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Votes needed to win were thrown away in Seminole County: Gore

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December 7, 2000 

TALLAHASSEE, Florida-- (AP) - Badly in need of a win, Democratic attorneys are going back into court to overturn presidential election results in two counties where they say Republicans cheated.

And no one is more interested in the outcome than Vice President Al Gore, whose string of courtroom losses in recent days threatens his viability to continue his vote challenge in Florida.

Democrats claim Republicans illegally added voter-identity numbers to incomplete absentee ballot application forms in Seminole and Martin counties. In Seminole, lawyers say applications submitted by Democrats without the same information were thrown out.

"There were more than enough votes to make the difference that were apparently thrown into ... the trash can by the supervisor of elections there," Gore said Tuesday outside the White House.

In separate trials, Democrats are seeking to throw out 15,000 Seminole Count absentee ballots and nearly 10,000 Martin County absentee ballots. Lawyers for Democratic voters in Martin County say Republicans not only tampered with application forms, but also were allowed to remove them from the election supervisors' office.

Bush beat Gore by 2,815 absentee votes in Martin County. That suit was going to trial before Leon County Judge Terry Lewis.

In the Seminole County case, Judge Nikki Clark was hearing the case 90 minutes after the Martin County trial was to start at 7 a.m. EST (1200 GMT). On Tuesday, she denied a motion during pretrial arguments to dismiss the lawsuit.

The suit, filed by Democratic voter Harry Jacobs, claims Elections Supervisor Sandy Goard allowed Republicans to add information to 2,130 ballots.

The suit seeks to invalidate either all absentee ballots cast in Seminole County, or a portion of the spoiled ballots, based on the number of absentee votes that each party received.

GOP candidate George W. Bush received 4,797 more absentee ballots than Gore in the county, which is predominantly Republican. Bush currently holds a 537-vote margin in Florida's overall tally.

Gore, who is not a party to the lawsuit, argued that Republican Party workers were allowed to work, unsupervised, inside the elections office where they affixed voter-ID numbers to ballot applications.

"The Democrats were denied an opportunity to come in, denied a chance to even look at the applications and those applications were thrown out," he said.

In Tuesday's pretrial hearing, attorneys for Bush did not deny that Republicans added the voter-ID numbers, but said the actions were not significant enough to throw out the votes.

A state law passed after widespread voter fraud in the 1997 Miami mayoral election requires that absentee ballot applications include nine pieces of personal information from voters, including voter-ID numbers.

But Bush lawyer Barry Richard told Clark that the legislation was passed to prevent fraud, not to prevent people from voting.

Clark sarcastically remarked, "The Legislature says 'You must disclose these nine things, but don't worry about it if you don't.' "

The case was put on an expedited schedule by the judge, who could issue a ruling within days. Clark did not act on Bush lawyers' renewed request for a jury trial.