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Election 2000: A process of passage to eternity? |
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November 15, 2000
WASHINGTON-- (AP) - With a deadline fast approaching, judges in three Florida cities are deciding the fate of recounted votes while Republican George W. Bush's legal team weighs whether to appeal to a higher federal court. Amid the swirl of legal maneuvers, officials in Palm Beach County voted 2-1 on Tuesday to delay their manual recount until they can clarify whether they have the legal authority to proceed. The county, a Democratic stronghold, had planned to count, by hand about 425,000 ballots - exactly one week after voters first complained they were confused by their ballots. Their outcry unleashed a political tide that froze Florida's 25 electoral votes and left Americans waiting to see who their 43rd president will be. Meanwhile the two sides exchange increasingly barbed public comments. "The vice president essentially said we should ignore the law so that he can overturn the results of this election," Bush spokesman Karen Hughes charged on Monday after the Gore campaign won a federal court ruling that permits hand recounts to continue in a few Democratic parts of the state. Scarcely less pointed, former Secretary of State Warren Christopher charged the chief elections official in Florida - a Bush activist - took an apparent "move in the direction of partisan politics" by insisting on a deadline of 5 p.m. (2200 GMT) Tuesday for certifying the county-by-county results. Gore went briefly before cameras outside the White House, but attempted to strike a more statesmanlike tone. "I would not want to win the presidency by a few votes cast in error or misinterpreted or not counted, and I don't think Governor Bush wants that either," he said, before declining to field questions. One week after Americans voted, neither contender has an electoral college majority, and both need the 25 electoral votes offered by Florida to fashion one. Bush holds a 388-vote lead in an unofficial statewide recount tally maintained by The Associated Press, not including an unknown number of overseas absentee ballots to be counted on Friday. Gore leads in the national vote by about 200,000. However, the U.S. presidency is not decided on the popular vote but by the Electoral College. Under this arcane system, each state has as many electoral votes as Congress members, with all electors usually going to whoever gets most votes statewide. This means that it is possible to gain more votes across the nation, but lose the election by winning fewer electoral votes. This has happened three times in the nation's history, last in 1888. The contested election played out in far-flung portions of Florida on Monday. New polls suggest Americans are intensely interested in the struggle to settle the presidential election, but a majority say they are not extremely worried about it. Two-thirds of Americans in an ABC News-Washington Post poll said the current struggle is "just the kind of thing that can happen in a very close election." U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks rejected a pleading from Bush's legal team to stop the hand counting. "A federal court has a very limited role and should not intervene," he ruled after hearing arguments. In an observation that underscored the historic nature of the case, he added, "I am not under an illusion I am the last word on this, and I am rather grateful for that." By nightfall, Republicans had not yet disclosed their next step, possibly to the circuit court of appeals in Atlanta, possibly directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a separate, state courtroom in Tallahassee, Judge Terry Lewis heard arguments on a suit from officials in Volusia and Palm Beach counties that attempted to stop Harris from enforcing her 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for certification of vote totals. Lewis expressed doubts about the deadline, noting counties can continue counting absentee votes through the end of the week. "What's the good of doing a certification ahead of time?" the judge asked. He heard both sides arguments after Harris, the Florida secretary of state, refused to extend the deadline. "The process of counting and recounting the votes cast on Election Day must end," she said in a written statement that followed a brief meeting with top aides to both presidential contenders. Everyone agreed on that - just as surely as they disagreed on the terms. Christopher said the secretary of state's position "looks like a move in the direction of partisan politics, and away from a nonpartisan administration of the election laws." An hour of so later, Hughes stepped before cameras in Texas with a rebuttal. "It's becoming increasingly clear that Vice President Gore's campaign simply wants to keep counting votes until they like the results," she said.
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