Gore’s Legal Challenge Gets Underway

Vice President Al Gore and his running mate, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, filed a formal legal challenge Monday to the official statewide certification of the presidential campaign in Florida, declaring themselves the rightful heirs to the state’s 25 electoral votes and asking a judge to “determine the full, fair and accurate results of the election.”

Less than four hours later, their lawsuit without any historic or political precedent was underway in a third-floor Tallahassee courtroom, where a judge and some two dozen lawyers found themselves racing a deadline of less than three weeks to decide whether the declared winner in Florida--Republican Gov. George W. Bush of Texas--was the wrong man.

Leon County Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls, clearly mindful of the clock ticking toward Dec. 12 for the confirmation of Florida electors, quickly began working his way through the complex lawsuit and some nine separate legal motions filed by the Gore team.

The judge instructed the attorneys for Bush to respond with their formal defense within the next several days, and for both sides this week to trade lists of proposed witnesses and evidence that they would call to his courtroom once the trial formally convenes.

The Democrats’ attorneys, eager to expedite the case, said they could provide their lists on witnesses and experts on voting machines as early as today.

But Republican lawyers complained that the case was moving a bit too fast, noting that they learned the lawsuit had been filed only 90 minutes before they were called into Sauls’ courtroom for the scheduling hearing.

Several of the GOP lawyers said they had not even had enough time to consult with their clients.

But David Boies, one of the lead Gore lawyers, said both sides want to see the legal contest play out if it will finally bring an end to a dispute that is growing increasingly bitter with each day.

Preparations Ordered for Transfer of Ballots

“I don’t think anybody is prepared to see this process simply expire because we did not get the work done in time,” Boies said. “I think both sides are making a genuine effort here to get this matter resolved.”

Sauls also asked for officials at canvassing boards in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Nassau counties to begin preparing to transfer tens of thousands of ballots to Tallahassee.

Once they arrive, he may appoint a special master to serve as his assistant in reexamining the boxloads of contested ballots that Gore says he needs counted to win the election. Just what kind of inspection the master would conduct has not been spelled out.

If it becomes too cumbersome to bring the ballots here, however, then Sauls may have the review carried out in the canvassing board offices in South Florida, where the inspection would be closely watched by even more teams of lawyers and GOP and Democratic political monitors.

But more important, perhaps, the balding, folksy jurist sought to set a somewhat calm and lighthearted tone in the courtroom in the midst of so many somber lawyers aware that they are making legal and political history.

Worried that his special master may get sore-eyed reviewing so many ballots, Sauls joked, “Do you have a magnifying glass here?”

When there were too many lawyers and too few seats, the judge had an extra chair brought out for W. Dexter Douglass, another of the lead Gore attorneys. “Don’t be tired now,” he told the lawyer.

The lawsuit is unique in that it comes after the fact--one day after Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified the statewide election totals and declared Bush the winner by a mere 537 votes.

While Gore and his supporters earlier were protesting the vote counts and had successfully gotten recounts in some selected South Florida counties that are heavily Democratic, his task now is much more challenging.

He must convince Sauls, and if he loses there, the Florida Supreme Court, that additional votes should be counted, others recounted, and many of them included in the final certification.

Douglas Hattaway, a chief Gore spokesman, said outside the courtroom that if they succeed, they will pick up the votes necessary to win that they believe are already out there.

“The academic point to make is that we’re ahead right now,” he said.

Barry Richard, a Tallahassee lawyer representing the Bush team, acknowledged in court that time is of the essence for the Gore lawyers, and he pledged not to purposely try to slow down the process.

He also promised to vigorously defend the right of Bush to call himself president-elect.

Lawyer Underscores Importance of Case

At one point, standing before Sauls, Richard gazed across the courtroom at the phalanx of lawyers, all but one in dark business suits and many of them gray-haired like himself.

“This is certainly, most of us agree, the most important case we’ve ever been engaged in,” he said.

Sauls also scanned his courtroom, his eyes roaming across the lawyers dispatched from as far away as Miami, Houston and Denver, and admonished them that everything must be done to meet the Dec. 12 deadline.

“You’re all trial lawyers and trial lawyers live a dreadful existence,” he said in his west Florida drawl. “You’re always in some crisis. . . . This is no different from any other litigation. But it has some unusual aspects. And it is on a short track.”

At the heart of the legal contest is whether some votes in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Nassau counties were improperly excluded or included in the final certification.

At the heart of the political debate is whether, even if those votes were included, Gore was shortchanged on enough votes that would put him over the top against Bush.

“The vote totals reported in the Election Canvassing Commission’s certification of Nov. 26, 2000, are wrong,” the Gore lawyers said in their petition. “They include illegal votes and do not include legal votes that were improperly rejected.”

They added, “The number of such votes is more than sufficient to place in doubt, indeed to change, the result of the election.”

The Democratic lawyers sued over the ballot-counting situations in three communities.

* From Miami-Dade County, they want the election supervisor there to produce for the court “roughly 10,500 under-vote ballots for which the machines did not detect a vote for president.”

They are hunting for 388 votes that were counted in the partial manual recount so that they can be included in the final tally, and apparently give Gore a net gain of 156 votes.

They further noted that a Florida appellate court held that the Miami-Dade board, which abandoned its recount well before completion, had a “mandatory obligation” to complete the count.

* From Palm Beach County, the Gore lawyers want the election supervisor to produce “the roughly 3,300 ballots” that were set aside as disputed returns, even after the Democratic observers objected when they were not counted as a vote for either candidate.

In addition, they said, the canvassing board refused to count hundreds of indented ballots, contrary to a circuit court judge’s ruling.

And they want reinstated some 1,000 to 2,000 ballots that they claim were improperly rejected during the recount. Those ballots, they said, would give Gore a net gain of from 300 to 800 votes.

* In Nassau County, the Gore team complained, the canvassing board’s rejection of the machine recount cost Gore 51 votes.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Q&A; on ‘Election Contests’

Some questions and answers about Florida election contests, similar to those Al Gore filed on Monday.

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What is an election contest?

In Florida law--Statute 102.168--it is a legal challenge to an election. It is an option only after an election is certified.

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Who can contest an election?

Basically anyone, including the candidate who apparently lost the election, a voter or any taxpayer. The canvassing board and the apparent winner of the election are defendants.

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How is a contest filed, and where?

A legal complaint is filed in circuit court in the county where the election was held for local races. When the election covers more than one county, contests must be filed in Leon County, home of Florida’s capital.

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Can contests be filed against any election?

The grounds for a contest include allegations of misconduct, fraud or corruption of election officials serious enough either to change the election outcome or place the results in doubt.

Another basis could be an allegation that the apparent winner of the election is ineligible to hold the office.

Another provision of the law says that either counting enough illegal votes or rejecting enough valid votes to change the result of the election or place it in doubt is also grounds for a contest.

And, finally, there is a catchall provision that says a contest can be based on any other cause or allegation, which, if sustained, would show that a person other than the successful candidate was the person duly nominated or elected to the office in question.

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How quickly are contests settled?

The law says that defendants have 10 days to respond but the person filing the contest is “entitled to an immediate hearing.”

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What can the judge do?

A lot. Under the law, the judge “may fashion such orders as he or she deems necessary . . . to prevent or correct any wrong.” The law goes on to note that the judge “may provide any relief appropriate under such circumstances.” The law also allows the judge to accept “any other cause or allegation” that shows the outcome of the election was wrong.

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Is the trial judge’s decision final?

No, it can be appealed to the 1st District Court of Appeal, which may pass it on to the Florida Supreme Court. If a constitutional issue is alleged, it could go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Source: Associated Press