 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Court stymies Gore
By DAVID ADAMS © St. Petersburg Times, published November 24, 2000 FORT LAUDERDALE -- In another roller-coaster day on the Florida recount, Vice President Al Gore continued to pick up votes, only to suffer another legal setback. Vote counting in Broward turned up another 88 votes for Gore, but at the same time the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday refused Gore's request for an emergency order to force Miami-Dade County to conduct its own hand count. With every vote crucial in the run-up to Sunday's Supreme Court-imposed deadline, the Gore campaign vowed to press its legal challenge to new lengths. Even if Florida election officials certify George W. Bush as the winner Sunday, Gore campaign officials said they were preparing to file a formal legal protest early next week over the Miami-Dade recount. "We want a full, fair and accurate count, and the only way left to do that is to file a contest for Miami-Dade," Gore campaign spokeswoman Jenny Backus said. Gore attorneys in Miami said they thought they had "an incredibly good case" to challenge the Miami-Dade count. They based that claim on hundreds of affidavits gathered from voters, as well as evidence from the manufacturers of the county's vote-counting machines testifying to the machine's fallibility. But Thursday's Supreme Court ruling could deliver a knockout blow to Democratic chances of overtaking Bush before Sunday. Democrats had hoped the court would at the very least let stand 157 additional Gore votes tabulated before the Miami-Dade recount collapsed in chaos Wednesday. In court papers rushed to the Supreme Court on Thursday, they accused Republicans of "a deliberate campaign of delay and intimidation" of Miami's election officials. But after an afternoon conference call, the justices refused to revisit the issue, issuing a one-paragraph ruling read by spokesman Craig Waters. Democrats were left stunned. "I'm totally blown away," said Rep. Peter Deutch, whose district includes part of Miami-Dade. "It is the most shocking thing what happened in Miami. After a riot by out-of-staters, the canvassing board backed down." Deutch was refering to angry scenes in Miami on Wednesday when Republican supporters -- mostly observers from other parts of the country -- attempted to break into the Miami-Dade vote-counting room while accusing election officials of fraud. It was shortly after that fracas that the Miami canvassing board voted unanimously to abandon its count. "What kind of a message is this sending Americans?" Deutch asked. "If you want to win an election, all you have to do is have a violent demonstration." Democratic party attorneys in Miami said they were looking into the canvassing board decision for political interference. "Something happened. We are trying to find out if improper overtures were made," said Ben Kuehne, the Miami attorney leading the Democratic party's vote-count observer team. "It makes no sense at all." Kuehne accused the Republican protesters of being part of a campaign of "organized intimidation" of Miami-Dade election officials, designed to delay the manual recount until time ran out. "They invade a county for the whole purpose of terrorizing public officials," he said. "They are the strike force for dirty tricks, something we thought ended in the Watergate era." Those allegations were brushed aside Thursday by Republicans. "That's nonsense," Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, said. "The thing was spontaneous. To think that this was orchestrated high up in the Republican party is nuts." Members of the Miami-Dade canvassing board have rejected any suggestion of political pressure or influence in reaching their decision. All three, Judge Lawrence King, Judge Myriam Lehr and Elections Supervisor David Leahy, spent time at home Thursday and were not taking media calls. But county spokesman, Mayco Villafana, defended their action. "These are three outstanding individuals, one of them with 26 years experience in elections," he said. "In the time I spent with them, and I have been with them a great deal these last days, in no way were they responding to pressure from either the Republicans or Democrats. They were simply attempting to do what was best for this community." With the Miami-Dade count stopped, and Palm Beach officials taking Thursday off, all eyes Thursday were on Broward. Canvassing board members there agreed to sacrifice part of the holiday to be sure of finishing by Sunday, the deadline imposed by Tuesday's state Supreme Court ruling that ordered state officials to count the late hand-counted votes. Broward appeared to be the closest to completing the recount as it worked through some 1,800 questionable ballots set aside during the full manual recount. Thursday's review of some 327 of those ballots gave Gore another 88 votes. Those votes, in an unofficial tally, would reduce Bush's lead to 705 votes. With the Broward board due to resume examining remaining ballots today, Democrats still held high hopes of catching Bush. Largely oblivious to the last-minute legal maneuvers in Tallahassee on Thursday, Broward's three-member canvassing board reconvened at 9 a.m. and counted until 3:30 p.m. For the holiday, the count was moved to the courtroom of County Judge Robert W. Lee, chairman of the canvassing board. Suzanne Gunzburger, a Democrat and member of the canvassing board, greeted courtroom observers in the morning with "Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you're enjoying the parade as much as I am." Working at a long table with party observers and media looking on, election officials spent roughly a minute examining each ballot. Lee said there were 1,000 to 2,000 ballots with dimpled or partially removed chad -- the tiny pieces of paper in punch-card ballots. Dimpled ballots are those on which a punch card has a bump, as if someone tried to punch out the perforation to indicate his or her choice for president. The Supreme Court did not specifically tell canvassing boards how to treat questionable ballots. But it did say it would be appropriate to look for a voter's intent. The canvassing board, made up of two Democrats and one Republican, appeared willing to count Gore dimples on cards where Democrat candidates for other posts were clearly punched. "It's not just a whim," said Lee, who has described the process as "subjectively objective, or objectively subjective." As the Gore votes piled up Democrats expressed satisfaction. "They are looking at the totality of the ballot in making their decision," said Democrat attorney Charles Lichtman. But Republicans say that's like trying to guess voters' minds. Allowing dimples failed to take into account possible cross-voting, where a voter might choose a Democrat for local office but choose not to cast a vote for president. "It's not scientific," Judge Robert Rosenberg, the lone Republican on the board, said. "I feel like an umpire in baseball calling balls and strikes. Sometimes it's a strike on the black." Republicans also argued that the board had changed the standard in midstream. Earlier the board did not count chad unless at least two corners had been detached. "For the very reasons of consistency and fairness, of not changing the rules while the game is being played, I urge you strongly to stick with the standard you have been using," GOP attorney William Scherer said. Tensions were high. At one point Lee threatened to have Scherer removed from the courtroom for making comments about the ballots. "You can kick me out of here if you want to," Scherer said, adding that he was "going to continue keeping a record." Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, who is representing the Bush campaign, intervened. "We are having a little bit of difficulty understanding the standard," he told Lee. Scherer was not removed. The board worked through the morning, then broke for pizza and soda. Turkey would have to wait.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times election desk From the AP national wire  |
