WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Palm Beach County canvassing officials began assessing about 6,000 disputed ballots Friday, and said they weren't inclined to count indentations as votes if other votes had been clearly punched.
Still, ``each card has to be taken individually,'' Judge Charles Burton said after a hearing Friday morning.
Democrat Al Gore, behind statewide, had sought a lenient standard for the so-called dimples, arguing that an indentation on the cardboard ballot indicated voter intent.
Burton said he and the other two members of the canvassing board were inclined not to count ballots with clear punches for other races but only indentations - or dimples - for a presidential candidate.
``I feel that this board has been acting in a manner that is consistent with trying to determine the intent of the voter,'' Burton said. ``I do feel that we have been attempting to look at the entire ballot card.''
The three board members, all Democrats, have gone through thousands of votes but released numbers only piecemeal. The latest results, from 243 of 637 precincts, gave Republican George W. Bush a net gain of eight votes since the last machine count.
Earlier Friday, the board allowed both sides to argue how the ballots should be considered. Republicans argued the board's ballot-by-ballot standard was sufficient, but Democrats challenged it.
Jackie Winchester, the elections supervisor in Palm Beach County for 23 years, told the board that dimpled chads should be counted.
``We've never seen a pattern like this,'' she said. ``It's just very weird to think that all those people came to the polls and didn't vote for president.''
The Democrats brought in engineering professor William Rouverol, who helped design the Votomatic machine used across the county.
``Although I believe the Votomatic could be an efficient and mostly accurate voting machine when properly used and maintained, no machine can be perfect,'' he said.
He said the ballot ``may not register a voter's intent consistently,'' and a hand count is needed to compensate for the machine's shortcomings.
GOP attorney John Bolton said if the Democrats were unhappy with the standard ``they have a remedy; they can file a contest.''
The county has worked since 1990 under a rule saying at least one corner of a chad, the bit of paper that gets pushed through on a punch-card ballot, must be dislodged for a ballot to count.
On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga honored Gore's request to have dimpled ballots considered by the canvassing board - something the Democratic candidate hopes could result in a gain of hundreds of votes.
Labarga said the board can reject dimpled ballots only after seeking to determine voter intent. He said county election supervisors must reject any ballot in which they cannot discern intent.
All ballots in Palm Beach County have been manually recounted, but the board must still consider the questionable ballots. The results must be turned in to Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris by Sunday evening.
After the hearing, Democrats said they may challenge the canvassing board's policy in court.
``That would certainly be an option that we would consider if these ballots are not properly counted,'' said attorney Jack Corrigan.
AP-NY-11-24-00 2016EST
============================================================ Top U.S. Court Accepts Bush Appeal
By WALTER R. MEARS .c The Associated Press
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. 1/4
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.
AP-NY-11-24-00 2300EST
============================================================ Text of Supreme Court Orders
.c The Associated Press
Texts of two orders by the U.S. Supreme Court issued Friday. The first grants a hearing of George W. Bush's petition against the Florida Supreme Court's decision to allow manual ballot recounts to be added to the state's vote total. The second rejects an appeal of a federal judge's decision to allow the recount to go ahead.
Certiorari Granted
00-836
Bush, George W. V. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, Et Al.
The motion of petitioner for leave to file a petition for a writ of certiorari on 8 1/2 by 11 inch page proofs is granted. The motion of respondents for leave to file the brief in opposition on 8 1/2 by 11 inch page proofs is granted. The motion of petitioner to expedite consideration of the petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted on Questions 1 and 2 as presented by the petition. In addition, the parties are directed to brief and argue the following question: What would be the consequences of this Court's finding that the decision of the Supreme Court of Florida does not comply with 3 U.S.C. Sec. 5? The briefs of the parties, not to exceed 50 pages, are to be filed with the Clerk and served upon opposing counsel on or before 4 p.m., Tuesday, November 28, 2000. Reply briefs, if any, not to exceed 20 pages, are to be filed with the Clerk and served upon the parties on or before 4 p.m., Thursday, November 30, 2000. The parties are encouraged to agree on the contents of a joint appendix. Rule 29.2 is suspended in this case. Briefs may be filed in compliance with Rule 33.2 to be replaced as soon as possible with briefs prepared in compliance with Rule 33.1. The case is set for oral argument on Friday, December 1, 2000, at 10 a.m. and a total of one and one-half hours is allotted for oral argument.
