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One who got less Popular-vote may end up leading 1st Democracy!

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November 20, 2000 

WASHINGTON--(UNB/AP) - George W. Bush's campaign fiercely attacked the hand-recounting of votes in Florida's presidential election, depicting it as a process riddled with human error and bias. Al Gore's lawyers defended the effort in papers filed with the state Supreme Court.

Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, enlisted by the Bush campaign to lead the Republican Party assault, alleged that ballots had been dropped, misfiled and mishandled by exhausted - or pro-Gore - officials.

"I think when the American people learn about these things, they're going to ask themselves, 'What in the name of God is going on here?"' he said.

Eleven days after America voted, the final tally of overseas absentee ballots showed Bush lengthening his lead from an almost invisible 300 votes to a still-minuscule 930 out of 6 million votes cast.

As court-challenged recounts paused for the night in two counties, Gore had a net gain of 67 votes, which if they are counted would cut Bush's lead to 863.

There was conflict in the overseas count, too, as the Republicans charged Democrats with systematically challenging votes cast by members of the armed forces.

In rebuttal, Gore spokesman Chris Lehane accused Bush of injecting "raw, crass partisan politics into a situation that ought to be guided by the laws of our land."

All sides readied arguments for Monday's hearing before the state Supreme Court. Ruling unanimously on Friday, the justices stopped Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris from disallowing the hand recounts and certifying Bush the winner, at least until it can consider the issue.

Controversy trumped certainty from one end of the state to the other.

While Republicans charged Democrats with constructing a flawed recount process, Democrats said the Republicans were forcing interminable delays.

"We will all be here until Christmas if this continues," said Charles Burton, a member of the Palm Beach County canvassing board deep into the hand recount of 462,350 ballots.

Neither man emerged from the Nov. 7 election day with enough Electoral College votes to claim victory. In the United States, the presidential election is won not by gaining more of the popular vote, but by winning a majority of electoral votes, which are divided up by state.

The complicated Electoral College system means it is possible to win more of the popular vote and lose the election. This year, it also means that whichever candidate wins in Florida wins the presidency.

Gore has pressed for the recounts, in the hope they will allow him to overtake Bush's narrow lead.

By the time counting shut down for the night, recounts from 259 of 609 precincts in Broward County showed Gore with a gain of 79 votes, but totals from 31 of 531 precincts in Palm Beach County showed Bush with a gain of 12. The canvassing board had counted 202 precincts, but they released vote totals only from precincts where no questionable ballots remained.

In Miami-Dade, where 654,000 ballots awaited a hand review, one official said the hand recounting could stretch to the start of December.

Late Saturday, local Republicans asked an 11th Judicial Circuit judge to stop the county from running the ballots through machines again. "The more a paper ballot is mechanically or manually handled, the less reliable it is," said attorney Bob Martinez, representing the Miami-Dade Republican Party.

Harris' final tally of overseas absentee ballots showed Bush gaining 630 votes on his rival. She released the figures unceremoniously, a contrast to earlier plans to trumpet the results and certify Bush the winner.

The Republicans welcomed the increase in support anyway.

"We are hopeful that once the Florida Supreme Court has heard arguments in this case, the laws of Florida will prevail and the election will be certified," spokeswoman Karen Hughes said.

Final overseas figures from all 67 counties showed Bush picking up 1,380 votes, Gore 750.

An additional 1,527 ballots were challenged and not counted, many because they did not bear postmarks. The ballots had to be postmarked by Nov. 7 to count. Republicans accused Democrats of thwarting efforts by members of the armed forces to have their votes counted.

Hughes unleashed the Bush campaign's attack at midday, saying the recounting was "distorting, reinventing and miscounting the true intentions of the voters of Florida."

Racicot went further.

He told reporters that in each of three counties, "every questionable ballot is decided by a Democrat-dominated canvassing board."

In addition, he alleged instances in which chads, paper punched out of a ballot, had been taped over the hole that would signify a vote for Bush. He said Bush ballots had been placed in the Gore piles, cited one instance in which an older man had dropped a pile of ballots on the floor, described scenes of exhaustion and confusion.

In their papers filed with the Florida Supreme Court, the Gore lawyers offered a different view.

"Manual recounts are an essential part of the law of Florida" and other states, and have been used successfully to help resolve other elections, they argued.

"The outcome of Florida's presidential election will determine who becomes the next president of the United States." For that reason it is essential, Gore's lawyers continued, "that the voters of Florida, and all of the citizens of our country, have great confidence that the individual declared the winner of the election here actually was the choice of Florida's voters."