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Watchdogs do their own recount in Palm Beach
By THOMAS C. TOBIN © St. Petersburg Times, published November 29, 2000 WEST PALM BEACH -- The glare of worldwide attention faded Sunday night when the Palm Beach County canvassing board finished its manual recount of ballots, missed its deadline, then watched with dropped jaw as Secretary of State Katherine Harris ignored its work. George W. Bush assumed the mantle of president-elect, Vice President Al Gore fought on, and squadrons of lawyers flocked north to litigate in Tallahassee. Yet here, the counting goes on -- and on. In a surreal scene Tuesday, the conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch took its own crack at divining the will of Palm Beach County voters by examining their much-maligned ballot cards. The process was made possible by Florida's liberal open records law and by Palm Beach County's desire not to be sued yet again in this long post-election drama. Grudgingly, the county agreed to the ballot-viewing Tuesday morning after Judicial Watch threatened a lawsuit. All that remained at the county's Emergency Operations Center were a handful of holdovers from the media herd that had camped in Palm Beach since Nov. 7. Gone was the tanned, calming presence of canvassing board chairman Charles Burton, the humble county judge who became an overnight celebrity for the way he held ballots up to the light. On Tuesday, the only canvassing board member left on duty was Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore who, after two weeks of mind-numbing hand counts, clearly wanted to be elsewhere. Stone-faced, LePore would not let anyone else touch the ballots, holding thousands of them up, one by one, so they could be examined and counted by Judicial Watch's accounting firm. Bush-Cheney attorney Mark Wallace, who had watched the official manual recount with a hawklike intensity, now crossed his legs and read the New York Times. Judicial Watch was led Tuesday by its founder Larry Klayman, a former international trade lawyer who has earned a reputation in Washington for his litigious ways and his disdain for the Clinton-Gore administration. Among his activities this year: suing first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and representing Donato Dalrymple, the colorful fisherman who rescued Elian Gonzalez, in a $100-million lawsuit against Attorney General Janet Reno. Klayman originally asked to see only the 5,800 Palm Beach County ballots that remain contested by both parties, but he later expanded his request to include thousands more. Among them are nearly 2,700 ballots with dented or dimpled chads that Democrats say are uncounted votes for Gore. Klayman said his group, which continues its count today, expects to issue a report this week on Palm Beach County's historic ballot recount election, and plans similar action in Broward, Miami-Dade and the rest of Florida's 67 counties. He said his group is trying to determine what standard the board used in counting the ballots, because board members were vague. "It looked to me like it was a crapshoot," Klayman said. "If they did it well, we will say they did it well. But when they can't articulate what the criteria were ... you have to find out exactly how they did it so the American people can determine whether the count was fair." Democrats and Republicans opposed the group's examination for different reasons and are seeking a court order to halt it until the presidential contest is decided. "Right now, the integrity of these ballots is the most important thing, and there's ballot fatigue setting in," said Wallace, the Bush-Cheney attorney. Democratic lawyer Dennis Newman called the examination a "publicity stunt" designed to slow Gore's efforts to contest the election. He said the ballots were needed as evidence and should be sent to Tallahassee, and added that Judicial Watch is not the non-partisan organization it claims to be. "They're going to come out and say that this was a flawed process," Newman said. "I would not be surprised if their press release was already written yesterday as to what they're going to find today." Klayman said his group aims to keep both parties honest. He was joined in the examination by the Palm Beach Post, which assigned a reporter to stand at the counting table and take notes. The newspaper also shouldered half the cost. The county is charging a fee to cover the cost of keeping the counting center open -- a sum that comes to $1,152 an hour. - Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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