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Please Turn on the TV/Radio Supremes to Rule NOW!
- Thread starter Gary H
- Start date
Will Beararms
New member
We spend two weeks a year in FL. It's gonna be tough but I am gonna start now to tell my wife I will spend no more money in that State. Let Florida dry up on the vine.
Florida Supreme Court says state must add recounts
November 21, 2000
Web posted at: 9:51 p.m. EST (0251 GMT)
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- The
Florida Supreme Court has ruled that election
officials must add the results of manual
recounts of presidential ballots to the state's
final tally, which will determine whether
Republican George W. Bush or Democrat Al
Gore becomes the next president. Read the
ruling -- FindLaw (requires Adobe® Acrobat®
Reader™)
The decision came exactly two weeks after
Election Day.
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."
"We have no timetable at the present time as to when a decision is going to be made. We just
don't know," Florida Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters told reporters at 11 a.m. today.
(More on court deliberation)
Latest developments:
• The hand recounting of Florida's presidential votes
continues today in three heavily Democratic counties.
Those partially completed recounts have given Gore 278
new votes by 9 p.m. -- not enough to overcome Bush's
930-vote lead in the state. Palm Beach and Dade county
officials completed their counts for the night with plans to
resume Wednesday morning. Broward County had
completed recounts of its precincts but a recount of
absentee ballots was continuing.(More on the recount)
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.
• 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.
• 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)
• 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 Miami-Dade County, 137 of the 614 precincts have
been counted, giving Gore an unofficial net gain of 157
votes in the county.
• The new -- and only -- Republican on Broward
County's three-member election canvassing board
assumed his duties today. 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 Broward County, all of the 609 precincts have been
counted, giving Gore an unofficial net gain of 118 votes in
the county.
• Broward County hopes to complete the first part of its
hand recount today. In the next phase, election officials
plan to make decisions about dimpled chads. Republicans
maintain dimpled chads should not be considered valid
while Democrats argue that canvassing boards should look
at them to see if a voter's intent can be determined.
• 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.
• Gore is in Washington, where aides said the vice
president is working from home today. There are no
public events on his schedule. Gore, who normally spends
Thanksgiving in his home state of Tennessee, plans to
stay in Washington for Thanksgiving.
• Bush, who is governor of Texas, spent time today in
his office in the Capitol building in Austin. Aides said his
schedule for Thanksgiving is subject to change, depending
on developments in Florida.
• In Palm Beach County, 104 of the 531 precincts have
been counted, giving Gore an unofficial net gain of 3 votes
in the county.
• Election officials in Palm Beach County plan to
suspend counting by 5 p.m. Wednesday in observance of
Thanksgiving with no plans to resume counting until
Sunday. The local canvassing board, however, will meet
over the weekend to review a growing number of
challenged ballots.
• Gore adviser Jack Quinn told CNN's "Larry King Live"
that the Florida Supreme Court justices had been
"extraordinarily well-prepared," and he said he believed
they were tilting toward the Gore campaign's argument
that it was important to have all the ballots counted.
(Read Transcript from "Larry King Live")
• Barry Richard, the top lawyer for Bush in Florida, told
the same program he could not predict what the justices
would decide but expected them to "do it as rapidly as
they can."
• 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.
What's at stake
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.
Gore's campaign hopes the full hand recounts in the three counties, where as many as 1.7
million ballots were cast, will add enough votes to his statewide total for him to overcome
Bush's lead.
November 21, 2000
Web posted at: 9:51 p.m. EST (0251 GMT)
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- The
Florida Supreme Court has ruled that election
officials must add the results of manual
recounts of presidential ballots to the state's
final tally, which will determine whether
Republican George W. Bush or Democrat Al
Gore becomes the next president. Read the
ruling -- FindLaw (requires Adobe® Acrobat®
Reader™)
The decision came exactly two weeks after
Election Day.
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."
"We have no timetable at the present time as to when a decision is going to be made. We just
don't know," Florida Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters told reporters at 11 a.m. today.
(More on court deliberation)
Latest developments:
• The hand recounting of Florida's presidential votes
continues today in three heavily Democratic counties.
Those partially completed recounts have given Gore 278
new votes by 9 p.m. -- not enough to overcome Bush's
930-vote lead in the state. Palm Beach and Dade county
officials completed their counts for the night with plans to
resume Wednesday morning. Broward County had
completed recounts of its precincts but a recount of
absentee ballots was continuing.(More on the recount)
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.
• 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.
• 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)
• 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 Miami-Dade County, 137 of the 614 precincts have
been counted, giving Gore an unofficial net gain of 157
votes in the county.
• The new -- and only -- Republican on Broward
County's three-member election canvassing board
assumed his duties today. 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 Broward County, all of the 609 precincts have been
counted, giving Gore an unofficial net gain of 118 votes in
the county.
• Broward County hopes to complete the first part of its
hand recount today. In the next phase, election officials
plan to make decisions about dimpled chads. Republicans
maintain dimpled chads should not be considered valid
while Democrats argue that canvassing boards should look
at them to see if a voter's intent can be determined.
• 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.
• Gore is in Washington, where aides said the vice
president is working from home today. There are no
public events on his schedule. Gore, who normally spends
Thanksgiving in his home state of Tennessee, plans to
stay in Washington for Thanksgiving.
• Bush, who is governor of Texas, spent time today in
his office in the Capitol building in Austin. Aides said his
schedule for Thanksgiving is subject to change, depending
on developments in Florida.
• In Palm Beach County, 104 of the 531 precincts have
been counted, giving Gore an unofficial net gain of 3 votes
in the county.
• Election officials in Palm Beach County plan to
suspend counting by 5 p.m. Wednesday in observance of
Thanksgiving with no plans to resume counting until
Sunday. The local canvassing board, however, will meet
over the weekend to review a growing number of
challenged ballots.
• Gore adviser Jack Quinn told CNN's "Larry King Live"
that the Florida Supreme Court justices had been
"extraordinarily well-prepared," and he said he believed
they were tilting toward the Gore campaign's argument
that it was important to have all the ballots counted.
(Read Transcript from "Larry King Live")
• Barry Richard, the top lawyer for Bush in Florida, told
the same program he could not predict what the justices
would decide but expected them to "do it as rapidly as
they can."
• 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.
What's at stake
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.
Gore's campaign hopes the full hand recounts in the three counties, where as many as 1.7
million ballots were cast, will add enough votes to his statewide total for him to overcome
Bush's lead.