Florida Supreme Court says ballot recounts should be added to state tallies
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Broward County canvassing board members Suzanne Gunzburger, left, Judge Robert W. Lee, center, and Judge Robert Rosenberg begin checking challenged votes Tuesday
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 | LATEST UNOFFICIAL VOTE RETURNS |
| County |
Net change |
| Revisions, 15 counties (AP) |
Bush +174 |
| Broward |
Gore +567 |
| Palm Beach |
Gore +46 |
| Total |
Gore +512 |
Bush official statewide lead: 930 |
Bush unofficial statewide lead: 491 |
Sources: State of Florida, county officials, AP |
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Counties have 5 days to certify amended results
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- The Florida Supreme Court Tuesday night issued a unanimous ruling that hand recounts of presidential ballots that are completed within five days must be accepted by state election officials. (Read the ruling -- FindLaw (requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™))
"Democracy is the winner tonight," Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic candidate, said during a news conference after the court decision.
While he said the outcome of the election is still unclear, Gore repeated a request for a meeting with Texas Gov. George W. Bush, his Republican opponent, before the final returns are tabulated so the two men could "testify to the truth that our country is more important than victory."
Gore also urged supporters on both sides to tone down their rhetoric. The vice president noted that some of his supporters have pointed to his lead in the nationwide popular vote.
"But our Constitution requires victory in the Electoral College," he said. "I completely disavow any effort to persuade electors to switch their support from their candidate to whom they are pledged. I will not accept the support of any elector pledged to Governor Bush."
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James Baker offers the Bush campaign's reaction to the Florida Supreme Court's decision over ballot counting (November 22)
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David Boies, Gore campaign attorney, reacts to the decision handed down from the Florida Supreme Court over the issue of hand counting ballots in select counties (November 22)
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Vice President Al Gore responds to the Florida Supreme Court decision in favor of recounts
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Florida Supreme Court Spokesman Craig Waters reads the decision
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Highlights of the Supreme Court hearing (November 21)
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A top Bush campaign official said the Florida Supreme Court decision amounted to changing the rules in the middle of a game and Republicans were looking at "whatever remedies we may have to correct this unjust result."
James Baker said the court "rewrote the legislature's statutory system, assumed the responsibilities of the executive branch and sidestepped the opinion of the trial court as the finder of fact."
He also denounced the practice of counting dimpled chad, where a voter has indented, but not perforated a ballot. He said that practice was intended "to overcome Governor Bush's continuing lead after all the counts and recounts."
Baker, a former U.S. secretary of state, also speculated aloud that the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature might attempt to "affirm the original rules" by which the election was held.
Florida's lawmakers assign the state's 25 electors to a presidential candidate, traditionally the state's largest vote-getter.
A senior Clinton administration official said Tuesday night the White House was "pleased" with the Florida Supreme Court decision allowing the inclusion of hand-recounted ballots in the presidential race, but said, now "we have to see how the vote plays out."
"This is what we expected," said the official who did not want to be identified. The official said there was "every indication the court wanted to ensure the hand count was validated, so in that sense it played out the way we expected."
Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Nebraska, called the high court's decision "clearly a win for getting the process over." But he said that would only happen of the Bush campaign did not appeal to a federal court.
"That would be a bit odd, given their preference for allowing states to make these kinds of decisions," Kerrey said.
Florida Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters said the court reasoned that "The right of the people to cast their vote is the paramount concern, overriding all others," in reaching its decision.
The court gave county canvassing boards until 5 p.m. Sunday to submit the amended totals to the Florida secretary of state's office. If that office is not opened for the specific reason to receive the amended certifications, the court ordered the election canvassing commission to accept amended tallies until 9 a.m. on Monday.
On another key issue, the high court did not specifically address the question of whether "dimpled" ballots could be counted -- those are the punch-card ballots with indentations but not full perforations -- but cited an Illinois Supreme Court ruling that the seven justices said was "particularly apt in this case."
"These voters should not be disfranchised where their intent may be ascertained with reasonable certainty," the Florida court wrote, quoting the Illinois ruling.
An attorney for the Gore campaign said they got what they asked for from the court and he believes it reflects the Florida law addressing voter intent when punching the ballot.
"Any indication of the intent of the voter, whether it (the chad from the punch-card ballot) is pricked through, or whether it is completely dislodged, or whether it is indented -- that is what counts," said David Boies. "It is the intent of the voter, not how the voter manifests his or her intent."
Boies said that standard was already being used in Broward and Dade counties and he hoped Palm Beach County would promptly adopt it as well.
"This is, I think a very significant victory for thousands and thousands of people who went to the polls in Florida," said senior Gore advisor Jack Quinn.
"It's a great victory for the American people, it is not a victory for one campaign over another. We all want to get to a point in this process where whoever wins this presidential election can enjoy the trust and confidence of the American people," he said.
In their 42-page opinion, the seven justices acknowledged "conflicting provisions" in the election code, but court spokesman Craig Waters explained their reasoning.
"In dealing with similar conflicts in the past, the court has consistently held that the right of the people to cast their vote is the paramount concern overriding all others," he said.
A prominent Republican voiced concern about the method of the recounts.
