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Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 12, 2000
In tiny Michigan town, the Republican wins by chance
FIFE LAKE TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- There were no complaints about chad -- hanging, pregnant or otherwise. No threats of lawsuits. No spinmeisters or chanting demonstrators.
Republican challenger Marianne "Toni" Larson and Democratic incumbent Dave Stremlow drew slips of paper from a small pine box Monday to break a 297-297 tie in the not-so-hard-fought race for supervisor of Fife Lake Township.
The victor: Larson, whose slip read "Elected." (The loser's slip read "Not Elected.")
"This is so bizarre," the 66-year-old Larson said, displaying her winning lot for news photographers. "But this election process does work."
Stremlow, 70, shook Larson's hand, wished her luck and left.
The contrast between the orderly, civil resolution of the Fife Lake Township contest and the convoluted, bitter presidential slugfest was hard to miss.
"We're doing things the right way up here," said Cindy Williams, a nurse at the medical center in Fife Lake, a village so small it has no traffic light. "I'm so tired of that Florida business."
The rural township, which includes the village, has a population of about 1,500. It is 250 miles northwest of Detroit in the forested northwestern corner of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
A one-time logging town, it is now a bedroom community for nearby cities and is becoming popular with retirees. The lake for which the village is named is ringed by fishing cabins.
Might George W. Bush and Al Gore have done the country a favor by resolving things as easily?
"Amen to that," Larson said with a laugh. "We could probably count and recount and protest and what have you, but the law is the law, and this is what we go by."
MIAMI -- Hundreds of Democratic supporters staged rallies around the country Monday to voice their anger over the halted vote recount in Florida, with some alleging that a disproportionate number of the uncounted ballots were cast by blacks.
Protesters chanted "No justice, no peace" in downtown Miami while the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington heard arguments from lawyers for George W. Bush and Al Gore on whether to resume a suspended manual recount of undervotes in Florida.
Dozens of NAACP members arrived in South Florida in chartered buses from as far away as California and from 16 other states.
"Everyone is watching to see whether there will be someone appointed or someone elected," said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, who was recently named chairwoman of the 38-member Congressional Black Caucus.
"We're here today to demand that the Constitution be put ahead of convenience," Johnson said.
NAACP president Kweisi Mfume said the group plans to sue Florida and some of its counties, seeking changes in the election process because "black voters were increasingly denied their right to vote."
In Hartford, Conn., more than 30 people rallied in the glow of candlelight Monday evening.
In Boston, about 100 people, holding lighted candles and signs aloft, gathered in front of the John F. Kennedy Federal Building cheering speakers who said the nation's most sanctified principles were at stake.
In Sacramento, Calif., about 100 union members and Democratic Party campaign volunteers rallied outside the federal courthouse. Demonstrators waved Gore-Lieberman campaign signs and placards that read "All I Want For Christmas Is To Count Every Vote."
NEW YORK -- The head of Fox's projection team said he spoke five times with his cousin, George W. Bush, on election night but insists he did not give out confidential exit poll information. Bush got that information elsewhere, he said.
John Ellis, an election night consultant for Fox, was hired by Inside.com to write an account of what happened that night; it was posted on the Web site Monday. Ellis is becoming a regular columnist for the online publication's new magazine, Inside.
Publicity about his relationship to Bush has proved an embarrassment to Fox, whose executives were angry with him Monday for writing about it. The network is still investigating whether Ellis, who was working on a temporary contract, provided the Bush campaign with insider data.
Fox was criticized for having a Bush cousin as director of its team responsible for projecting the presidential race. The network, and Ellis, said an executive above Ellis had the final say on whether a state was called.
In their final conversation on election night, Bush told Ellis that Al Gore had taken back his concession of the race. "I hope you're taking all this down, Ellis," Bush reportedly said. "This is good stuff for a book."
Ellis did not discuss the spate of stories that questioned the ethics of a Bush relative working as part of the team that projected election night winners and losers.
But he did note that the three other members of Fox's decision desk team included two Democrats and a third person with Democratic ties.
Fox had no comment on Ellis' article other than to say its investigation is continuing. Ellis also said he had no comment.
"Whatever I have to say I said in the article," he said.