There was no mistaking Assistant County Attorney Carl Kern's disgust for a lawsuit that tried to throw out 44 Citrus County absentee ballots, as well as the overseas ballots from nine other counties that heavily supported George W. Bush.

"It was a sorry lawsuit, which I hate to say," Kern told the County Commission last week. "But we did prevail."

As Kern complained about the manipulative legal challenges in this year's presidential election, Commissioner Josh Wooten picked up a thread of irony.

"So are you saying damn the lawyers?" Wooten asked, grinning.

Interim County Administrator Richard Wesch, himself a lawyer, looked up defensively.

"Is that a motion?" Wesch asked.

STICKING POINTS: Citrus elections officials were very careful last week when they started what would wind up being an aborted attempt at finding and then manually reviewing so-called undervotes in the presidential race.

How careful were they? No one participating in the exercise was allowed to have a pencil or pen anywhere nearby, lest a critic accuse the counter of trying to alter a ballot.

News reporters observing the count were allowed to keep their writing instruments.

THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR: The head Democrat in Citrus, Joe Cino, was supposed to represent the Democratic Executive Committee in the Inverness Christmas Parade.

Instead, he was at the elections office Dec. 9 to observe the vote recount.

"I was looking forward to it," he said, referring to the parade, not the recount.

- Staff writers Bridget Hall Grumet and Jim Ross compiled this report.

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