Justices Delay Official Tally

In another day of dramatic reversals, the Florida Supreme Court on Friday indefinitely delayed final certification of the state’s election results, preserving Al Gore’s hopes of overtaking George W. Bush as hand counting grew to more than 1.5 million ballots.

Bush suffered a second legal setback when a federal appeals court in Atlanta rejected his bid to block the hand counting, even as initial tallying of overseas ballots upped his narrow Florida lead.

With returns from 65 of 67 counties, Bush more than doubled his lead to 760 votes, up from 300 at the start of the day. But the tallying produced new controversies, as Democrats and Republicans squabbled over everything from postmarks to the condition in which some overseas ballots arrived.

Secretary of State Katherine Harris had intended to certify Florida’s results today after counting the last of the absentee votes, a deadline that could have forced a resolution to the election muddle. Instead, the hand counting of ballots will continue through the weekend and lawyers for the two presidential candidates will return to court Monday to contest Harris’ decision to ignore updated vote totals.

In a two-sentence statement, issued even before justices received Gore’s petition, the Supreme Court said its intention was “to maintain the status quo.”

Gore immediately hailed the decision.

“I want to be clear: Neither Gov. Bush, nor the Florida secretary of state nor I will be the arbiter of this election,” the vice president told reporters hastily assembled outside his private residence in Washington. “This election is a matter that must be decided by the will of the people as expressed under the rule of law.”

But the Bush camp voiced hopes of prevailing Monday. “We remain confident that the Supreme Court will find that the secretary of state properly exercised her discretion and followed the law,” said James A. Baker III, Bush’s Florida point man.

Practically speaking, the ruling amounted to a significant defeat for the GOP presidential nominee--all the more stinging because Bush had triumphed in a lower court decision upholding Harris’ actions just hours earlier.

The ruling gave Gore a critical three extra days to collect votes, which could make it more difficult for Harris to declare the election over and Bush the winner, particularly if the vice president manages to pull ahead in the count. “Could you imagine the explosion if she certified Bush the winner and it turns out Gore won Florida?” said one Gore campaign advisor.

Both candidates are just shy of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. Florida, with 25 electoral votes, will tip the race one way or the other.

GOP Hopes for a Win Today Are Dashed

Republicans had hoped to stop the hand counting underway in heavily Democratic Palm Beach and Broward counties and have the election declared over today with Bush clinging to his narrow lead.

Instead, the manual canvass will spread to still another Democratic stronghold, Miami-Dade County, after local election officials reversed course Friday and voted to begin a manual recount of its roughly 650,000 ballots. Officials plan to meet today to decide how to proceed.

The hairpin turns on Friday were reminiscent of election night, when first one side then the other found cause to celebrate.

Ari Fleischer, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, described the last 10 days as an emotional roller coaster and said Friday “we had two rides for the price of one.”

Chris Lehane, Gore’s press secretary, agreed. “You’re up and you’re down. One of the truest things we’ve discovered is that every hour things change dramatically. The worm is constantly turning.”

The day began with a major disappointment for Gore when Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry P. Lewis ruled that Harris properly used her discretion in refusing to accept any votes tallied after the state’s Tuesday deadline for counties to report election results. Attorneys for Gore had argued that Harris acted “arbitrarily.”

“I disagree,” the judge said in a brief ruling read by a court clerk on national television. “On the limited evidence presented, it appears the secretary has exercised her reasoned judgment . . . , applied them to the facts . . . and made her decision.”

State High Court Makes Its Move

The Bush camp seized on the ruling as a decisive breakthrough in the 10-day-old stalemate.

Harris issued a two-sentence statement vowing to move ahead toward final certification, and Baker declared, “The rule of law has prevailed.”

But the seven-member state Supreme Court issued its brief order just a few hours later. The court blocked Harris from certifying a winner “until further order of this court.”

The seven justices--all but one of them Democratic appointees--said they acted “in order to maintain the status quo.” The court further stated: “It is NOT the intent of this order to stop the counting. . . .”

The reversal exasperated Republicans.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) told reporters in Washington that he was prepared to wait through the weekend. But he added: “I’m not sure I’m willing to say that the presidency of the United States for the next four years should be decided by seven Democrat-[appointed] judges.”

The Supreme Court decision was just one of two blows to the Bush campaign Friday.

In Atlanta, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the governor’s request to stop the hand tallies on constitutional grounds. The appeals court ruled that states have “primary authority . . . to resolve most controversies” surrounding their elections.

Although disappointed by the decision, Baker said the appeals court ruling is not the final word. He said the decision allows Bush to continue to pursue his case on the federal level “at an appropriate time in the future.”

Hand Counters Press Onward

Undeterred by the legal machinations and political jostling, election workers continued their hand counting of ballots in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

A team of 75 recounters whittled away at a pile of nearly 600,000 Broward ballots, a job expected to take until Monday. The count proceeded after a circuit court judge refused a Republican’s request to stop it.

