Bush camp snipes at Gore

David Espo

Friday, Nov. 10, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush's campaign accused Al Gore today of mounting "endless challenges" to a disputed vote count in make-or-break Florida and said the vice president should concede the race for the White House if he loses the state. Gore's top campaign aide countered: "This election is not over."

At a news conference in Florida, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Republicans had twice in the past 40 years decided against challenging closely contested elections.

"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," said Baker, who is Bush's point man in Florida.

Earlier Gore's campaign chairman, William Daley, said, "The fact of the matter is, this election is in dispute right now."

An unofficial tally by the Associated Press of the recount in Florida's 67 counties showed the Texas governor with a 327-vote lead over the vice president in the state whose 25 electoral votes will determine the next president. State officials said their recount showed Bush leading by 960 votes with 65 counties reporting.

Not counting the Sunshine State, Bush had won 29 states for 246 electoral votes. Gore had won 18 states plus the District of Columbia for 255, with 270 needed for victory.

A formal state recount is under way, but no final results are expected for several days, in part because the state has yet to tally an unknown number of ballots cast by Floridians living overseas.

Bush was in Texas, Gore in Washington as their political fates were being determined.

The uncertainty overshadowed any talk of the transition to a new administration and raised the specter, however faint, of an Electoral College deadlock that could send the presidential election to the House of Representatives.

The incomplete national popular vote totals -- as of 7 a.m. PST -- showed Gore with 49,145,560 votes, or 48 percent. Bush had 48,947,577, also 48 percent.

Even some Democrats began suggesting that Gore be careful not to take his challenges too far.

"I want Al Gore to win this election but, more than that, I want somebody to win this election," said Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J. "I would urge both Al Gore and George Bush to think of the country -- the continuity of government, its stability -- and avoid any collateral attacks on the process."

Gore's campaign argues that a faulty ballot design in Palm Beach County led some of the vice president's supporters to vote inadvertently for Pat Buchanan. Additionally, several thousands of ballots were discarded by election officials because they were marked for two presidential candidates.

Additionally, Democratic officials said they had found 6,000 ballots in Broward County that were punched but not all the way through, so the machines didn't pick them up. A Gore adviser said the campaign had won authorization for a recount by hand in Broward County.

Several lawsuits have been filed challenging the election.

In one case, a local judge in Florida has ordered officials in Palm Beach County not to certify those results until a hearing can be held next week.

Standing before reporters in Florida, Baker read a carefully worded statement, speaking deliberately, before answering a few questions.

"At the end of this recount, Gov. Bush is still the winner, subject only to overseas ballots, which traditionally have favored the Republican candidates," he said.

"It is frustrating to lose an election by a narrow margin," he added, "but it happens." He cited the precedent of 1960, when Vice President Richard M. Nixon narrowly lost the White House, and 1976, when President Ford was turned out of office.

Both elections were close, he said, but each man chose to accept the verdict.

Baker coupled his appeal to Gore with a not-so-subtle threat that Republicans, too, could start demanding recounts in states where Bush lost narrowly.