Bush, Gore Pressed to Accept Verdict Brought by Recounts

By MARK Z. BARABAK and MICHAEL FINNEGAN

Nov. 13, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —

The deadlocked race for president pointed Sunday toward a possible resolution, as pressure mounted on both sides to end the stalemate once all the votes are counted.

As a hand tally of more than 180,000 ballots got underway in Florida’s Volusia County, attorneys for Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush prepared to face off today in a federal courtroom in Miami.

In legal papers filed Sunday night, Gore’s attorneys challenged Bush’s claims that Florida’s procedures for counting ballots by hand are unconstitutional. The Texas governor is seeking to block the hand tabulation of about 1.5 million disputed ballots, including more than 460,000 in heavily Democratic Palm Beach County.

After canvassing about 1% of the county’s ballots and turning up 19 Gore votes, election officials voted early Sunday to expand their manual review to every ballot.

Even as the hand count was underway in Volusia County, a consensus seemed to emerge Sunday among leading lawmakers in Washington that the matter should be settled once all the votes are tallied.

“When all of the hand recounts are finished, then whoever is the loser should give in and recognize the other party,” said Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), the House minority leader.

Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the Senate minority leader, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation”: “We have got to count the absentee ballots. We have got to count those that have either been miscounted or not counted. . . . But I think that we really ought to be very cautious and very, very concerned about taking this matter to the courts.”

From the Republican side, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) weighed in. “We are not in a constitutional crisis,” McCain said. “But the American people are growing weary, and whoever wins is having a rapidly diminishing mandate, to say the least.”

Speaking on Bush’s behalf, James A. Baker III took to the Washington talk shows Sunday to urge Gore to drop his recount demands. He called the fight over Florida “a black mark on our democracy.”

But his counterpart, Warren Christopher, insisted the hand counting must go forward to ensure the integrity of the vote. “We’re not talking about a long delay here,” Christopher said. “I think it’s a matter of days--not weeks, not months--but days before we reach a result.”

An unofficial Associated Press canvass of the vote in Florida--including the results of a second mechanical recount in Palm Beach County--gave Bush a 288-vote lead, down slightly from his margin last week. State officials give Bush a 960-vote lead, but their tally excluded Palm Beach County.

The earliest the final results will be known is Friday, the deadline for overseas ballots to be returned. In Volusia County, which encompasses Daytona Beach and surrounding areas, the full results of the hand count are expected Tuesday.

The winner of Florida and its 25 electoral votes will probably take the White House with just over the 270 votes needed to win.

As America waited and watched, the overtime fight for the presidency moved from humid Florida to the hermetically sealed cool of the Beltway talk-show circuit.

Arguing as though before a jury--which, in effect, they were--Baker and Christopher used their appearances to press their clients’ respective cases.

Baker said GOP attorneys would assert today in court that manual recounts in only four of Florida’s 67 counties would constitute unequal treatment under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law. He asserted Florida has no uniform standard for reviewing the ballots and suggested that Democrats who control the contested counties would play favorites.

“It’s all subjective, and therefore it presents terrible problems of human error and potential for mischief,” Baker said.

Bush will drop the lawsuit he filed Saturday, Baker said, “if [Gore] would agree with us to respect the results of the statewide recount, subject only to tabulating the results of the overseas ballots” due by Friday.

“Whoever wins then, wins,” Baker said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

But if the Gore campaign refuses to back down, Baker went on, Bush may seek to force recounts in other close states as well. “If the Gore campaign is going to continue to call for recount after recount after recount until they’re satisfied with the result here in Florida, we may be forced to suggest that there be recounts in all of these states where we trail very narrowly,” Baker said.

Even as he made that threat, however, Baker declined to say how far Bush would push his legal fight. Asked if the GOP nominee would appeal if he fails to prevail today in Miami, Baker hedged. “We have said that we will vigorously contest the efforts for a manual recount in selective counties here in Florida,” Baker said on CNN. “If that means going up, maybe that’s what it would mean. On the other hand, maybe we won’t.”

Appearing on NBC, Christopher--a fellow lawyer, and fellow ex-secretary of State--insisted the manual recounts must go forward.

“There’s no constitutional crisis,” he said. “There’s a 75-day period between the election and inauguration. We’ve used up only 4 1/2 or five days of that now.”

In a separate appearance on CBS, Gore’s campaign chairman, Bill Daley, took a more pugnacious approach.

He noted Republicans did not object when a manual recount in New Mexico shifted the state from Gore to Bush by four votes. He also said the vice president was still considering legal action to challenge the result in Florida. “That’s being looked at right now,” Daley said on “Face the Nation.”

Specifically, he cited “the terrible injustice” of the ballot in Palm Beach County, which some Gore voters say was poorly designed, causing them to mistakenly vote for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan.

