Ballot battle drags on

David Espo

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2000 | 11:22 a.m.

Florida's contested presidential election careened through the courts today as George W. Bush clung to a 300-vote lead statewide and Al Gore pressed for manual recounts in three heavily Democratic counties.

"The election of the president and vice president is not a matter of local pleasure," said Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, leading a legal parade to the state Supreme Court.

A Republican, Harris sought to block any manual recounts "pending final resolution" on whether they are appropriate under state law. She also asked for the consolidation of a mushrooming number of election-related cases into one place.

The Bush and Gore campaigns also said they hoped the Supreme Court would step in, although they agreed on little else in a contested election that has held the nation in thrall for more than a week.

In one of the closest contests in the nation's history, Bush and Gore emerged from Nov. 7's balloting short of an Electoral College majority. Winning Florida would solve that for either man.

Bush was at his ranch in Texas, the vice president in Washington as the legal and political drama unfolded.

With one administration receding and its replacement not yet in view, President Clinton assured a gathering of Pacific Rim leaders in Brunei that the United States was not shaken by the impasse.

"The world can rest easy," he said today.

Legal actions aside, the Gore and Bush camps conducted a ceaseless public relations campaign, each side blaming the other for attempting to thwart the will of voters.

"We're seeing increasing desperation and it's not pretty," GOP lawyer Theodore Olson said today of the vice president's team. On ABC's "Good Morning America" he said Democrats should stop challenging every deadline and let the results unfold.

David Boies, a prominent litigator and the newest addition to Gore's legal team, said on CBS' "The Early Show" that if Republicans had allowed recounts to go forward, "there would not be any lawyers down here."

The situation in the counties themselves was fluid, sometimes to the point of being indecipherable, as local officials grappled with national issues in the unaccustomed glare of publicity.

Broward County officials reversed themselves and decided to grant Gore's request for a full manual recount, to begin later in the day.

Palm Beach County officials also said they hoped to launch a full manual recount later in the day. A local judge said county canvassers may decide on individual ballots whether a "dimple" rather than a full perforation constitutes a vote.

"No vote is to be declared invalid or void if there was a clear intention of the voter," Circuit Court Judge Jorge Labarga ruled.

Miami-Dade County canvassers voted against the full recount sought by Gore, but the vice president's aides were hoping for a reversal.

Harris, the state elections officials pilloried as partisan by Gore's aides, filed papers early this morning with the state Supreme Court.

"Multiple lawsuits before multiple judges now address the presidential election," she said. "This will produce an unpredictable variety of results, theories, legal rulings and procedures."

"Without question, this court must make clear that the election of the president and the vice president is not a matter of local pleasure," the legal papers said.

Harris went to court less than 12 hours after certifying Bush's 300-vote lead in returns from all 67 counties. Overseas absentee ballots that arrive by Friday are still to be counted.

Responding to a state court ruling, Harris acknowledged that she might reopen the certified vote totals at a later date to take into account manual recounts. She gave counties until 2 p.m. EST today to make their cases for such recounts.

Both sides found something to criticize in that.

William Daley, Gore's campaign chairman, accused Harris of imposing additional "stress and strain" on county officials.

And Karen Hughes, Bush's spokeswoman, said counties controlled by Democrats are not really recounting but rather "reinventing; attempting to reinterpret the results of the election and the intentions of voters by subjective, not objective means."

There was evidence the Gore campaign hoped to muscle up the forces at its disposal. An e-mail circulated to a trial lawyers organization sought at least 500 attorney volunteers to help with recounts in selected counties. A copy of the e-mail was made available to the Associated Press.

Harris reported the totals after a state court ruled she had the right to enforce her deadline, but the counties also had the authority to keep counting.

"The secretary of state may ignore such late filed returns," ruled Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis, "but may not do so arbitrarily, rather, only by the proper exercise of discretion after consideration of all appropriate facts and circumstances."

With the case moving through courts, Bush and Gore remained out of the public eye, leaving it to their lawyers and aides to press their cases.

That, they did.

"This is not about politics. It is about determining the will of the people fully and accurately," Daley said. He added, "The Bush campaign and Secretary Harris have engaged in a variety of tactics to slow or block this count."

Republicans were no less pointed.

"The votes in Florida have now been counted, and Governor Bush won," Hughes said. "They've been recounted, and Governor Bush won. The counties have now certified their votes to the secretary of state, and again Governor Bush won."

"Yet it appears we now have a deadline that may not be respected as a deadline at all," she said, referring to Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline for submitting vote totals.