|
Bush blocks 2000 manual count { November 11 2000 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.roadwomen.com/Articles_Archive/bush_seeks_to_block_hand_recount.htmhttp://www.roadwomen.com/Articles_Archive/bush_seeks_to_block_hand_recount.htm
Bush Seeks to Block Hand Recounts
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday , November 11, 2000 ; Page A01
As Florida officials prepared to begin the laborious process of counting votes by hand in four counties, Texas Gov. George W. Bush decided to take legal action today to try to block the manual recount, and his advisers
accused Vice President Gore's campaign of trying to "unduly prolong" the process of determining who won Tuesday's presidential election.
In a late-night phone call, Bush authorized former secretary of state James A. Baker III, who was brought in Wednesday to oversee the ongoing recount in Florida, to seek a court order today to block it.
Earlier yesterday, Baker said the campaign would "vigorously oppose" efforts by Democrats "to keep recounting, over and over, until it happens to like the result." Baker warned that the post-election wrangling was in danger of spiraling "totally out of control."
Not long after Baker's news conference in Tallahassee, Gore campaign chairman William Daley and former secretary of state Warren Christopher issued a measured rebuttal to Baker. Daley acknowledged that "waiting is unpleasant for all of us," but added: "Suggesting that the outcome of a vote is known before all the ballots are properly counted is inappropriate."
Daley came under pressure from some Democrats to cool the rhetoric of Thursday, when he spoke of legal action by the Gore campaign that could lead to a revote or some other remedy to resolve thousands of disputed ballots in Palm Beach County.
Gore officials said privately that while the campaign's tone may have changed, the possibility of participating in one of several lawsuits in that county remained under consideration. They said they were aware of the
widespread desire not to let the issue drag on in the courts indefinitely, particularly once all the overseas ballots have been counted by next Friday. Christopher told reporters: "This is an orderly process. We have no reason to want to slow it down."
The decision by the Bush campaign to go to court could further delay a resolution in Florida while heightening the tensions that have been growing between Republicans and Democrats since an emotional election night that left the outcome of the presidential race in doubt.
In Austin, Bush told reporters that he and vice presidential running mate Richard B. Cheney will "be ready" if the vote count in Florida that now shows him ahead by fewer than 350 votes is certified. Under fire from the Gore camp for appearing to be moving precipitously to staff a Bush administration, the Texas governor said, "It's in our country's best interest that we plan in a responsible way a possible administration."
Bush was photographed with several people who are considered likely to join that administration, if the GOP nominee is declared the winner. They included including foreign policy adviser Condoleezza Rice, economic adviser Larry Lindsey and former transportation secretary Andrew Card, said to be in line to become White House chief of staff.
Gore, back from Nashville, held a photo opportunity of his own on the grounds of the vice presidential residence at the Naval Observatory, where he was seen playing touch football with his family. But he answered no substantive questions about the ongoing drama in Florida. Later, he went to a football banquet at his son's high school. Aides said he remained in close touch with Christopher and Daley about developments in Florida.
His vice presidential running mate, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, told CBS News he did not foresee any conclusion before Friday, by which time all remaining overseas absentee ballots are to be counted.
"Then the judgment will be up to both the campaigns, and I'm hopeful that by next Friday Al Gore and I will be ahead in Florida," he said. Meanwhile, the threat of vote recounts spread to other states where Bush and
Gore had run virtually even on Tuesday's balloting. That development could add to the chaos that has followed from a roller-coaster election night in which Gore conceded the election in a phone call to Bush and then withdrew his concession barely an hour later.
In Wisconsin, state GOP officials threatened to demand a recount after tabulating showed Gore leading by only about 6,000 votes. In New Mexico, Gore's lead was down to 119 votes after a recount in one county. In Iowa, where Gore leads by about 5,000 votes, Bush has until late next week to request a recount. In Oregon, an automatic recount would be triggered if Gore's lead, now just under 6,000 votes, is cut in half as a result of the
estimated 28,500 ballots still to be counted.
But Florida and its 25 electoral votes still remain the key to determining the winner.
An extraordinary scene unfolded there yesterday. Two former secretaries of state, one a Democrat and the other a Republican, dueled over how America's allies abroad were interpreting the unfolding events and argued over what is an appropriate length of time for the country to wait before knowing who its next president will be.
Baker noted that the unofficial results from both Tuesday's voting and the automatic recanvassing triggered by the 1,784-vote margin between Bush and Gore showed the Texas governor as the winner "subject only to counting the overseas ballots," which he said traditionally favor the GOP candidate. "For the good of the country and for the sake of our standing in the world, the campaigning should end and the business of an orderly transition should begin," he said.
