Gore: One last shot

After big loss, Gorre pins all hopes on state Supreme Court

By TIM NICKENS and DAVID BALLINGRUD

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 5, 2000

TALLAHASSEE -- Al Gore's claim that the wrong man won Florida was soundly rejected in state court Monday, dimming his hopes for the presidency and moving George W. Bush even closer to the White House.

Judge N. Sanders Sauls spoke in a soft, measured voice, but for Gore his words rang loud and clear. The first jurist to look in detail at the vice president's case said simply: No.

No recount.

No adjusted vote total.

No evidence another look at ballots would change anything.

Sauls embraced every major point raised by the Bush team -- and then some. His ruling about 4:40 p.m. came several hours after the U.S. Supreme Court released a unanimous opinion that was far less conclusive but still helpful to Bush.

At the end of a day that marked the beginning of the end game for the longest-running presidential drama this century, Gore appeared to have just one viable option left.

His lawyers filed an immediate appeal with the Florida Supreme Court, which will be back on center stage as it considers the vice president's last-ditch plea and clarifies its earlier ruling for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gore spokesman Mark Fabiani said, "The last stop in Florida is the Florida Supreme Court . . . the final word on these issues."

Four weeks after Americans went to the polls, it appears the end of a painfully long exercise in democracy is approaching. Pending, however, are lawsuits in Seminole and Martin counties that could threaten some Bush absentee votes.

Andrew Card, Republican George W. Bush's prospective chief of staff, said the day's court rulings had buoyed the Republican camp and given new impetus to efforts to form a Bush government.

"We'll be able to move pretty quickly," once there is either a conclusive court ruling or a Gore concession, Card said.

Gore instructed his aides to make clear the Florida Supreme Court would be his last stand. He will "definitely not" join the lawsuit in Seminole County over the irregular handling of GOP absentee ballots, Fabiani said.

The federal deadline for states to resolve election disputes and name its electors is exactly one week from today. Six days later, the Electoral College will meet in the 50 state capitals to select the next president.

Gore lawyers tried to portray the defeat before Sauls as a temporary setback that can be overcome at the Florida Supreme Court.

"As a matter of law, what has happened today is we have moved one step further to having this resolved," Gore attorney David Boies said. "They won. We lost. We're appealing."

The Bush team, already enjoying the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to set aside a state Supreme Court ruling that allowed earlier recounts to go forward, said Sauls' decision is more evidence that the Texas governor has won the presidency.

"The court reviewed all the facts, listened to all the arguments, considered all the evidence and concluded that Florida's votes were cast and counted fairly and properly," Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes said in Texas.

Monday may have been the most definitive day yet in the historic post-election battle. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, Gore's effort to contest the Florida results was rejected and the Florida Legislature prepared for a special session that Republican legislators may soon conclude is politically unnecessary.

The court rulings appeared to bolster the GOP contention that the Legislature could still have a role in appointing the electors.

Bush signaled Monday that he's in no hurry to have Florida's Legislature intervene.

"We ought to take this process one step at a time," he said during a brief meeting with reporters inside the Governor's Mansion in Austin.

By day's end, it was not clear whether Bush's lead in Florida is 537 votes or 930 votes or some other number as a result of the court actions. Republicans said the number didn't matter.

"If there is a new total it moves up, it doesn't move down, and we're ahead under both totals," said former Secretary of State James Baker, who has monitored the post-election battle for Bush.

Democrats were glum, though many heeded Gore's request to stay by his side until the Florida Supreme Court rules.

"I think we're down but not out," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. "This was a punch that knocked him down, but it didn't knock him out."

But Florida Sen. Bob Graham called Monday's twin setbacks for Gore "the beginning of the end of the 2000 presidential election."

The Florida Supreme Court "will have the next, and likely final, word," he said. "Its determination will grant legitimacy to either Gov. Bush or Vice President Gore. With that legitimacy, either can serve as president of the United States with the strength and authority necessary."

