Gore acts to speed work of Florida courts

By LUCY MORGAN and DAVID BALLINGRUD

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 30, 2000

In courts of law and in the court of public opinion, Vice President Al Gore scrambled Wednesday to keep his presidential candidacy alive.

He fought to get back before the Florida Supreme Court, perhaps today, where he plans to ask the justices to order an immediate start to the recounting of disputed ballots -- even before a lower court decides whether those ballots will ever be included in the final vote count.

And he made the rounds of the news and talk shows, pounding away on his central theme: In a democracy, votes get counted.

Bracing the public for more legal wrangling, the vice president said he was prepared to fight until "the middle of December."

His opponent, George W. Bush, seemed almost serene in comparison, preparing to meet today with retired Gen. Colin Powell, his still-to-be-announced choice as secretary of state. The Texas governor also was chatting up GOP congressional leaders and assigning his staff to do the same with some Democratic lawmakers.

"On Jan. 20, a President Bush will be ready to take the reins of the government," said top adviser Andy Card.

As if things were not bleak enough for Gore, Florida lawmakers, most of them Republican, were considering naming their own electors to settle the fiercely fought election. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the candidate's brother, said he would sign the necessary legislation "if it was the appropriate thing to do."

'Going to be a convoy?'

Lawsuits filled courtrooms on two floors of the Leon County Courthouse on Wednesday as lawyers skirmished over ballots and witnesses.

Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls has scheduled a hearing Saturday to consider Gore's lawsuit challenging votes cast in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Nassau counties.

Lawyers for Gore want to immediately start counting 3,300 contested ballots from Palm Beach and 10,500 ballots from Miami-Dade. This week Sauls agreed to have the contested ballots brought to Tallahassee under police escort, but amended his order Wednesday to have all of the ballots from the two South Florida counties brought to the Leon County Courthouse.

With 17 lawyers representing Gore and Bush in the courtroom, two South Florida lawyers on a speaker phone and U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas looking on from the front row, Sauls used his folksy humor to handle the logistics of getting the ballots to Tallahassee.

"Is it going to be a convoy?" Sauls asked as lawyers for elections officials in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties described their efforts to pack up the ballots.

Lawyers for Texas Gov. George W. Bush contend that none of the ballots should be counted, but pressed to have them all brought to court. If any are counted, they say, all ballots should be considered.

That didn't sit well with Gore's lawyers, who Wednesday appealed Sauls' decision to the 1st District Court of Appeal.

They have asked the appellate court to immediately certify the case to the Florida Supreme Court. The two courts will take up the matter today, Gore's lawyers said. Their filing essentially asks the Supreme Court to take over Gore's lawsuit from the slow-moving trial court, to count the ballots itself, and eventually to declare Gore the winner if he wins the recount.

Nonetheless, Gore's lawyers were furious at the GOP insistence that all the ballots be hauled to Tallahassee, aware that it represents yet another enormous barrier to their hopes for an immediate count of the 14,000 ballots in dispute.

Even if the Florida Supreme Court should swiftly agree to their request and orders the counting to begin by Friday, that would still put them three days behind their original timetable. And facing a Dec. 12 deadline for the state to name electors for the Electoral College, Gore has absolutely no days to spare.

"It's a stunt," said Kendall Coffey, one of Gore's election lawyers, as he stormed out of Sauls' courtroom Wednesday, referring to the request for all the ballots. "They're trying to bog down the case, the system, the clerk's office and everywhere else they can."

Thus far Sauls has refused to allow anyone to start counting the ballots until he hears arguments from both sides Saturday.

Officials from the two counties plan to send the ballots to Tallahassee today and Friday with police escorts. Lawyers for both sides will be allowed to accompany the police cars.

There's more.

In another case being heard in a courtroom one floor down, lawyers for Bush asked Circuit Judge Nikki Clark to disqualify herself from presiding over a case involving absentee ballots in Seminole County.

The motion was based on the fears of Republican Party Chairman Al Cardenas, one of the defendants in the case. In an affidavit filed with the court, Cardenas said he does not think the GOP can get a fair trial in Clark's court because Gov. Jeb Bush did not appoint Clark to fill a recent appellate court vacancy.

Clark was one of nine applicants for two vacancies at the 1st District Court of Appeal, but Bush appointed two others to the positions.

Clark immediately denied the motion. She has scheduled pretrial motions Tuesday and an all-day trial Wednesday to consider a request to throw out Seminole County's 15,000 absentee ballots because a Republican Party official was allowed to enter identification numbers on ballot applications.

Bush lawyers also appealed Clark's refusal to allow the Seminole County case to be consolidated with the lawsuit filed by Gore to contest ballots in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

A lawsuit challenging the way Bay County officials handled absentee ballots has also been assigned to Clark. That suit challenges the GOP's use of the state seal on letters urging voters to seek absentee ballots.

Another elections lawsuit filed by a Trenton, N.J., resident against elections officials in 15 counties challenges the failure to count some military ballots that lacked a postmark. That lawsuit has been assigned to Circuit Judge L. Ralph Smith.

Palm Beach results

WEST PALM BEACH -- Palm Beach County released final results Wednesday from its presidential recount: an extra 188 votes for Al Gore.

Democratic observers had expected the final tally to show a 215-vote net gain. Republicans had echoed that figure. No one could explain the 27-vote difference.

Whether 188 or 215, the extra Gore votes may be only a footnote to history. Sunday afternoon, the county canvassing board fell about 1,000 ballots short of completing a manual recount in time.

- Information from Times wires was used in this report.

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