Gore, Democrats Declare War
On Bush, Republicans, the Constitution
and the Republic
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Florida Supreme Court Sides With Gore Campaign -- Writes Gore Blank Check
Rules Recounted Ballots Must Be Accepted
.c The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Nov. 21) - Florida's Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday night that state election officials must accept amended presidential returns as late as Sunday or Monday.
The court ruling means Secretary of State Katherine Harris may not certify the result of the contested election between Al Gore and George W. Bush until that time. A statement read by court spokesman Craig Waters did not specify whether — or under what guidelines — manual recounts might continue until the new deadline.
Bush holds a 930-vote lead in the official, but uncertified vote tallies from Election Day, with overseas absentee ballots included. Gore has slowly been eating into that lead in recent days as recounts have proceeded at his urging in three Democratic counties.
Gore was in Washington, Bush in Texas, as the court issued a ruling that could determine which one wins the White House.
In a brief statement read on the courthouse steps, Waters said the decision was based on the court's long-standing view that ``the right of the people to cast their votes is the paramount concern overriding all others.''
The 42-page opinion gives the Gore campaign just five days to overtake Bush's slender lead.
Waters did not directly address the issue of the recounts in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Nor did his brief statement say whether the court had ruled on a Democratic request for the issuance of uniform standards that might guide the local canvassing boards conducting the recounts.
Nor did he say whether the ruling addressed another controversy in the overtime election — the rejection of hundreds of overseas absentee ballots cast by armed forces personnel. Many of them were lacking postmarks, and were thrown out late last week as a result of Democratic challenges.
But in the days since, Democrats have retreated under criticism from Republicans, and expressed a desire to have as many of these votes counted as possible.
The court issued its ruling less than 30 hours after oral arguments concluded on Tuesday, a remarkably speedy timetable that was testament to the importance of the dispute.
In legal filings earlier in the day, the Bush lawyers contended the court was ``without power'' to set standards for the counting of ballots by county canvassing boards.
AP-NY-11-21-00 2201EST
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Validity of Dimpled Ballots Pondered
By DAVID ROYSE
.c The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Al Gore needs the dimples.
With Gore trailing George W. Bush by 930 votes, Democrats are pressuring election officials in three South Florida counties to count ``dimpled'' chad ballots as valid votes.
Dimpled ballots are those on which a punch card has a bump, as if someone meant or tried to punch out the perforation to indicate their choice for president.
They are not being counted in Broward or Palm Beach counties. And in Miami-Dade County, some are being counted, some aren't, depending on whether the local canvassing board members can determine the voters' intent. Broward is setting the dimpled ballots aside for later consideration. A Palm Beach County judge plans to take up the dimple issue Wednesday.
The quasi-punched ballots are now at the center of the question of who will be the next president of the United States, because there could be hundreds or thousands of dimpled ballots. With Florida's yet-to-be-awarded 25 electoral votes come the keys to the White House.
Experts in voting behavior say that because the three counties recounting ballots all lean to Democrats, if dimpled ballots are counted, many are likely to favor Gore.
But even if Gore gets the majority of the dimpled ballots counted for him, everything still depends on whether the Florida Supreme Court says the recounts should be considered at all.
Another question is when to count a dimpled ballot as a vote.
``For 100 years the standard in Florida has been to discern the intent of the voter,'' said Lance deHaven-Smith, a Florida State University political science professor and elections expert. ``And that's what the election's about, the intent of the voters. The question is, as a practical matter: Can you do that?''
As the Florida Supreme Court deliberated Tuesday over whether to accept any hand recount results, it also was dealing with a parallel legal fight over what standards should apply to dimpled ballots.
The Gore team raised that issue before the court, but the Bush team was trying to keep it out of the legal fight altogether, arguing the Supreme Court lacks the power to set such standards statewide.
In Florida, it has been up to the counties to set rules on whether to count dimpled chads as votes. Until now, there has been no ruling on a statewide standard.
In Bush's state of Texas, rules that predate his term as governor allow county officials - but don't require them - to count dimpled chads as an indication of a voter's intent, and therefore count the ballot.
If dimples are counted in Florida, the question becomes: Will enough of the dimples look enough like Gore votes for the vice president to erase his vote deficit?
Dennis Newman, a Democratic lawyer, said that in Palm Beach County, with 176 out of 531 precincts counted, 557 dimpled ballots were in Gore's stack and 260 in Bush's.
