Gore gains more votes as recount winds down

Russ Bynum

Saturday, Nov. 25, 2000 | 8:56 a.m.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - As protesters rallied in a drenching rain Saturday, Broward County elections officials pressed to finish their review of disputed presidential ballots.

The canvassing board, after examining more than 1,400 out of an estimated 1,800 questionable ballots, had Al Gore gaining votes against George W. Bush. Circuit Judge Robert W. Lee, the board chairman, said the work was expected to finish on Saturday.

Democrat Gore is trailing Republican Bush by 930 votes in official state totals, with a 5 p.m. Sunday deadline looming for turning in hand count results to the state. The Broward count has given Gore a net gain of 437 votes, including 300 so far from the disputed ballots under review.

As the count went on inside the Broward County courthouse, a mostly Republican crowd of 100 stood in a drizzling rain. Many were unhappy with critics who say the GOP has brought in out-of-state support to rattle south Florida canvassers.

"Because someone paid for my hotel room, because someone paid for my plane ticket, I'm a thug?" asked Terry Benham, a Little Rock, Ark., lobbyist. Another sign in the crowd read: "We are not from Rent-A-Mob."

Inside, the three board members squinted one-by-one at the punchcard ballots, looking for punctures and slivers of light to weigh voter intent. Each follows a different standard, based on how perforated a card is.

"This is an attempt to vote for Al Gore," board member Suzanne Gunzburger, a Democrat, said as she examined one ballot. "It is a very clear attempt. And I believe there is light on the bottom when I hold it this way."

Earlier this week, Broward County finished its initial hand recount of all 609 precincts and more than 49,000 absentee ballots. Since the review of the disputed ballots began, the sole Republican on the panel, Circuit Judge Robert Rosenberg, has intensified his objections to many of the ballots, saying there was no way to be certain of voter intent.

"The ballots have been handled a couple of times," he said. "The handling process may have caused the indention and increased the light. When it's that marginal, I don't think it should count."

Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., an observer in the courtroom Saturday, said he can't figure out what standards the board members are using

"You have human beings trying to read the tea leaves of what a voter intended," he said. "It's not about Bush or Gore, it's about the process."

Sizable crowds also gathered outside the courthouse Friday afternoon, cheering 1996 presidential candidate Bob Dole. A street was blocked off, and more than 200 GOP supporters were separated from a Democratic crowd of about 50 people by police tape and Broward County deputies.

A brick was thrown through a window at the Broward County Democratic Party office in Plantation late Thursday or early Friday. No one was hurt.

On the brick, according to party officials, was written: "We will not tolerate any illegal government."