"I wonder how they are going to handle all the dimpled chad and hanging chad and pregnant chads and so forth," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "It's one of the most suggestive ways of counting that you could have. Plus, you have every election board controlled by Democrats, so all the questionable ones the Republicans are afraid they will just go for Gore, and this is a way of giving the election to Gore."
It is possible that the Bush campaign could now appeal this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, by arguing that hand counting the ballots in three counties violates the "equal protection" provision of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. The campaign has argued that selective manual counting means that all votes are not treated equally.
Republicans had hoped the court would have allowed Harris to certify the state's current presidential election results, which show Bush with a 930-vote lead over Gore. At stake are the state's 25 electoral votes which will decide the presidential winner.
Gore narrowly leads in the nationwide popular vote and holds a slight edge over Bush in the all-important Electoral College tally. But neither candidate will reach the required 270 electoral votes to be declared the nation's 43rd president without Florida's 25 electors.
Recount updates
• The hand recounting of Florida's presidential votes continued Tuesday in three heavily Democratic counties.
Those recounts had given Gore 278 new votes when efforts ended for the day -- not enough to overcome Bush's 930-vote lead in the state. (More on the recounts)
Looking to quiet talk among some Democrats in Washington that Florida recount results were less encouraging than expected, Gore's senior advisers said Tuesday they were confident currently disputed ballots would be counted in the end and give the vice president more than enough votes to pull ahead in the statewide tally.
One senior adviser acknowledged, however, that his calculus depended on most of the disputed or contested ballots being counted -- with local canvassing boards using if dimples or other marks on the punch card ballots to determine voter intent.
• In Miami-Dade County, 135 of the 614 precincts have been counted, giving Gore an unofficial net gain of 157 votes. Counting teams completed their day around 9 p.m. and planned to be back on the job at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
• In Broward County, all 609 precincts have been counted, giving Gore an unofficial net gain of 118 votes in the county. About 1,100 absentee ballots must be counted and reviewed and about 2,000 contested ballots must be reviewed.
Counting teams were to resume work at 8 a.m. Wednesday and canvassing officials said work might have to continue through the holiday weekend to make the deadline.
The new -- and only -- Republican on Broward County's three-member election canvassing board assumed his duties Tuesday. Circuit Judge Robert Rosenberg replaces Broward's elections supervisor Jane Carroll, 70, who announced her retirement Monday, saying she could not handle the long days of recounting.
• In Palm Beach County, only 65 of the county's 531 precincts and 39 groupings of absentee ballots have been counted, giving Gore an unofficial net gain of 3 votes in the county. Officials said about 8,000 contested ballots had to be reviewed before other precincts could be closed out.
Counting teams were to get back to work at 7 a.m. Wednesday and officials said they will bring in extra workers to meet their deadline.
Legal developments
• Hours earlier, Bush had filed a new legal brief with the court, arguing that the justices have no authority to set rules on which presidential ballots can or cannot be counted.
Bush attorney Michael Carvin said if the court got involved in setting ballot standards," that would engender further delay and chaos."
Democrat Al Gore's campaign countered by accusing the Bush camp of trotting out a "parade of horribles" to divert the court from addressing "this very important issue in the manual recounts."
Gore's campaign filed a brief of their own, urging the high court to decide on how votes should be counted.
Jenny Backus, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Party, said, "More delays are exactly what the American people and the voters of Florida do not want."
• Both sides must file briefs with the state's 4th District Court of Appeals by 10 a.m. Wednesday on the question of whether Palm Beach County should have a revote.
Shortly after that deadline, the court is expected either to direct the case to the Florida Supreme Court or schedule oral arguments.
A circuit judge ruled Monday that he lacked authority to order a countywide revote even if a confusing ballot design cost Gore a decisive number of votes.
• A state court hearing will be held Wednesday in Palm Beach County on a motion by Democrats. They want to force county election officials to adopt a broader standard for deciding what is a valid punch-card vote.
• A state judge in Miami-Dade County today rejected a bid by Republicans to stop the vote recount there. They had argued that the process allows vote tampering and that county election officials erred when they reversed a decision against a hand recount. Circuit Judge David Tobin said it was not his job to set standards for ballot review.
• Three Texas voters filed a federal lawsuit on Monday claiming Bush's running mate, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, is a resident of Texas, not Wyoming, and that because the 12th Amendment prohibits the president and vice president from living in the same state, Bush should not be awarded Texas' 32 electoral votes. A similar lawsuit filed in Florida was dismissed.
Overseas absentee ballots
• Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Nebraska, a veteran of the Vietnam War, weighed in today on the controversy over disqualified military votes, calling Republicans "irresponsible" for alleging that the Gore campaign is trying to keep Bush ballots from being counted. "If you have a legal case, bring it," Kerrey challenged Republicans. Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, who was Gore's Florida campaign chairman, has asked county election officials in the state to reconsider military ballots that were rejected for late postmarks, postmarks from within the United States or lack of witness signatures. ( More on the military ballot controversy)
In Washington
• The White House said today that President Clinton directed his staff to do everything possible to help either Gore or Bush have a successful presidential transition despite a shortened period for it. (More on White House comments)
CNN National Correspondents Mike Boettcher and Tony Clark, Senior White House Correspondent John King, Correspondents Jeff Flock, Bill Hemmer, Patty Davis, Frank Buckley, Susan Candiotti, Deborah Feyerick, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report, written by CNN.com Senior Writer Jim Morris.
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