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Bush: I win
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 27, 2000 TALLAHASSEE -- By 537 votes, George W. Bush claimed Florida and the presidency Sunday night as Al Gore refused to concede and vowed to fight on in court. At 9:30 p.m., Bush delivered a seven-minute address to the nation from the Texas Capitol and said he and running mate Dick Cheney "are honored and humbled to have won the state of Florida, which gives us the needed electoral votes to win the election." "We will therefore undertake the responsibility of preparing to serve as America's next president and vice president." Bush's remarks came about two hours after Florida's canvassing commission declared him the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes, one more than he needed to claim the presidency. He noted that Gore plans to contest the election results in court. "I respectfully ask him to reconsider," Bush said, calling Gore's efforts "not the best route for America." But Gore is driven by a basic premise: He is convinced more Floridians voted for him than for Bush. The state canvassing commission led by Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified Florida's vote totals about 7:30 p.m. and triggered cheers from hundreds of Bush supporters outside the state Capitol. "Our democracy has triumphed once again," Harris said. Less than five minutes later, Gore running mate Joseph Lieberman called the vote count "incomplete and inaccurate." He laid the groundwork for Gore to contest the election in court today. "How can we teach our children that every vote counts if we are not willing to make a good-faith effort to count every vote?" Lieberman asked in a strongly-worded statement from a Washington hotel. "It is in our nation's interest that the winner in Florida is truly the person who got the most votes." Democrats in South Florida estimated that Gore has at least 400 more votes that have been counted but were not included in the certified state totals. Harris and the other two members of the canvassing commission refused to include the partial results of hand recounts in Palm Beach County, which gave Gore a net gain of at least 192 votes. Palm Beach County missed the 5 p.m. deadline for submitting completed hand recounts, though it finished the job about 20 minutes before the canvassing commission met to certify the results. By the Democrats' count, Bush leads Gore by just 136 votes, not 537 votes, out of nearly 6-million votes cast and with thousands left to be counted in Miami-Dade County and elsewhere. But Sunday night was a time for celebration for Republicans. Florida's 25 electoral votes gives Bush 271. Gore has 267 electoral votes and still leads in the national popular vote. Bush named Cheney as head of his transition team and former Secretary of Transportation Andrew Card as his chief of staff. He directed Cheney to contact the Clinton administration immediately about opening a transition office in Washington. However, Beth Newburger of the General Services Administration said "there is not an apparent winner and the outcome is unclear" so the agency cannot authorize transition funds and offices for Bush. Seeking to play the role of a peacemaker, Bush also talked of bringing members of both parties together to improve education, preserve Social Security and cut taxes. He spoke in the past tense of his campaign battles with Gore, and seemed to acknowledge if he prevails he will be leading a divided Congress and nation. "I will listen, and I will respect different points of view, and, most of all, I will work to unite our great land," Bush said. "Once our elections are behind us, once our disagreements are expressed, we have a responsibility to honor our Constitution and laws, and come together to do the people's business." The transformation from Texas governor to president-elect isn't quite complete. Communications director Karen Hughes said Bush did not wish to be called president-elect while Gore is still contesting the outcome. "He prefers that we call him Gov. Bush," Hughes said. And despite Sunday night's certification of the vote totals, days of court fights lie ahead. As his supporters try to portray the certification of Florida's vote as just another step in a long road, Gore will go to court today to contest the election totals from at least three counties. Bush has lawsuits pending in several counties that demand that overseas ballots that were discounted because they lacked the proper postmark be included, but those may be dropped. Both sides also will be filing legal briefs this week with the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices will hear arguments Friday on whether Florida's Supreme Court overstepped its authority by requiring the state to extend deadlines and accept the hand recounts. With Gore contesting the election, Bush will continue to pursue the U.S. Supreme Court case, said former Secretary of State James Baker, who monitored the Florida election results for Bush. Two critical deadlines also are creeping closer. By Dec. 12, all states must have selected their electors for the Electoral College. On Dec. 18, members of the Electoral College will meet in state capitals to cast their ballots for president. Even before Florida's vote totals were certified Sunday night, the rhetoric from both Republicans and Democrats escalated as both sides hardened in their positions. Republicans point out that Bush has led in Florida at every turn: by 1,784 votes after the first count, by 300 votes after the first mechanical recount, by 930 votes when the overseas ballots were added and now by 537 votes. "I think the