Later Friday, a second judge told the board to reconsider its decision against counting “dimpled chads”--or ballots in which the hole next to a candidate’s name is merely indented and not punched through. County attorneys were reviewing the decision.

With 111 of 604 precincts counted, Gore ended the day netting 48 votes.

In nearby Palm Beach County, officials said late Friday that Bush had netted four votes after two days of hand counting. The county has tallied 88 of 531 precincts on its way to processing about 462,000 votes. Gore did net nine votes in Palm Beach County through overseas absentees ballots, as workers tallied those votes in advance of a midnight deadline.

That count, like everything else connected with Florida’s election, was a contentious affair. In the first 15 minutes, only eight ballots were certified. “I certainly want to give you guys an opportunity to look, but we can’t spend 20 minutes on each ballot,” Palm Beach County Judge Charles Burton, the chairman of the canvassing board, told attorneys.

Overseas ballots are notoriously problematic, and just 36 of the 52 that arrived in Palm Beach County were allowed.

Once that job was completed, workers resumed their hand counting of ballots, though at a much slower pace than officials had hoped. Election officials now fear the job may not be completed until well after Thanksgiving.

Observers challenged thousands of ballots, though many of them appeared to be correctly and clearly punched. In just one precinct, 281 of 1,741 ballots were challenged and set aside for the county’s canvassing board instead of added to a candidate’s pile; at one point, a Republican observer challenged eight of 10 votes that appeared to have been cast for Gore.

Elsewhere in the county, Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga heard arguments on whether the state Constitution allows for a second election in the county if the first is found to be irreparably flawed. A decision may come Monday.

More than two dozen Gore backers have demanded a new election, claiming the “butterfly” ballot caused them to mistakenly cast their votes for Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party.

Barry Richard, a Bush lawyer, insisted the judiciary has little role to play in elections, with authority vested in the state Legislature. But Don Feldman, an attorney representing some of the voters, said the opposite: Labarga not only has the right but a “mandate” to consider ordering a new election.

“You are bound to hear this,” Feldman asserted. “If [you believe] the wrong person was elected, you must fashion a remedy.”

Pivotal Reversal in Miami-Dade

In Miami, the decision to manually recount Miami-Dade County’s 653,963 ballots represented still another victory for Gore. Earlier this week, the local election board had rejected a full recount after a sampling of roughly 1% of county precincts turned up just six additional votes for the vice president.

The pivotal vote to reverse that decision Friday came from county Judge Myriam Lehr, who earlier opposed the full recount. After listening to two hours of arguments, Lehr sided with Judge Lawrence D. King, a Democrat, though she did not say why.

Gisela Salas, a county election official, estimated that a recount in the state’s most populous county would take 26 to 30 days. “This is turning into the O.J. Simpson trial of elections,” complained Roberto Martinez, a Republican attorney.

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Times staff writers Nick Anderson, Geraldine Baum, Maria L. La Ganga and Scott Gold contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Day in Court

Friday Actions

7 a.m. PST

Tallahassee

Circuit judge refuses to require that officials include hand recount results in final tally. Gore appeals.

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8 a.m. PST

South Florida

Broward and Palm Beach counties begin second day of hand recounts. Overseas ballots tallied statewide.

*

1:15 p.m. PST

Tallahassee

The Florida Supreme Court bars secretary of state from certifying the election results today.

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2 p.m. PST

Miami-Dade County

County canvassing board votes to recount all 653,963 ballots by hand, reversing Tuesday decision.

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3 p.m. PST

Atlanta

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejects a request from GOP voters to halt hand recounts.

What’s Next

Today:

Tallies of overseas ballots are due to secretary of state’s office by 9 a.m. PST

Monday:

Florida Supreme Court to hold a hearing at 10 a.m. PST to consider the validity of recounts.

Monday: Judge in Palm Beach may decide whether the state Constitution allows another election.

Optical Scan Voting

For Florida’s statewide presidential recount, secretary of state Katherine Harris allowed counties with optical scan voting systems to recount using those same systems. But last year, Harris’ office indicated recounting ballots by hand was better. Here’s how the Marksense system works:

1. Voter indicates choice by shading in an oval with pencil on a paper ballot.

2. Voter either puts ballot into sealed box or inserts ballot into computer tabulating device. Tabulator reads the votes using “dark mark logic,” in which a computer selects the darkest mark within a given set as the correct choice or vote.

3. Precinct results are transmitted by computer to a central host computer.

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Sources: Election Data Services, Federal Election Commission, Global Election Systems Inc.

Researched by JULIE SHEER / Los Angeles Times

U.S. Popular Vote

Friday’s nationwide election returns, with 99% of the nation’s precincts reporting.

GORE: 49,858,201

BUSH: 49,657,511

GORE LEADS by 200,690

OTHER CANDIDATES: 3,807,521