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"THE CLIFFHANGER", Starring: G W Bush & Al Gore

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November 12, 2000 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. election is over but the campaign continues in the improbable 2000 presidential race, with Al Gore and George W. Bush raising funds for legal battles, waging a public relations struggle and deploying waves of lawyers and political aides to Florida, site of an intensely watched recount.

"The vote count on Tuesday night showed Governor Bush won Florida's election, and a recount has now confirmed his victory," Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes said in a statement released Friday.

In a statement, Gore countered, "Contrary to claims being made this morning by the Bush campaign, this election is not over," Gore said in a statement released early Friday. "Again, we want the true and accurate will of the people to prevail, and that means letting the legal system run its course."

Republicans continued to urge Gore to drop his challenge of the results.

Former Sen. Robert Dole said, "I think if I were Al Gore, and I know him fairly well - we've had a count, we've had a recount - it's time for him to say the election is over, let's go on with the business of America. The recount was held. Bush is still the winner."

With the tissue-thin margin, several thousands ballots in the mail from overseas could elect America's 43rd president. They would not all be counted before Nov. 17 - 10 days after the election.

Unless the election is challenged in other states, Florida's disputed vote will decide the presidency under the constitutional system that allots electoral votes to each state to equal its number of congress members.

Instead of focusing on a future in or out of the White House, Bush and Gore are raising funds for legal battles, waging a public relations struggle and deploying waves of lawyers and political aides to Florida.

"The presidential election, of course, is on hold," former Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Thursday in Florida, where he labored on behalf of Bush's campaign. Another former secretary of state, Warren Christopher, represented Gore's interests.

Not counting Florida, where Bush brother Jeb is governor, 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.

Political charges aside, the uncertainty overshadowed any talk of the transition to a new administration.

The incomplete popular vote totals showed Gore ahead, with 49,145,883 votes, or 48 percent. Bush had 48,940,963, also 48 percent. But Gore was not assured of even the uncritical popular vote lead because hundreds of thousands of overseas ballots remained to be counted nationwide.

"This is serious stuff. It's time to cool partisan passions or risk being damaged goods, even if you win the presidency," said Democratic consultant Jim Duffy.

Passions seemed to escalate Thursday as the two sides swapped charges and several lawsuits were filed in Florida.

The two sides clashed over the design of a ballot in Palm Beach County that left some Gore voters expressing concern they had inadvertently cast votes for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan.

In addition, the Gore campaign cited more than 19,000 Palm Beach County ballots that had been thrown out because they were marked for more than one presidential candidate.

The Gore campaign criticized the ballots used in the county as confusing, and asked for a hand count of votes cast there and in Dade, Broward and Volusia counties - some 1.78 million votes.

Democrats also suggested they may call for a new election in Palm Beach County.

Republicans expressed outrage at the Democratic demands, but suggested they might seek recounts in Iowa and Wisconsin, two states where Gore won narrowly.

Oregon, still counting, was so close that the secretary of state said the likelihood of an automatic recount was "pretty high."

"The Democrats, who are politicizing and distorting these events, risk doing so at the ... expense of our democracy," said Don Evans, chairman of Bush's campaign. "... Our democratic process calls for a vote on Election Day; it does not call for us to continue voting until someone likes the outcome."

Eight lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts to challenge the Florida results, including six in Palm Beach County and two in Tallahassee. Democratic Party-backed lawsuits won't be filed until next week, party officials said.

As for the two would-be presidents, Gore was in public only briefly Thursday, emerging from a Nashville, Tennessee, hotel to jog with two of his daughters and his brother-in-law.

"We're having a great run here," the vice president shouted to reporters, then waved off all questions."

Bush was in Austin, Texas, where aides said he was toiling over transition plans. Running mate Dick Cheney, who is expected to head any transition team, and Andrew Card, likely chief of staff in a Bush administration, spent the morning with the governor.

Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris held a news conference late Thursday to announce that she had no final recount figures.

The session ended somewhat abruptly, but not before Bob Crawford, the state's agriculture commission and a member of the election board, urged patience.

"This is democracy in action. If you want simplicity, just go about 70 miles (kilometers) south of Florida and you got Cuba and they're very simple, they have no elections," he said.