00-837
Certiorari Denied
Siegel, Ned, Et Al V. LePore, Theresa, Et Al.
The motion of petitioner for leave to file a petition for a writ of certiorari on 8 1/2 by 11 inch page proofs is granted. The motion of respondents for leave to file the brief in opposition on 8 1/2 by 11 inch page proofs is granted. The motion of petitioner to expedite consideration of the petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment is denied without prejudice.
AP-NY-11-24-00 1636EST
=============================================================================== U.S. Supreme Court Enters Election Fight
By James Vicini Reuters
WASHINGTON (Nov. 24) - The U.S. Supreme Court stepped squarely into the middle of the legal battle between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore on Friday in yet another stunning twist to a presidential election that threatens to go on for weeks.
The nation's highest court agreed to hear Bush's challenge to hand recounted ballots in Florida, the state whose 25 electoral votes will decide whether the Texas governor or Vice President Gore won the election 17 days ago.
Florida election officials faced a 5 p.m. EST deadline on Sunday to certify all county votes including any recounts by hand. Toward that end, two major Democratic counties -- Palm Beach and Broward -- worked to get hundreds of disputed ballots decided.
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision said nothing about the Sunday deadline. Its rare involvement in the state electoral process only set a 90-minute oral hearing on Dec. 1 to listen to one of Bush's challenges to the hand count.
Gore's legal team has said it will continue the fight past the Sunday deadline and the Supreme Court's action almost certainly will extend the fight over the Nov. 7 election outcome well into December.
Florida's Republican-dominated state Legislature, meanwhile, said on Friday it intended to participate in Bush's pending Supreme Court case. Newly appointed House speaker Tom Feeney told a news briefing he had discussed the issue with the state Senate leadership.
Gore needed to pick up votes from hand counts to overtake Bush's official lead of 930 in Florida to win the White House.
The Democrat suffered a severe blow on Thursday when the state's highest court decided not to force Miami-Dade, Florida's most populous county, to resume its manual tallying. The Gore camp had hoped to pick up votes in that Democratic county.
As the legal battle swirled, supporters of both sides demonstrated in Florida and in Washington, Bush's vice presidential running mate Dick Cheney was released from a hospital after a minor heart attack. He said he was ready to get back to work next week.
NOISY CROWDS AGAINST GORE
Outside both the Broward and Palm Beach counting centers on Friday, noisy crowds of Republican supporters urged the state elections board to certify the results and accused the Gore campaign of trying to steal the election through legal machinations.
''No more Gore,'' ''Loser, loser,'' the crowd chanted outside the Broward County courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.
The noisy street demonstrations followed some earlier this week in Miami that Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman said were being orchestrated by those who wanted to thwart the democratic process.
''These demonstrations were clearly designed to intimidate and to prevent a simple count of votes from going forward,'' Lieberman said in Washington.
Bush senior adviser Ari Fleischer dismissed Lieberman's criticism.
''I don't recall Joe Lieberman's opposition to organized protests put together by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the AFL-CIO in Palm Beach County,'' he said.
Fleischer called the demonstrations ''a heartfelt and natural reaction to what is going on.''
Five Democratic House of Representatives members wrote to Attorney General Jane Reno seeking an investigation of Miami-Dade County's abrupt decision on Wednesday after the demonstrations to halt its manual recount.
In Broward County, after working through the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, the election panel plowed on with reviewing up to 2,000 ambiguous ballots where a machine did not pick up a result overall. It plans to do so at least until late on Saturday.
By late afternoon on Friday, the Broward officials had completed review of 802 of these ambiguous ballots. According to unofficial figures Gore had an overall net gain from the manual recount in Broward of 306 votes.