So far, dimpled ballots have not been considered in the county's recount figures, despite Democrats' objections. Palm Beach has worked since 1990 under a rule saying that at least one corner of the chad must be dislodged for a ballot to count. A hearing is set for Wednesday in Palm Beach Circuit Court on a motion by Democrats seeking to force the canvassing board to consider dimpled ballots.
Palm Beach County has set aside 1,979 questionable ballots for further review, including dimpled ones.
In Broward County, 1,000 to 2,000 questionable ballots were set aside in the manual count of all 609 precincts. Canvassing board members did not plan to review those ballots until 45,000 absentee votes were recounted.
In Miami-Dade, the canvassing board was reviewing approximately 10,750 ``undervoted'' ballots on which no vote was registered by the machines. Board members didn't want the regular counting teams to use their discretion in determining what constituted a vote.
Republicans accused board members of twisting and turning ballots to determine voter intent, looking for votes that weren't there.
Courts have been reluctant to rule on dimpled ballots' acceptability because sometimes they hint at the voter's intent and sometimes they don't.
For example, sometimes ``it was the voter who put the stylus down, drew back and changed their mind'' and punched the hole for the other candidate, Wolf said. In such cases, a dimple shouldn't count.
But if no other hole is punched, a dimple is as good an indication of a voter's intent as anything, deHaven-Smith said, particularly if the person voted a straight ticket in all other races.
``Why would they vote for everything else and not the president?'' deHaven-Smith said.
AP-NY-11-21-00 2058EST
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Cheney's Residency Challenged in Lawsuit
Texas' 32 Electoral Votes Could Be At Risk
By BETSY BLANEY
.c The Associated Press
DALLAS (Nov. 21) - Three Texas voters have sued to block Gov. George W. Bush's election as president by challenging running mate Dick Cheney's status as a Wyoming resident. The lawsuit was filed hours after a similar lawsuit was dismissed in Florida.
The suit filed Monday claims Cheney is a Texas resident and that he and Bush, therefore, shouldn't be awarded the state's 32 electoral votes. The lawsuit cites the 12th Amendment, which prohibits the Texas members of the Electoral College from voting for both a president and vice president who are ''inhabitants'' of their state.
''Someone cannot be a resident of two states simultaneously,'' said Bill Berenson, the Fort Worth attorney representing three Dallas County residents who are suing Bush and Cheney. ''If Mr. Cheney wanted to run for political office in Wyoming he would be prohibited from doing so. Some of Wyoming's statutes state that.''
Cheney lived in Dallas while he was chairman of Halliburton Co. until he changed his voting registration to Teton County, Wyo., on July 21 - four days before becoming Bush's running mate. Cheney or his wife has owned a home in Dallas since 1993. The former Wyoming congressman and defense secretary under President Bush also has homes in Jackson, Wyo., and McLean, Va.
Last week, he put his Highland Park home on the market for $3.1 million, Berenson said.
''He had always intended to put his home on the market after the election,'' Cheney spokeswoman Juleanna Glover Weiss said.
Weiss said they have returned to Wyoming, where they have had a house for the last 25 years.
''Assertions otherwise are just nonsense,'' she said. ''The lawsuits that have been filed are frivolous and clearly one already has been dismissed out of hand.''
A lawsuit filed last week in Florida making similar claims about Cheney was dismissed on Monday. Berenson said the Dallas County lawsuit was filed because the merit of the basic claim must be sought by residents in the county where Cheney resides.
The suit claims that Cheney holds a Texas driver's license listing his Highland Park address and that, on Feb. 22, he changed his personal records at the Texas Department of Public Safety and again listed the Dallas address.
It also claims Cheney's vehicles are registered in Texas, that he paid taxes on them in Dallas County, that he has filed federal income tax returns listing himself as a Texas resident and that he has lived in the Highland Park home for the last five years.
Weiss said Cheney's 1999 federal income tax returns were filed before he was nominated for vice president.
The plaintiffs are Stephen E. Jones, a Texas Wesleyan University law student, Linda D. Lydia and Caroline Franco. It names Bush, Cheney, Texas Secretary of State Elton Bomer and the 32 Texas electors as defendants.
The case has been assigned to Judge Sidney Fitzwater, a Republican appointed by former President Reagan. No date for a hearing had been set.
AP-NY-11-21-00 1913EST
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