The state's high court, in a 4-3 vote, overturned a lower-court ruling that had blocked any further recount of thousands of disputed ballots in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.
Supreme Court justices ordered an immediate recount of 9,000 disputed ballots from Miami-Dade and awarded Gore additional votes that, at least for the time being, cut Bush's lead to 154 votes. When Bush was certified the winner of the Florida presidential race in late November, his lead was 537 votes. More than 6 million votes were cast in Florida on Election Day.
The announcement was met with cheers by Gore partisans that were gathered outside the state Supreme Court building in Tallahassee.
The court also ruled that recounts may occur in any Florida counties that experienced a problem of "undervotes," the term applied to ballots that may indicate a preference when examined by hand, but which registered no preference in the electronic voting machines.
Democrats applauded the order. Gore campaign chairman William Daley said Gore would respect the results of the new hand counts and called on politicians to "respect the will of Florida's voters."
"We urge everyone to let the counting, supervised by the independent judiciary, proceed uninterrupted to a speedy conclusion," said Daley.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who predicted that an unfavorable ruling would dash the vice president's hopes of overturning the certification of George W. Bush, said, "two strikes, two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and Gore gets a hit."
Republican Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma blasted the Florida Supreme Court's decision, warning that it "set a dangerous precedent, which places Vice President Gore's recount obsession over the rule of law."
GOP Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania said in a written statement, "The Gore campaign has hoodwinked a court of seven Democrat appointees into calling for a count of cards with no votes on them. They will be looking for votes where there are none. But they will find some anyway because they have changed the very definition of a vote."
The next step for the Bush team, according to James Baker, observer for the Bush campaign is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"We think this ruling is inconsistent with the Florida law, with federal law and with the United States Constitution," Baker said.
Just hours before the state Supreme Court decision, Bush was victorious in two lower court rulings involving questionable absentee ballot applications.
Leon County Judges Terry Lewis and Nikki Clark denied motions by Democrats to throw out more than 25,000 absentee ballots.
Meanwhile, the Florida Legislature opened a special session Friday to appoint the state's 25 presidential electors in what observers in Tallahassee said was filled with pomp, circumstance and a few minutes of partisan politics.
House Speaker Tom Feeney opened the session saying, "Today, literally much of the world is watching and history is watching us. We have a duty and a grand opportunity to be an example of representative government at its best."
The concurrent resolution that would appoint electors pledged to Bush was read into the record. The Florida House is expected to vote Tuesday and the Florida Senate on Wednesday.
But some legislative Democrats tried to challenge the concurrent resolution, arguing that under Florida House rules, a bill would be more suitable. They argued that Republicans went that route because it only requires two readings, instead of the usual three for a bill, and doesn't require the signature of Gov. Jeb Bush.
Republicans countered by saying a bill wouldn't work because if Gov. Jeb Bush can sign a bill, he can veto it, and the power to choose the electors rests with the legislature alone.
Dec. 12 is the deadline for Florida to select its 25 presidential electors.
CNS Senior Staff Writer Jim Burns contributed to this article.
Reprinted with permission of
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