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Florida legislature calls special session on Friday to allocate electors
©Associated Press, December 6, 2000 TALLAHASSEE — Determined to support George W. Bush's pursuit of the White House, Republican leaders announced the Florida Legislature will convene in special session beginning Friday to appoint its own slate of electors in the state's contested presidential race. Democrats instantly denounced the action as a mistake of historic proportions, but the Republican leaders of the House and Senate said Wednesday it was essential to avoid disenfranchising the state's voters. ``We're protecting Florida's 25 electoral votes and its six million voters,'' said John McKay, the president of the state Senate. ``I believe deeply ... that we have a duty to protect Florida's participation in the Electoral College,'' added Rep. Tom Feeney, speaker of the House, who had been urging a special session for days. Both men said they hoped that final adoption of legislation establishing a slate of electors would be rendered unnecessary through a final court resolution of the contested election between Bush and Al Gore. But, McKay added, ``in the event there is not finality on the 12th, I think we will have to act.'' Bush has been certified the winner in Florida by 537 votes, but Gore is challenging that certification in the courts, and seeking additional manual recounts. The vice president's claim was rejected in the trial court on Monday, and the state Supreme Court will hear arguments on his appeal on Thursday. ``It's inappropriate and it's unnecessary and it's unfair,'' said Rep. Lois Frankel, leader of the House Democrats, in instant rebuttal to the GOP decision to call a special session. ``We're circumventing the will of six million voters.'' She said ``the only thing missing on the proclamation is the post mark from Austin, Texas,'' a reference to Bush's campaign headquarters, but she conceded Democrats lack the votes to stop it. In the Florida House, Republicans hold a 77-43 majority over the Democrats. In the 40-member Senate, Republicans outnumber 25 to 15. Both McKay and Feeney told reporters they had not been pressured by the Bush campaign to call the special session. At the same time, the first time the idea was mentioned publicly, it came from former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who is Bush's point man in Florida. Dec. 12th is the deadline for appointment of electors of the Electoral College, which meets Dec. 18. McKay, saying he was relying on advice offered by constitutional scholars, said he believed that was a date that could trigger the Legislature's action, not foreclose it. ``If we find a way to do our duty without bringing this session to a close with a final vote, then I would be the most pleased man in Florida,'' Feeney said. Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, has already signed a certified slate of Republican electors for his brother, based on the 537-vote victory margin announced by the GOP secretary of state. If the courts invalidate that slate because of Gore's pending legal actions, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature could use the session to override with a Bush slate. If Congress gets competing slates and the two chambers disagree on which to accept, the slate signed by Florida's governor then will prevail, said Florida State University law professor Nat Stern. It wouldn't be the first time Florida lawmakers have been snagged in this kind of scenario. In 1868 when Ulysses S. Grant was the Republican candidate, Republicans in Florida's Reconstruction-era Legislature turned aside Democratic protests and sent three GOP lawmakers to the Electoral College to vote for Grant. The Florida Legislature last held a special session in January, when lawmakers took three days to pass laws making lethal injection the primary method of execution over the electric chair.
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From the Times election desk Top stories Around the state Around the nation Lucy Morgan Howard Troxler From the AP national wire  |
