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Exhausted Miami-Dade election board !

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November 23, 2000 

MIAMI (AP) — A state appeals court Wednesday night upheld a decision by an exhausted Miami-Dade election board to drop its manual recount, an attorney for the board said. Democrats promised a state high court appeal.

The board decided to stop counting just hours after it agreed to examine just 10,750 disputed ballots among some 600,000 cast to save time.

Murray A. Greenberg, a lawyer for the election canvassing board, said a state appeals court turned down a bid by Democrats to force the board and vote counters to get back to work to meet a Sunday deadline.

The ruling is a serious blow to Al Gore's campaign, which sees Miami-Dade as a potential source of hundreds of votes that could help wipe out George W. Bush's 930-vote lead in official statewide totals.

Jenny Backus, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said Democrats planned an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

The canvassing board's surprise decision to give up the hand count came earlier Wednesday — after a morning of protests and bickering over access. Board members said they didn't have time to do the job.

``It would be a minor feat and miracle for us to do it,'' board chairman Lawrence King said of the prospects of completing the review of 10,750 disputed ballots by the Sunday deadline set by the state Supreme Court. King choked up and apologized that the recount could not be completed.

Democrats asked the state appeals court to force the count to resume.

``The Miami-Dade canvassing board decision today to halt its recount — for whatever reason — flies in the face of an unambiguous, unanimous Supreme Court decision of less than 24 hours ago,'' the Democrats argued.

The board issued a legal response stating there was not enough time to accurately complete the recount by the deadline.

``We will abide by it,'' Greenberg said of the court's decision.

Republicans welcomed the canvassing board's move. GOP protesters who earlier were yelling angry slogans erupted into applause and cheers. At least one Bush supporter broke down in tears.

``I think the Miami-Dade canvassing board realized that the rush to judgment simply couldn't go on,'' said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.

``We're happy that there's finality coming with respect to this election,'' added Al Cardenas, Florida's GOP chairman. ``Finally, we're getting some semblance of the rule of law here.''

Early results of the Miami-Dade hand counts had showed Gore gaining 157 votes on Bush in the first 135 of 614 precincts recounted.

Miami-Dade — whose canvassing board has one Democrat, King, and two members who claim no party affiliation — had been on track to complete a full hand recount Dec. 1. But late Tuesday, the state Supreme Court said they must be completed five days earlier.

It was the second time the board had changed its mind about whether to conduct hand recounts. Last week the board initially voted 2-1 not to do any hand recounts. Then it decided to proceed with the recount when one member — Myriam Lehr — flipped her vote.

The board's earlier decision to stop the full hand count and focus only on the ballots with dimpled or partially separated chads — the tiny pieces of paper in perforated punchcard ballots — was met with a demonstration by Republicans.

About two dozen banged on the door of the room where the board was meeting, shouting ``Voter fraud!'' and ``Cheaters!'' They also swarmed a Democratic lawyer, and urged the police to arrest him for stealing a ballot. It turned out the ballot was a sample.

The board now is asking the Secretary of State to certify its earlier results from a machine count of ballots, plus the overseas totals and six Gore votes found in a sample recount last week, said elections supervisor David Leahy.

He said the three members had hoped to retire to a room on the 19th floor — a smaller place where they could have used machines to help count. But the Republicans and the media objected because they would have little access to watching the process.

Republicans had demanded that if the board makes any recount that it be all 654,000 ballots.

``You cannot count less than all votes. You either count all of them or you don't,'' said former Republican state Rep. Miguel De Grandy.