Christopher said he saw no threat to the Constitution, and argued that what was taking place in Florida was part of a constitutional process that should be allowed to reach a conclusion without interruption or calls for a hasty conclusion.
"I don't see any threat at the moment to our standing overseas," he said. "We've always had this interregnum between the election and the installation of a new administration. So I think we're proceeding in a very direct way." There were conflicting reports on Bush's margin yesterday. The Florida secretary of state's office said that on the basis of information from 66 of the state's 67 counties, Bush's lead had been reduced to 960 votes. The Associated Press, which has been monitoring the county-by-county canvassing, said that on the basis of information from all 67 counties, Gore trailed by 327 votes.
But that automatic recount did not include roughly 80,000 ballots that were never counted, either because someone tried to vote for two people for president or the machines that read the ballots detected no vote for
president. Those ballots are at the center of the dispute as the hand counting was set to begin today.
In Palm Beach County, for example, 19,000 ballots were tossed out because of apparent double-voting. They have become the focus of an escalating argument over whether the county's "butterfly ballot" – which has the candidates' names on the left and right sides of the page with the punch hole in the middle – caused confusion among some voters. Some voters contended the layout of the ballot mistakenly resulted in a vote for Patrick J. Buchanan, rather than for Gore.
Daley said yesterday the campaign's legal experts had concluded that the Palm Beach ballot violated Florida election law. But lawyers for Florida's secretary of state said the design of the ballot "conforms in all respects to the requirements of Florida law" and therefore is legally valid. Baker argued that there was no legal basis for considering those 19,000 ballots that included a double vote. "No jurisdiction in the United States of
America would accept such a ballot as a valid vote, and Florida law specifically does not," he said.
Daley, however, said the Gore campaign "continues to explore" what action, if any, to take "to remedy the unfairness" of the Palm Beach County ballot. Some Democrats believe the more promising avenue lies in the thousands of ballots where no presidential vote was recorded by the machine. Some of them may have been punched, but without enough pressure to create a hole large enough to be read by machine. Hand inspection might reveal the voter's intent. In Palm Beach County, there are about 10,000 such ballots, known as
"undervote" ballots. In Miami-Dade there are another 10,000 to 11,000, and in Broward County about 6,700. All three counties are heavily Democratic, and some Gore officials believe a thorough hand counting of the undervote ballots might yield additional votes for the vice president.
Other Gore officials doubt that those ballots are the key to determining the outcome, however, but not that in an election as close as Florida's, a few votes here and there could shift the balance.
The manual recounting was scheduled to begin this morning in all precincts in Volusia County (Daytona Beach) and in selected precincts in Palm Beach County. If those test precincts show problems, county officials can expand the hand count to other precincts. Hand counting is scheduled to begin in selected precincts in Broward County on Monday. Miami-Dade County officials will decide Tuesday what to do.
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris said on Thursday all the recounting should be completed by Tuesday, but realistically that deadline might not be met. A lawyer representing the Democrats sent Harris a letter last night asking her to delay certification until the hand counting is completed.
Another obstacle standing in the way of wrapping up the recounting is a judge's order in Palm Beach County that prevents certification of the results there pending a hearing on Tuesday to address the question of whether the ballot was too confusing.
Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) said he had urged the Bush campaign to go to federal court to block the entire manual recount effort or to prevent the discarded ballots from being included. Bennett called the process just one of several "opportunities for mischief" available to the Gore campaign. Bush officials said their lawyers were considering a variety of options, including those two, throughout the day as the Baker-led legal team in
Tallahassee remained in constant communication with Bush and other senior advisers in Austin.
State GOP officials in Florida were making calls yesterday afternoon seeking plaintiffs for a possible lawsuit calling on the Florida secretary of state to certify the results of the election immediately. Bush campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer said he knew nothing about the possible suit and said it was "not discussed" with the campaign. Daley said he hoped "our friends in the Bush campaign" would join them in seeking "the fairest and most accurate vote count here in Florida, calling the ongoing process "democracy in action."
Senior Democrats joined the Gore campaign in calling for patience while the counting continues.
"We have got to just take a deep breath here and stand fast and let the process unfold, and let the officials that are responsible for doing this do what they have to do to make sure that we have confidence in this election,"
said House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.)
But 1996 Republican presidential nominee Robert J. Dole urged Gore to concede. "It's time for him to say the election is over – let's go on with the business of America," Dole said. "The recount was held. Bush is still the
winner."
Staff writer Ben White contributed to this report.
|
|
