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Bush Wins Recount as Gore Vows to Continue Court Fight December 6, 2000 Republican George W. Bush is still the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes, and thus the next President of the United States, according to the results of the election recount conducted with numerous court challenges. However, Democrat Al Gore is still challenging the election results in Florida, and the U.S. Supreme Court may end up being the final election arbiter. The initial election results from the November 7 election showed Bush leading Gore by 926 votes in Florida. With Florida's 25 electoral votes Bush has 271 electoral votes, one more than the 270 required to win. However, Bush's narrow margin of victory in Florida required a mandatory recount under state law. The recount, conducted over the next two days, narrowed Bush's lead to 300 votes. The difference in the was primarily due to punchcard ballots. The "chad," or punched out part of the ballot, must be fully dislodged to be read by the machines. In the second time through the machine, partly punched chads may be dislodged, changing the vote count. On November 9, Gore asked for a hand recount of the ballots cast in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Broward counties. The three counties are Democratic strongholds. Insisting that "every vote must count," Gore asked that the county canvassing boards divine by visual inspection the "intent of the voter." By hand counting in only Democratic counties, Gore expected to find more uncounted Gore votes than uncounted Bush votes. Bush insisted that the hand counting was unlawful under Florida law, and so did not ask for hand counts in Republican counties. On November 11, Bush's attorneys filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to block Gore's request for manual recounts. On November 13, a Miami federal judge rejected Bush's request, and Bushed appealed. However, it became apparent that the hand counting could not be completed by the November 14 deadline required by law for counties to submit election returns to Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the state's chief elections official. Gore's lawyers sued to extend the deadline. On November 14, Florida Circuit Judge Terry Lewis ruled that Harris could enforce the state law requirement that votes from Florida counties be submitted to her office for certification by 5 p.m. But Lewis said Harris must use "sound discretion" in deciding whether to accept or reject numbers submitted after the evening deadline, including "any pending manual recounts" or "corrective returns." Harris then asked for the counties to provide their certified results by November 14 and explain in writing why she should accept amended hand counts later. On November 15, Harris rejected the counties' request for amending the returns and certified the election results showing Bush leading by 300 votes pending the counting of overseas absentee ballots, which were required by law to arrive by November 17 in order to be counted. Gore appealed Harris' decision to the Florida Supreme Court, and on November 17, the Supreme Court issued an order prohibiting Harris from certifying results, as she had planned to do November 18, until they could hear the arguments. A federal appeals court in Atlanta refused to block the manual recounts. Also on November 17, Gore sued the Seminole County Canvassing Board in state court over disputed absentee ballot applications. Republicans had filled out the voter identification numbers on several hundred ballot applications, so Gore's lawyer demanded that all 15,000 absentee ballots in Seminole County by thrown out. The request was later denied by the Florida court and the Florida Supreme Court. With the overseas absentee ballots likely to increase Bush's lead, Gore's lawyers sent all 67 Florida county canvassing boards a memo outlining ways to disqualify military absentee ballots. Democratic lawyers were sent to observe the counting of overseas absentee ballots and were able to persuade the canvassing boards of all 67 Florida counties throw out a total of 39 percent of the absentee ballots received (about 1,400) primarily due to lack of postmarks. However, remaining absentee ballots resulted in Bush picking up 1,380 votes to Gore's 750, widening Bush's lead to 930 out of a total of 6 million votes cast Democratic lawyers argued that Florida election law prohibited consideration of absentee ballots that arrive without a postmark. However, the Florida law, under statute 1S, 2.01 (7), says: "With respect to the presidential preference primary and the general election, any absentee ballot cast for a federal office by an overseas elector which is postmarked or signed and dated no later than the date of the Federal election shall be counted if received no later than 10 days from the date of the Federal election as long as such absentee ballot is otherwise proper." The action by Gore angered many in the military, who pointed out that the Democrats were essentially robbing military personnel, many of them away from their families, serving overseas in undesirable places and in unpopular missions, of the opportunity to help select their next commander-in-chief. On November 21, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that manual recount would continue and that those votes must be included in the final tally. The ruling reflected a unanimous decision by the 7 justices, all of whom are Democrats. The court set as the deadline for certifying the election 5:00 p.m. on November 26 (the Sunday after Thanksgiving) if the Secretary of State's office was open or 9:00 a.m. November 27 if not. Then on November 24, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Bush's appeal on the legality of the Florida Supreme Court's decision to allow recounts and extend the state deadline for certification. On November 22, the Miami-Dade canvassing board voted unanimously to halt manual recounts. Gore's attorneys sued to force Miami-Dade to continue the recount, but on November 23, the Florida Supreme Court refused to order the county to resume the hand recount. The Palm Beach canvassers elected to take Thanksgiving off, and did not completing their recount until 11/2 hours after the Sunday 5 p.m. deadline. Harris refused to accept those results, so only the hand count from Broward was included. The Broward County Canvassing board interpreted any mark near the Gore punch point on the Ballot as a Gore vote. Thus the final certified tally by Harris on November 26 reduced Bush's lead in Florida to 537 votes. The next day, November 27, Gore filed election contest proceedings with the Leon County Circuit Court in Tallahassee. On December 1, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Bush's appeal regarding of the Florida Supreme Court's extension of the recount deadline. Bush's lawyers argued that since the U.S. Constitution charges the state legislature with determining the means of choosing the electors for the electoral college, the Florida Supreme Court acted in violation of the U.S. constitution by extending the deadline established by the legislature. The Bush lawyers also argued that the Florida Supreme Court had violated a federal law that says that the means of choosing the electors can't be changed after the election. On December 4, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated (set aside) the Florida Supreme Court Decision, ordering the 7 Democrats to explain the basis for their ruling. On December 2-3, Judge N. Sanders Sauls of the Leon County Circuit Court heard arguments on Gore's election challenge. On December 4, Sauls rejected Gore's election challenge. Sauls ruled that the evidence presented by Gore's legal team did not establish any gross negligence or fraud in the balloting process, or prove that alleged problems with the voting would have changed the outcome of the election. Gore's lawyers immediately appealed Sauls' decision with a request that it be certified as a matter of great urgency and importance, "so that we can resolve once and for all what the right is for citizens to have their votes counted."
© 2000 TruthNews. All Rights Reserved. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
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