A Highway Spectacle, and O.J. Simpson Is There

A yellow Ryder truck, bearing almost half a million contested presidential ballots and hugging the speed limit, swept across the length of Florida on Thursday, tracked by television cameras, unmarked police cars, political operatives and a nationwide audience.

The 450-mile journey up Florida’s Turnpike from West Palm Beach to Tallahassee made for oddly attractive viewing on 24-hour news stations; monotonous but somehow compelling. For many it provided a media spectacle to rival O.J. Simpson’s 1994 Ford Bronco ride. But a lot faster.

Television news helicopters hovered over the turnpike as the truck sped northward. CNN and MSNBC carried live shots as it rolled past Disney World and across the swamps of Florida. Every so often, news anchors cut to shots of the truck that looked remarkably like shots shown a few minutes earlier.

Among the viewers was none other than Simpson himself.

Simpson’s review was mixed. What it lacked, he said, was the suspense of the pursuit of his Bronco, which he called “a little more intriguing.”

“Here, they know the ballots are going to get to Tallahassee,” Simpson told Associated Press.

The real winner in the truck trip was Ryder, which scored a public relations bonanza. The truck, familiar to do-it-yourself movers and college-bound students, was emblazoned with Ryder’s name, toll-free number and Web site address. “Rent me,” it said on the windshield.

The company, recognizing an opportunity when it sees one, rented the truck to Palm Beach County for just a penny.

And Ryder executives savored the possibility of overshadowing its two other famous vehicles--the ones rented to bombers of the World Trade Center in New York and the federal building in Oklahoma City.

“Certainly there have been incidents like Oklahoma City,” Ryder spokeswoman Allison Striegel said. “But we’re pleased to have people acknowledge that our brand was chosen to do this. We’re pleased to be part of history, or at least a historical moment.”

Just ahead of the truck--stuffed with 461,988 ballots--a sentinel for George W. Bush watched its every move from an unmarked Palm Beach County sheriff’s car.

Just behind the truck, a sentinel for Al Gore watched its every move.

The media followed along in roughly a dozen other cars.

Waiting for the convoy in Tallahassee was Dave Lang and, the truth be told, he feared the worst.

It was Lang, the Leon County court clerk, who would have to safeguard the presidential ballots stashed in the back of the truck once it arrived in the Florida capital.

“We don’t want anything like what happened in Dallas in the ‘60s with [Lee Harvey Oswald’s killer Jack] Ruby coming in,” Lang said. “These are documents that the whole world has their eye on right now, and we don’t want anything to happen to them.”

As the convoy pulled into Tallahassee at 3:30 p.m., the buzz of helicopters grew louder at the courthouse, followed by police sirens.

A dozen sheriff’s deputies in green uniforms blocked anyone from coming too close to the electoral treasure. “Nobody comes past,” a deputy barked at the crowd.

The sentinel for Bush, Sergio Gutierrez, leaped out of his car and stationed himself at the back of the truck to wait for guards to slide open the back door.

Gore’s observer, Andrew Shapiro, was in a state of near panic when the deputies stopped him from entering the loading dock. Almost whining, he said, “But you let in the Republican.” They let him in.

As court officers heaved the gray metal boxes of ballots onto a dolly, the Bush and Gore observers checked off each one on tally sheets.

It was Lang who oversaw the final stashing of the ballots in courthouse vaults.

His rest will be brief. Today, another truckload of ballots will head north, this time from Miami--654,000 of them.

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Times staff writer Greg Johnson contributed to this story.