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County election officials head to court
By JIM ROSS © St. Petersburg Times, published December 6, 2000 INVERNESS -- County Attorney Larry Haag and Supervisor of Elections Susan Gill might need their running shoes today in Tallahassee. At noon, Haag and Gill are scheduled to appear before a federal judge in the federal courthouse. The judge has been asked to oversee a lawsuit that challenges the validity of overseas absentee ballots that were counted in Citrus and nine other Florida counties. If that judge decides the case belongs in federal court, he could start a trial immediately. But if he passes, the lawsuit would revert to state circuit court, where the plaintiffs initially sought relief. And the state judge, who works in a different Tallahassee courthouse, has scheduled a 1 p.m. case management conference. Haag on Tuesday said the case, no matter where it is heard, shouldn't amount to much. He asked the court to dismiss the action, which he said was transparently political. The plaintiffs' lawyer insisted that legal principle, not partisanship, was motivating him and his clients. At issue are overseas absentee ballots that arrived in elections offices between Election Day and Nov. 17. The plaintiffs -- Florida voters from outside Citrus -- have alleged that elections officials violated state and federal law when they counted the ballots because all ballots that arrive after Election Day are void. Their proposed remedy: throw out the votes, which overwhelmingly favored George W. Bush. The defendants are Gill and her counterparts in Bay, Brevard, Clay, Duval, Escambia, Manatee, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Seminole counties. Also listed as defendants are the canvassing boards in those counties, as well as Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the state Elections Canvassing Commission, Gov. Jeb Bush, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The elections officers argue that they acted in accord with Rule 1S-2.013 of the Florida Administrative Code, which says properly prepared absentee ballots from overseas are valid as long as elections supervisors receive them within 10 days of the election. Also guiding the elections officials is a 1982 consent decree from a federal lawsuit. In that suit, Florida and the federal government spelled out how the Sunshine State must expand its rules to be more fair to overseas absentee voters, many of whom serve in the military. Jeb Bush asked the federal courts to take the case because it involved the federal consent decree. That's why federal Judge Maurice Paul scheduled the noon hearing today. But Circuit Judge L. Ralph Smith couldn't cancel the 1 p.m. hearing. He, like his federal counterpart, must be prepared to expedite the matter. The whirlwind court schedule -- the case was filed just Friday -- seems par for the course in the ever-turning presidential election drama. Gill convened a Canvassing Board meeting Tuesday to inform her fellow board members of the latest news. As the meeting started, her fax machine spit out yet another update about the lawsuit. The Canvassing Board members -- Gill, County Judge Mark Yerman and County Commissioner Jim Fowler -- on Tuesday approved the answer and defenses Haag prepared on their behalf. Haag noted that Gill and the board acted in accordance with the Florida Administrative Code, the consent decree and two federal laws: the Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act and the Federal Voting Assistance Act. Haag also said the suit is improper because it does not list all 67 of Florida's counties, thus violating the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection. The plaintiffs' lawyer, Randy Weber of Miami, said he named the 10 counties because that's where a majority (68 percent) of the ballots in question were received. But in the 10 counties, Bush won 1,172 absentee ballots while Al Gore scored only 469, state figures showed. The Citrus total included 34 for Bush and six for Gore. "Plaintiffs have purposely selected 10 counties in which the defendants Bush and Cheney won the overseas absentee ballot," Haag wrote. He called the move "an effort to gerrymander the election results to suit their purpose."
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