Hand Recount Law Faces Challenge

The Florida Supreme Court on Monday will consider a lawsuit filed by a George W. Bush supporter seeking to strike down the state law allowing hand recounts of ballots.

The high court is taking up the issue just as Al Gore is seeking an immediate hand recount of 14,000 ballots in his lawsuit contesting the results of Florida’s presidential election.

On Nov. 17, a lower court upheld the hand recount law and tossed out the suit filed by Bush supporter Matt Butler of Naples, Fla.

But on Friday, an appeals court found the case “presents issues which are of great public importance” and referred it directly to the state Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, in turn, ordered briefs on the case to be filed by 3 p.m. Monday.

It’s unclear what effect a ruling striking down the law would have on Vice President Gore’s suit demanding hand recounts.

“It’s kind of an open question,” said Butler’s attorney, Terrell C. Madigan.

There’s no way to know whether the court might rule on the case in time to affect the outcome of the election. And the court may or may not apply any ruling retroactively, Madigan said.

Butler, a former chief fund-raiser for the Nebraska Republican Party, contends that the recount law violates the constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection under the laws. It does so, he says, by allowing only candidates and political parties--not voters--to request recounts.

So when Gore’s campaign requested recounts in the heavily Democratic counties of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade, Butler could not legally request one in his own county, Collier, where Texas Gov. Bush trounced Gore by a 2-1 margin. The law, Butler says, does not treat votes the same way in each of Florida’s 67 counties.

“This does not pass the smell test to me,” he said. “It’s massively unfair.”

But in her Nov. 17 ruling, Leon County Circuit Judge Nikki Ann Clark upheld the law, saying it actually “applies equally in each county of the state.” Candidates and parties in any county can request recounts, and canvassing boards can grant or deny them at their discretion, she found.

Bush made arguments similar to Butler’s in a Miami federal court lawsuit. But a judge there dismissed the case, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Bush’s appeal.

Butler, 42, moved to Florida last year from Omaha, Neb., where he owned taxi and trucking companies and ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1998.

He filed his suit against Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Her attorney, Joseph P. Klock Jr., could not be reached for comment Saturday.

In addition to his lawsuit, Butler has intervened in two others involving the presidential election. Judges have allowed him to intervene as a voter in the Bush suit heard Friday by the U.S. Supreme Court and in the Gore suit contesting the election results.