great majority of Americans are going to say enough is enough," former Sen. Bob Dole said. Earlier last week, some Democrats in Washington and Florida hinted that they agreed. But Democrats now appear to be solidly behind the vice president. While Gore has worked behind the scenes to reassure members of his party, partisan attacks from Republicans -- including a number of staged protests in South Florida -- have had the unintended affect of uniting Democrats. "If either candidate would be declared the victor and electoral votes awarded based on the status today, neither candidate would be legitimate," Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla, said. Shortly before the election totals were certified, Gore lawyer David Boies sketched out the crux of Gore's arguments that he will file today in Leon Circuit Court in Tallahassee. The Gore team will focus on the need to recount more votes in three counties: Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Nassau. "Until these votes have been counted," Boies said, "this election cannot be over." Boies said he wants a judge or a special master appointed by the court to count about 10,000 Miami-Dade ballots that did not register a vote for president when they were mechanically counted. He also wants to ensure that 388 ballots that were hand counted, and resulted in a net gain of 156 votes for Gore, are included in Miami-Dade's totals. Miami-Dade elections officials performed a test hand recount, refused to manually recount the entire county, then agreed to do it, but finally refocused on 10,000 ballots that did not register a vote for president -- and ultimately gave up last week after protests organized by Republicans. "I think the law is clear that once the manual recount started, it had to be completed," Boies said. Bush lawyers took the opposite view, contending that partial recounts cannot be included in state totals and that all of Miami-Dade's ballots have been mechanically counted twice. Gore lawyers also will contest the election results from Palm Beach County, where the canvassing board failed to complete the recount by the 5 p.m. Sunday deadline. Among the issues in that county, Boies said, are adding the results of the hand recounts to the state total and whether the Palm Beach board used the correct standards as it reviewed contested ballots. Nassau County also will be contested by Gore because the canvassing board there added a new member, then reverted back to the Nov. 7 results instead of a mechanical recount that netted Gore 52 votes. Boies said the Gore team also is considering whether to contest Seminole County. A separate lawsuit has been filed by Democrats there over the way Republicans were allowed to visit the supervisor of elections office and correct errors on absentee ballots or add required information such as voter identification numbers. Baker argued that further court battles by Gore are inappropriate. "At some point the law must prevail and the lawyers must go home. We have reached that point," he said in Tallahassee. "I don't believe the people of America want this national election to be turned over to lawyers and court contests. It is time to honor the will of the people." Before attention shifted Sunday night to the certification of the state totals in Tallahassee, the media spotlight focused on Palm Beach County's unsuccessful effort to complete its hand recount. Although the canvassing board members took Thanksgiving off, they worked through the night Saturday and were within striking distance at midday. The canvassing board faxed a letter to Harris asking that they be given until this morning to finish the job. Harris faxed a letter back: "In accordance with the explicit terms of the Florida Supreme Court, your request . . . is denied." "The secretary of state has decided to shut us down with about two hours left to go," said Palm Beach Judge Charles Burton, the canvassing board chairman. The board members then decided to submit partial results of the hand recounts to Harris by the 5 p.m. deadline, then sat down to count about 1,000 ballots that were remaining in case the totals are later needed. They finished about 7:10 p.m., about 20 minutes before Harris and the other two members of the state canvassing commission met in Tallahassee to certify the statewide totals. As Bush and Gore prepared for this week's court battles, lawmakers in Washington and Tallahassee continued to debate on Sunday talk shows whether Congress and the Florida Legislature will jump into the drama. In the U.S. House, Republicans have circulated memos detailing how Congress could challenge Florida's electors on Jan. 6, when it meets to count the votes of the Electoral College. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, contended that Democrats first raised the idea that Florida's electors could be ignored amid speculation that Gore could be declared the winner without Florida because he leads in electoral votes. Democrats disagreed. "The House shouldn't be sticking its nose into this in that way," said House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo. In Florida, a legislative oversight committee plans to meet Tuesday to review the situation and three constitutional law professors have been retained. Republicans who control the Legislature warned on talk shows on Sunday that they may have to call a special session and have lawmakers appoint the state's electors if the election is not decided by the Dec. 12 deadline for naming electors. - Staff writers Julie Hauserman, Adam Smith and Thomas C. Tobin contributed to this report along with the Associated Press.
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