In Palm Beach the electoral panel began examining more than 6,000 questionable ballots.
The three-member County Canvassing Board started its work after a one-hour hearing on whether to count all ''dimpled,'' or partially indented, ballots. The board took no formal vote to change its method, which includes only some of the dimpled ballots, and began working on the ballots at a pace as slow as two ballots per minute.
By Friday night, Palm Beach County officials had examined 1,200 of 6,000 questionable ballots and released results of 244 individual precincts certified through Wednesday. But it released none of its Friday results.
Computations reconciled by several news organizations together, including Reuters and Nikkei, showed that Bush has gained 62 votes and Gore has gained 47 giving Bush a net gain of 15 votes. In all, there are 637 precincts to be counted.
MILITARY BALLOT ISSUE
Republicans also continued in their efforts to get ballots mailed in by U.S. military personnel overseas to be counted even though they carried no post mark to show they were cast by the Nov. 7 election day.
The Republican Party asked a Florida judge in Tallahassee on Friday to order elections officials to reconsider about 500 such disqualified ballots. Counts of other absentee military ballots have favored Bush.
The U.S. Supreme Court action came just two days after lawyers for Bush asked the justices to review a Florida Supreme Court ruling allowing hand recounts from three heavily Democratic counties to be included in the final tally.
Bush's lawyers said the Florida Supreme Court decision disregarded federal law and violated the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear those issues.
Another Bush request to stop the hand recounts on constitutional grounds was turned down although the case still remains before an appeals court in Atlanta.
''We are pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the decision of the Florida Supreme Court,'' said Bush attorney Ben Ginsberg. ''The court will review whether it is fair to change the rules in the middle of the game.''
Gore attorney David Boies said in Tallahassee his legal team was prepared to argue its case and he thought the Supreme Court ultimately would rule in Gore's favor.
Bush was spending his weekend at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, with no public appearances planned. Gore remained behind closed doors at the vice presidential residence in Washington.
Cheney, accompanied by his wife Lynne and other family members, walked unaided out of George Washington University Hospital and told reporters, ''I'm on my way home.''
Doctors said Cheney, 59, who has had a history of heart trouble, had only a mild heart attack and was expected to make a full recovery and return to normal activity very shortly.
Cheney said he had talked with Bush by phone. Asked if he had at any time asked Bush to replace him on the Republican ticket, he said: ''No, not yet,'' and chuckled.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida's top lawmakers decided Friday to hold off on a special session and instead join George W. Bush's legal team in a lawsuit headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
House Speaker Tom Feeney said state lawmakers have hired lawyers to represent them in Supreme Court proceedings over hand recounts of Florida's presidential ballots. The court agreed Friday to take the case.
After Florida's Supreme Court decided Tuesday to allow hand counts in three predominantly-Democratic counties, angry Republican lawmakers discussed calling a special session to seat their own slate of electors, if necessary.
That could still happen, but Feeney said he didn't anticipate any additional action until early next week. Certification of the recounted vote is scheduled for Sunday evening.
The Republicans say they want to tell the nation's highest court that the Florida court misinterpreted the state's election law.
``The Legislature's participation is intended to make the U.S. Supreme Court aware of the Legislature's concerns and the possible consequences that may flow from the state judicial actions to date,'' Feeney said.
He also reiterated the GOP lawmakers' arguments that federal law gives the Legislature power to pick the electors if necessary.
Majority Leader Mike Fasano said he is concerned Al Gore's plan might be to stall until the Dec. 12 deadline for selecting electors and risk blocking Florida from casting any votes in the Electoral College.
Gore lawyers said Thursday they would contest the results of Sunday's scheduled certification.
``One would have to wonder whether Vice President Gore and his team aren't trying to just delay, delay, delay where Florida will never be counted,'' Fasano said.
``Al Gore doesn't need Florida to win. He has more electoral votes than George W. If Florida isn't represented when they count ballots, Floridians will be left out in the rain and not counted,'' he said.
Gore now has 267 electors pledged to him and Bush has 246. Florida's 25 electors would give either the 270 majority needed to be declared the winner.
