Gore Is Dealt 2 Key Legal Setbacks in Tallahassee

In a pair of legal victories for George W. Bush, the Florida Supreme Court declined to call a new election in Palm Beach County over the use of its controversial “butterfly ballot” and refused to hasten the recount of disputed presidential ballots.

As a result, Al Gore may find that his last best chance to win the White House now rests with Leon County Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls, who begins hearing testimony this morning in Gore’s lawsuit contesting the certification of Texas Gov. Bush as Florida’s winner. Sauls said he hopes to complete the trial in a single, daylong session.

Gore suffered the first of two blows Friday when the state Supreme Court refused to order an immediate recount of 13,300 contested ballots from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Separately, the Florida high court upheld a lower court’s refusal to order a new presidential election in Palm Beach County, ruling unanimously that its butterfly ballot, while confusing to some, conformed with state law.

In another development, Republicans in the state Legislature slowed their plans for a special session to award Florida’s 25 electoral votes to Republican Bush.

State Senate President John McKay said he would take the weekend to review a committee report and would make a decision about a special session by Monday at the earliest.

Meantime, a second shipment of disputed presidential ballots was transported the 468 miles from Miami to Tallahassee, where they were secured in a vault along with the ballots delivered Thursday from Palm Beach County.

Together, the 1.1 million punch cards lie at the heart of the trial getting underway today before Sauls.

Gore is seeking to overturn the certification of Bush as the winner in Florida, by a scant 537 votes out of roughly 6 million cast, by requiring a hand tally of ballots cast in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Gore claims his support in the two Democratic strongholds was never properly tabulated. Both candidates need Florida’s 25 electoral votes to win the White House.

Sauls has refused to order a recount of ballots until he hears evidence in the case, and the Florida Supreme Court upheld that decision in a brief ruling without comment.

Hoping to Rule by Wednesday

At a pretrial hearing Friday, Sauls said he hopes to issue a ruling by Wednesday--just six days before the federal cutoff for Florida to seat its 25 electoral college members, who will cast the state’s votes for president and vice president.

Gore was not a party in the “butterfly ballot” case, but the ruling was a further setback for the vice president, whose supporters say the confusing Palm Beach County ballot cost him thousands of votes that could have won him the presidency.

The ballot listed two columns of presidential candidates divided by a row of punch holes. Voters in Palm Beach County filed several lawsuits seeking a new election, saying the ballot caused them to mistakenly vote for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Gore--or to nullify their ballots by punching two holes.

In the lawsuits, Democrats charged that the ballot was illegal, and they said it disenfranchised more than 20,000 voters.

But Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga of Palm Beach County ruled Nov. 20 that he had no authority under the U.S. Constitution to order a new election.

On Friday, the Florida Supreme Court upheld that ruling. The justices said courts generally have declined to void elections on the basis of ballot defects unless the defects clearly prevent voters from making a “free, fair and open choice.” Even as the high court was ruling, still more lawsuits cropped up alleging fraud and misconduct in connection with the Nov. 7 vote:

* A class-action suit filed in federal court in Pensacola accuses the state and federal governments of mishandling the mailing of ballots to U.S. troops overseas, denying them the right to vote. The suit asked that any affected soldier be allowed to cast a ballot now.

* Democrats filed suit in Tallahassee, the state capital, seeking to disqualify nearly 10,000 absentee ballots cast in Martin County, in eastern Florida. The county’s Republican supervisor of elections, Peggy S. Robbins, allowed GOP workers to take flawed absentee ballot forms home and correct them but allegedly denied Democrats the same opportunity to make fixes. The case is similar to one involving absentee ballot applications in Seminole County.

* Another group of Democratic voters filed suit in Tallahassee seeking a court order tossing out the ballots of 1,500 overseas voters, many of them in the military. The voters claimed it was illegal for Florida to accept the ballots more than 10 days after the usual cutoff for overseas absentee ballots.

In deciding to hold off on calling a special legislative session, state Senate President McKay said he wants to see what happens in court before proceeding. “This whole thing is sort of like a Rubik’s Cube,” McKay said. “Everything is unfolding, and there is a multitude of possibilities.”

No state legislature has ever passed a measure to submit its own set of electors in lieu of those chosen by voters, and the move could spark a backlash--not least against Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, the younger brother of the GOP nominee.

To avoid having Bush sign legislation handing the state--and the White House--to his brother, McKay said lawmakers may name a slate of George W. Bush electors by resolution rather than by passing a bill. A resolution can take effect without the governor’s signature. There are some doubts, however, about whether a resolution could be used to change state law governing the selection of electors.

The incessant litigation and political maneuvering comes amid signs of growing public skepticism.

A poll showed many Americans believe whoever wins will do so because of the way the votes were counted rather than through a reflection of voter sentiment.

That was particularly true in Gore’s case, with 44% of those polled saying a victory for the vice president would result from how the votes were counted, compared with 33% who said that about Bush.

Bush Has Polls in His Favor

Overall, the survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found public opinion subtly shifting in Bush’s favor since he was certified Sunday night as Florida’s winner.

The percentage of Americans who think Bush will be the next president has risen to 66%, from 58% last week. The number of Americans who believe that Bush won and Gore should concede also rose, to 41% from 31%. While opinions are sharply split along partisan lines, more than half of Democrats--56%--now think that Bush will be the next president.

But, Pew Director Andy Kohut said, “you’ve got a lot of people still thinking there’s some possibility for Gore and he shouldn’t throw in the towel.”

*

Times staff writers Eric Bailey, Mark Z. Barabak and Jeffrey Gettleman contributed to this story.