As the high level tit-for-tat played out on national television, Bush and Gore stayed mostly out of sight. The Texas governor remained at his ranch near Waco. Gore attended services at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Arlington, Va., where he worshiped before he became vice president.

The sermon, which made no reference to the election, dealt with generosity and the importance of gifts that come from the heart. Afterward, Gore said “‘no” when reporters asked him to discuss the deadlock.

But others seized the forum presented by the Sunday talk shows to join in a civics discussion unlike any the country has had.

Members of both parties called for election reforms, with some seeking abolition of the electoral college and others advocating weekend voting in place of the nation’s tradition of Tuesday balloting.

Sen. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.) was among those calling for a swift resolution of the election standoff. “By Friday, the pressure on someone is going to be enormous to accept whatever result Florida has reached, and that falls equally on both parties,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

But both sides continued girding themselves for a prolonged fight, just in case.

On Sunday, Bush’s campaign issued an “urgent” appeal for money to help finance his post-election efforts. The Texas governor raised and spent more than $100 million--a record--for his White House bid.

In a message posted on the campaign’s Web site, chairman Don Evans asked supporters to forward the message “if you have friends that can help” and requested that contributions be mailed or sent by overnight delivery to the campaign headquarters in Austin.

Last week, Gore launched his own fund-raising effort to sustain his political and legal efforts in Florida.

In papers filed Sunday night, the vice president’s attorneys argued that Bush’s lawsuit threatens Florida’s right to run its own elections by challenging a system that “reflects an electoral practice--the hand counting of ballots--in effect throughout the country since the nation’s founding.”

In Broward County, which encompasses the Fort Lauderdale area, a hand recount of three precincts was to begin today. In Miami-Dade County, election officials are set to meet Tuesday to consider a Gore request for a recount there.

Elsewhere, in Miami, police continued to hold two ballot boxes that were discovered days after the election. The first box was found by security guards at a Miami hotel and the second was discovered at a Baptist church in the city, police said.

Both boxes were sealed with evidence tape and will remain “locked away in a safe . . . until they can be turned over to the appropriate election authorities,” Miami Police Chief Raul Martinez said.

In DeLand, where Volusia County’s hand count was taking place, workers sat in a room of the administration building at one of 22 folding tables.

One counter picked up a ballot and displayed it to his or her counterpart across the table, as well as to Democrat and Republican representatives.

If all three agreed the vote was cast for a particular candidate, the ballot was placed in that candidate’s pile. County Judge Michael McDermott, chairman of the canvassing board, recommended “a maximum of 15 seconds to decide what the voter’s vote is.” Any longer than that, the judge decreed, was too long.

Reporters and the public were allowed to view the recount from the other side of velvet ropes held up by 3-foot metal poles. The action was akin to a casino, with people engaged in a seemingly endless card game.

One of the counters served as “the dealer,” displaying the ballot as three others at the table silently nodded. It took just a few seconds for each ballot, with little or no discussion. Within six hours, ballots from about one third of the county’s 172 precincts had been counted.

The recount was approved by county election officials after representatives of the Florida Democratic Party alleged numerous irregularities.

After processing ballots from just about one-third of the county’s precincts, election officials late Sunday night reported a net gain for Bush of 33 votes. The recount reflected changes in 40 of the 58 precincts counted, including a six-vote increase for Gore in one precinct, and a four-vote gain for Bush in another. In three of the precincts, Gore lost one vote each. But McDermott cautioned the figures were “working numbers” that might change.

Whatever happens with the recounts, the final Florida results will not be known before the overseas ballots are tallied, which will be Friday at the earliest.

But the uncertainty could increase Tuesday as the first of two deadlines passes for counties to certify their election results to the state.

Several counties where Gore leads--among them Palm Beach, Broward and Dade--could miss the 5 p.m. deadline and Bob Crawford, a member of the state board that certifies the statewide results, has suggested the state might certify the statewide returns without them. Theoretically, that would essentially hand the election to Bush.

But Democratic Party lawyers said election officials in Palm Beach and Volusia counties were prepared to sue, if necessary, to extend the deadline.

Florida law is unclear on how much discretion the state board has in applying the deadline, leaving the decision up to the state’s three-member Elections Canvassing Commission.

The members are Secretary of State Katherine Harris, an elected Republican; Division of Elections director Clay Roberts, a Harris appointee; and Crawford, a Democrat who endorsed Jeb Bush for governor and his brother, George W., for president.

Today, Harris is scheduled to meet with representatives of both campaigns.

* Times staff writers Mark Fineman, Megan Garvey, James Gerstenzang, Scott Glover and Aaron Zitner in Washington contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Scorecard

Al Gore leads in the popular vote but trails in Florida, whose 26 electrical votes will decide the election.

POPULAR VOTE

BUSH: 49,684,393 (48%)

GORE: 49,890,002 (48%)

GORE’S LEAD: 205,609

ELECTORAL VOTE

BUSH: 246

GORE: 262