Republicans were in a hurry to hear the bell toll for Gore.

"How many defeats are enough?" said Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., the fourth-ranking member of the House. "The time has come for the vice president to admit defeat."

The day began with Democrats meeting in the state Capitol to plot their strategy for a special session and planning for a massive demonstration today labeled the "This is America. Every Vote Counts Rally."

"They will not tolerate what they see as a court-ordered victory for Al Gore," House Minority Leader Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, said of Republican legislators.

About 20 Pinellas County residents, armed with homemade signs, catchy cheers and windbreakers, protested Monday morning in front of the Clearwater offices of the county's legislative delegation.

"Please count the votes," said Dunedin resident Ellen Buggie. "I just feel as though Bush should lighten up a little bit. There's some votes in there for him too."

"We're just so frustrated," said Clearwater resident Doreen Haas. "We can't sit home."

Then the court decisions began piling up.

Shortly before noon, word reached the state capital that the U.S. Supreme Court had set aside the Florida Supreme Court's opinion that extended state deadlines and required elections officials to accept hand recounts.

The justices said they could not determine whether the state's highest court was resolving conflicts in state statutes or interpreting the state Constitution in a way that could affect the Legislature's authority under the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion caused Circuit Judge Sauls to apply the brakes, at least temporarily.

Leon County Court Administrator Terre Cass told reporters at noon that everything was on hold until Sauls could "determine whether the U.S. Supreme Court's decision has any effect on our proceedings."

Gore officials brushed aside the U.S. Supreme Court opinion.

"I don't think it is a win for either camp, I think it's a no-decision, and leaves this question for another day," Gore campaign attorney Ron Klain said.

Sauls' ruling, one of the most sweeping in a drama filed with court hearings and judicial orders, could not be so easily dismissed.

In his third-floor courtroom in the Leon County Courthouse, the folksy judge read an order that shredded Gore's effort to contest the election results.

"In this case, there is no credible statistical evidence and no other competent evidence . . . that the results of the statewide election in the state of Florida would be different from the result which has been certified by the state elections canvassing commission," Sauls said.

One by one, he rejected Gore's arguments and embraced Bush's.

Sauls refused to add the certified results the totals from hand recounts from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. He would not add 51 Gore votes from a mechanical recount in Nassau County.

It's too late and past the deadlines set by the state Supreme Court, he said.

The judge also would not second-guess county canvassing boards and their decisions on how, whether and when to recount votes. He refused to order recounts of thousands of ballots from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties that were trucked to Tallahassee last week.

"The local boards have been given broad discretion, which no court may overrule, absent a clear abuse of discretion," Sauls said, echoing Bush's argument.

The judge also concluded that any recount would have to review every one of the nearly 6-million votes for president in Florida.

"There is in this type of election one statewide election and one certification," Sauls said. "Palm Beach County did not elect any person as a presidential elector, but rather the election was a winner-take-all proposition dependent on the statewide vote."

Sauls said that while the evidence "shows voter error and/or less than total accuracy" in the punch card voting devices in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, the counties have been aware of the problem. He said those problems do not support recounting votes in Miami-Dade, and he found the Palm Beach canvassing board did not abuse its discretion by refusing to include 3,300 disputed ballots.

Gore lawyers had complained the Palm Beach canvassing board's standards for evaluating the punch card ballots were too strict. But Sauls ordered Gore not to challenge them anymore and cited an opinion by Attorney General Bob Butterworth, Gore's state chairman, in concluding the standards could not be changed now.

"I couldn't think of a stronger way to write it," Bush attorney Barry Richard said of Sauls' order, which touched on every one of his major arguments. "He even got one I didn't think of."

- Staff writers Thomas C. Tobin, Mary Jacoby, Lucy Morgan, Shelby Oppel and Edie Gross contributed to this report. Information from Times wires was also used.

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