In a stunning development, Palm Beach County election officials announced early
Sunday that they intended to begin a manual recount of all ballots cast in the
county, after a sample of 4,000 ballots in four precincts begun Saturday
added 19 votes to Vice President Al Gore's total. Unless blocked by a court
order, elections officials will meet Monday to decide how to proceed on the
full manual count.
The county election canvassing board voted 2-1 for the hand count of
nearly 422,000 votes, a procedure that could take many days to complete.
Florida is due to report its final vote total Friday.
Despite objections from the Republican member of the three-person county
canvassing board, the career elections supervisor sided with the Democrat
member, Carol Roberts, who said indications were that a full county recount
could add 1,900 votes to the Gore total. In an unofficial estimate, Bush now
leads Gore by fewer than 400 votes.
Speaking on "Face the Nation" on CBS, former Secretary of State James A.
Baker III proposed that both sides accept the recount of Florida votes
already conducted by machine only, plus the tabulation of still-incoming
absentee ballots.
"We would agree to abide by the results of the count of those overseas
absentee ballots provided they are counted in an appropriate and legal way,
if the other side would agree to do that."
The Bush campaign expects the overseas military vote to favor its
candidate. A Miami Herald survey of 17 Florida counties showed 2,975
overseas ballots had not yet been returned.
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher rejected Baker's proposal on
NBC's "Meet the Press."
"We are not prepared to do that, frankly," Christopher said. "This is the
procedure called for by Florida law."
The manual recounts in four Democrat-dominated Florida
counties would likely increase Gore's total.
As their advisers scrambled for every advantage, the candidates remained
publicly above the fray. Gore watched "Men of Honor" at a
theater Saturday night and went to church Sunday. Bush remained with vice
presidential candidate Dick Cheney and other potential members of a new
administration at his ranch near Waco.
The Bush campaign Saturday filed the 80-page lawsuit and motions seeking
an injunction to stop manual recounts of ballots in four Florida counties
that voted for Gore Tuesday.
Christopher said he expected the motion to be rejected because of reluctance by
federal courts in the past to deal with state-run elections.
"We are dealing with broad questions of federal law that belong in
federal court," countered Barry Richard, the lead Florida lawyer on the Bush
team of attorneys. "It is implicit in the Constitution that there are some
limits to what the states can do."
Baker has charged that a hand count would result in even more errors than
a machine count and would be subject to partisan mischief.
In the lawsuit, Republicans argued that the constitutional rights of
voters elsewhere in the state will be violated if a recount is conducted in
the four counties. Treating ballots differently in different counties, the
suit argues, violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
It also says manual recounts in every Florida would take so long, the
state might miss the Dec. 18 deadline for casting its electoral vote. And it
argues that media coverage of a changed result, even if it is overturned,
would compromise the legitimacy of the potential Bush administration.
U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks will preside over the hearing
starting at 9:30 a.m.
At stake are Florida's 25 electoral votes, which are likely to decide the
election.
With the outcome in Florida, New Mexico and Oregon uncertain, Gore's
unofficial tally of likely electoral votes stood at 255 for Gore to 246 for
Bush.
Before the hand recount of four precincts in Palm Beach was completed
early Sunday, Voter News Service gave Bush an edge of 331 votes in Florida.
Gore gained 19 votes in the recount, and a count of write-in votes in
Volusia County gave Gore five more, dropping the margin to 307.
In the three other counties:
Along with Florida, the state totals still being studied carefully were
those of Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon and Wisconsin.
In the only unresolved race for U.S. Senate, new figures from the state of Washington
showed incumbent Republican Slade Gorton retaking a narrow 5,353-vote
lead over Democrat Maria Cantwell. A Cantwell victory would split the Senate
50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.
Vote totals were extremely close in New Mexico, where counting in
Bernalillo County was chaotic because of lost ballots and computer glitches.
Bush took a slim lead over Gore Saturday in the fight for the state's five
electoral votes after Bernalillo County - where Albuquerque is located -
nearly completed its count of 67,000 ballots that were not tabulated on
election night.
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