Election notebook

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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 29, 2000

Supreme Court will make audio tape available

NEW YORK -- The Supreme Court, after rejecting a request to allow television coverage of Friday's arguments in the Florida election case, said Tuesday it would quickly make an audio tape available.

Distribution of an audio tape, which would not be available until after the court session is over, is thought to be unprecedented for the nation's highest court.

Television networks have been pleading with the court to relax its longstanding rule prohibiting TV coverage of their sessions for the historic presidential election arguments.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist rejected that idea Monday in a letter to C-SPAN Chairman Brian Lamb. Other networks, including ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC, had been urging him to reconsider.

The court made no promise of exactly when the tape would be made available, only that it would come Friday "on an expedited basis."

C-SPAN will air the tape in its entirety as soon as it is available, supplementing it with pictures or drawings of the Supreme Court justices and lawyers involved in the case, said Susan Swain, the network's executive vice president.

Possible secretary of state to attend Tampa seminar

Now here's a potential success story for the Success 2001 seminar in Tampa -- book a retiree as a speaker and instead get the new U.S. secretary of state.

That could happen if Texas Gov. George W. Bush ultimately triumphs in the presidential election and appoints retired Gen. Colin Powell to be his foreign policy chief.

In a full-page ad Tuesday in the St. Petersburg Times, Powell is billed to appear "live and in person" at Peter Lowe's Success 2001 motivational seminar at the USF Sun Dome on Feb. 14. By that time, a new U.S. president will have been sworn in and Powell could well be the next secretary of state.

Would he still show up in Tampa?

"That's kind of Colin Powell's decision," says Billy Barber, Lowe's media liaison. Powell was booked through a Washington, D.C., speakers bureau, whose representatives were unavailable for comment Tuesday on whether he would keep his lucrative appearance schedule if he took a Bush Cabinet post. He reportedly gets as much as $90,000 per engagement.

Although Powell has appeared "numerous" times at Lowe's popular business seminars, he'd be even more of a drawing card as secretary of state, Barber acknowledges.

"The reason he's on our program is because he's a big-profile, highly respected man and that (new position) certainly would enhance his image," Barber says.

And if the Middle East and other foreign policy matters kept Secretary Powell away? For the "special early registration price" of $39 to $49, participants would still get to see the "Iron Lady" -- former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Poll: Public split on whether Gore should concede election

WASHINGTON -- Americans are evenly divided on whether Al Gore should concede the presidency, says a new poll, and on the question of who they support for president, Democrat Gore or Republican George W. Bush.

A majority in the NBC News poll, 54 percent, think the country will remain divided and that would make it hard for either of the candidates, no matter who eventually wins, to accomplish a lot over the next four years.

By more than a 2-1 ratio, Americans think George W. Bush has won the presidency, said the poll released Tuesday. But they were about equally convinced -- over six in 10 -- that they could feel comfortable and support either man as president. A third of those polled Monday night by NBC News said they saw the vice president's plea for patience on national television.

Asked whether Bush was right to claim victory and set up a transition operation, just over half in the NBC News poll, 51 percent, said he should have waited. More than four of 10 thought he was right to claim victory.

People were about evenly split on whether the Florida secretary of state's decision to certify Bush the winner was "based on a fair, unbiased process" or not.

The NBC News poll of 490 adults was taken Monday night and has an error margin of 4.5 percentage points.

Florida Supreme Court flooded with e-mails, calls

TALLAHASSEE -- Since the Florida Supreme Court became a part of the presidential legal saga, it has been flooded with tens of thousands of e-mails and telephone calls, a handful of which have been considered harassing.

"They'd call a clerk, as an example, and say "I'm gonna take care of those justices,' and then hang up," said Wilson Barnes, the former Army colonel in charge of security for the court. "I'd put them in the category of citizens expressing their disapproval of what the court has done."

Barnes said the public comment has been so great that it has actually caused the court's computer system to crash twice. It has exceeded the outcry accompanying that of even the most passionate death penalty cases, he said.

Court spokesman Craig Waters, who went on national television to announce the court's decision allowing hand recounts in three South Florida counties, has received up to 2,000 e-mails a day.

Mindful of those angry with the court, Barnes' nine-member security force has been bolstered in recent days.

Cohen orders review of military absentee voting

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary William Cohen ordered an internal review of the way the military handles absentee ballots from troops stationed abroad in light of the political dispute over disqualified votes in Florida.

Cohen instructed Acting Inspector General Donald Mancuso to examine whether standard practices were followed in handling absentee ballots from overseas military personnel and whether procedures could be improved.

Several hundred absentee ballots from overseas were rejected in Florida for lack of postmarks, as required by state law, or other flaws such as no signatures or signatures that did not match those on record.

Kenneth Bacon, spokesman for Cohen, said among the issues the Pentagon inspector general will examine is why some absentee ballots arrived without postmarks, contrary to normal procedure.

-- Times staff writer Susan Taylor Martin contributed to this report.

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