Travel  |  Business World  |  Women's World  |  Entertainment

Change Your Life!

Unprecedented President election: Goes to highest Court

News
Sports
Chat
Travel
Dhaka Today
Yellow Pages
Higher Education
Ask a Doctor
Weather
Currency Rate
Horoscope
E-Cards
B2K Poll
Comment on the Site
B2K Club

November 25, 2000 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the bitter, overtime struggle for the White House on Friday, agreeing to consider George W. Bush's appeal against the hand recounting of ballots in Florida, the state that will decide whether he or Al Gore becomes president. But first, on Sunday, Florida's secretary of state plans to certify a winner.

At this point, Bush leads an incredibly close count. His unofficial margin as of early Friday evening was 675 votes.

The recounting went on into the holiday weekend, a wearing process that could be moot should the Supreme Court decide not to include the hand tallying of ballots originally cast in voting machines.

These striking turns in the disputed election mean that the longest, closest contest in 124 years may not be settled before early December, nearly a month after Americans voted.

The court will hear arguments next Friday, Dec. 1, from lawyers for Democrat Gore, who wants the recounts, and Republican Bush, who barely led the original vote and initial recounting of the voting machine totals.

Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican and Bush campaigner, announced earlier Friday that she would certify the winner of the state's decisive 25 electoral votes sometime after 6 p.m. on Sunday. Her office said after the Supreme Court intervention that she would was going ahead with her certification. On Nov. 17, the date she said state law set for certification, Bush led Gore by 930 votes.

Her new timetable was in keeping with the decision of the Florida Supreme Court, which set a deadline of 5 p.m. EST Sunday for final returns and said they must include hand recounted ballots ready by then.

It was the unanimous state court ruling that the Bush campaign challenged, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear, ordering both sides to file legal briefs by Tuesday, for 90 minutes of arguments before the justices at 10 a.m. Friday.

It promises a scene like none before in American history, with the nine justices of the judicial branch of government considering a case that could determine which of two men will lead the executive branch for the next four years.

The recounting was continuing in two heavily Democratic counties, Broward and Palm Beach, where Gore expected gains, with a separate court dispute in which Republicans are demanding that disallowed military ballots from abroad be included, presumably to the benefit of their candidate.

The court's intercession in a state election dispute was a direct hit on Gore's struggle to overturn Bush's infinitesimal edge, in a state where about 6 million votes for president were cast on Nov. 7. ``The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted,'' the Supreme Court said, announcing it will hear the appeal.

But there is another track for challenge, since Florida law permits either candidate to challenge the certification of the outcome, and both campaigns have said they are prepared to do so, if they believe votes their side should have had were improperly invalidated.

``The Department of State is prepared for the earliest contingency, which would be certification Sunday evening,'' Ben McKay, chief of staff for the secretary of state, said. ``This will be done publicly regardless of the outcome, which is, of course, unknown at this time.''

While the Supreme Court accepted one Bush appeal, it rejected another, in which he tried to win reversal of a federal judge's decision to permit the recounts to continue. The practical impact seemed to be the same, since the appeal it is hearing deals with the question of whether recounted ballots are to be included through Nov. 26, or the outcome as of Nov. 17 is to be deemed final.

The court set up a breakneck schedule for next week: legal briefs are due on Tuesday and responses Thursday, then the in-person arguments before the justices on Friday morning.

Nothing the court did affected Harris' decision to go ahead with certification. The 25 electoral votes at stake would push either Bush or Gore past the 270 it takes to make a president.

While the court acted in Washington, canvassers sifted contested ballots, a Tallahassee court heard arguments on disallowed military votes, and Democrats accused Republicans of sending paid demonstrators to try to intimidate election officials.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, stepped out of Gore's residence to denounce demonstrations he said had been orchestrated by Republicans ``to intimidate and to prevent a simple count of votes from going forward ...

``This is a time to honor the rule of law, not surrender to the rule of the mob,'' Lieberman said.

There were demonstrators from both sides in the recount cities in Friday.

Dick Cheney, the Republican vice presidential candidate, was released from a Washington hospital after two days of treatment for a mild heart attack. He said doctors told him to take the weekend off, then ``return to a fairly normal schedule.'' He said ``there are no restrictions'' on his work, including the vice presidency.

With a crop of lawsuits from both sides, and with differing standards in the recounting counties for determining the intent of voters whose ballots had not been fully punched so as to register in voting machines, the route to the White House was through a swamp of controversy.

The court's decision to hear Bush's appeal came after aides to Gore said they were planning to challenge any Bush victory in Florida on the grounds that some Democratic votes had not been counted.

``We believe we stand on both strong political and legal ground for fighting beyond Sunday,'' said Ron Klain, a Gore adviser. He pointed to the decision of the Miami-Dade County canvassing board to stop its recount for lack of time to finish by Sunday. The Gore camp had expected to gain in the 10,000 ballots disputed there.

Six Democratic members of Congress demanded a Justice Department investigation on Friday, saying civil rights had been violated in ``a shocking case of undermining the right to vote through intimidation and threats of violence'' by Republican protesters in Miami on Wednesday.

Each side imported legions of lawyers to contest every point in the election dispute.

``We've lost count of the number of lawsuits that have been initiated by the Gore legal team,'' said Bush lawyer Theodore Olson.

David Boies, Gore's lead lawyer, said the Bush campaign ``has already filed a contest with respect to about a dozen counties ... So regardless of who is ahead on Sunday night or not, there will be contests pending ... by both sides.''

The Florida electors who would decide whether Bush or Gore is president-elect are to be chosen on Dec. 12. But the Florida Legislature, run by Republicans, could yet intercede to decide whether they belong to Bush or Gore. The Electoral College is to elect the new president on Dec. 18.

The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature retained attorneys to represent it before the Supreme Court, in opposition to the state supreme court. Harris also filed papers with the Supreme Court, saying the Florida court improperly ``made a number of changes'' in the state's election laws.

While she urged intervention, Palm Beach County argued against it. ``Among the hallmarks of our democratic process is patience,'' lawyers for the Democratic county commission said. ''... There is no constitutional crisis.''

After the Gore campaign urged the Supreme Court to stay out of the case, Bush's lawyers filed papers saying that ``the exceedingly important nature of this case provides a powerful justification for review by this court.''

``This court has repeatedly recognized the powerful federal interest in the selection of presidential electors,'' the Bush brief said.