press, retreated from the position Democrats had taken since Friday.
County canvassers disqualified 1,527 ballots from overseas, many because they lacked the required postmark. But Lieberman said vote counters should "give the benefit of the doubt" to ballots coming in from military personnel.
Speaking to reporters in West Palm Beach, the chairman of a U.S. House military personnel subcommittee said local Florida officials had violated federal law by throwing out overseas ballots that didn't have a postmark.
Congress passed the Uniform and Overseas Citizens Voting Act to prevent states from not counting votes from military personnel, who often can't get mail postmarked abroad, said U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind. The law prohibits states from requiring a postmark on federal ballots, he said.
The big story today will unfold in Tallahassee, where the Supreme Court will hear from both campaigns and from Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
The issues center around whether Harris can certify the Florida vote count while ignoring hand recounts that continue in several heavily Democratic counties. On Friday the court instructed Harris to not certify the votes until it hears arguments. The court has not said when it might make a ruling.
Today's 2 p.m. hearing is a tough ticket.
So many reporters wanted to see the arguments that the Court conducted a lottery to determine who would get inside to witness the historic event, which will be carried on live television around the world.
In advance of today's hearing, both parties outlined their cases in briefs filed with the court. Bush wants the court to end ballot recounts in the three counties; Gore wants the counts go on for as long as it takes to finish the job.
Lawyers for Gore argued that previous state court rulings already have established the standards for determining the will of the voter in close elections.
"The secretary of state and Gov. Bush nonetheless urge this court to construe Florida law to prevent county canvassing boards -- which are charged under Florida law with primary responsibility for counting ballots -- from utilizing the procedures long established in Florida law," Gore's filing said.
Democrats want the court to establish a standard to approve or reject ballots in the three counties. "For more than 80 years it has been settled Florida law that a ballot must be counted if the voter's intent is apparent from an examination of the ballot," Gore's lawyers wrote.
Earlier Sunday, lawyers for Bush asked the court to call an end to the manual recounts and uphold the statutory deadline for counties to report their results.
The Republican candidate argued that election officials in the three South Florida counties could have conducted recounts requested by Democrats and still met the seven-day deadline.
"It would be highly inequitable to keep the state and the nation on hold to finish a manual recount when the responsible officials failed expeditiously even to begin the process," Bush's lawyers wrote.
Bush noted that a fourth county where Democrats called for a recount -- the much smaller Volusia County to the north -- did complete its work by the Nov. 14 deadline, seven days after the election.
"While large counties obviously have more votes to count, it is equally obvious that they have more staff, resources, and money to count those votes," the 64-page GOP filing argued. "There is not a scintilla of evidence that any of the three counties at issue here were unable to meet the Tuesday deadline -- as Volusia County did.
"The secretary of state's conduct was reasoned and reasonable and was perfectly consistent with (indeed mandated by) the laws of Florida," the Bush filing said.
Harris and the Bush camp have had a delicate relationship as litigation heated up, both of them reluctant to seem too closely allied.
Harris tried to distance herself from Bush in her own filing Sunday, arguing that while both Bush and Gore are trying to turn state law to their advantage, her duty is to be neutral.
Bush's lawyers also brought new questions before the Florida court designed to make possible an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
While their brief did not cite a single federal case, limiting itself strictly to issues of Florida law, it contained several pages of argument asserting that the manual recounts violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
The arguments mirror those that another legal team for the Texas governor brought unsuccessfully before the U.S. District Court in Miami last week.
While the federal lawsuit is technically still alive it is in a procedural impasse that makes a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court extremely unlikely. But by incorporating federal constitutional questions into their state court appeal, the Bush lawyers are preserving those issues for an eventual appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Staff writers Lucy Morgan, David Karp and Eric Stirgus contributed to this report, which also includes information from Times wires.
A look at the seven Florida Supreme Court justices. Florida's high court traditionally rotates the position of chief justice on the basis of seniority every two years.
CHARLES T. WELLS, 61, chief justice, Democrat from Orlando. Longtime private attorney. Appointed in 1994 by former Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles.
LEANDER J. SHAW, JR., 70, Democrat, came to Tallahassee from Virginia to teach at the Florida A&M University law school. Later worked in private practice and as a public defender and prosecutor in Jacksonville. Appointed in 1983 by former Democratic Gov. Bob Graham.
MAJOR B. HARDING, 65, Independent from Jacksonville. A trial judge since 1968. Appointed by Chiles in 1991.
HARRY LEE ANSTEAD, 67, Democrat from Jacksonville. A trial and appellate attorney before serving on the appeals court from 1976-1995. Appointed to state Supreme Court by Chiles in 1994.
BARBARA PARIENTE 51, Democrat from West Palm Beach. A trial lawyer for 18 years before being appointed an appeals court judge in 1993. Appointed by Chiles in 1997.
R. FRED LEWIS, 52, Democrat from Miami. A civil trial and appellate attorney. Appointed by Chiles in 1999.
PEGGY QUINCE, 52, Democrat. Was the first black woman appointed to the court. Handled death penalty cases as an assistant Florida Attorney General for 13 years. Jointly appointed in 1998 by outgoing Gov. Chiles and then-Gov.-elect Jeb Bush.
-- Associated Press