Florida Supreme Court breathes life into Gore

(AP)- A sharply divided Florida Supreme Court ordered manual recounts to begin in Florida's contested presidential election on Friday, breathing new life into Al Gore's quest for the White House.

Friday, December 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(AP)- A sharply divided Florida Supreme Court ordered manual recounts to begin in Florida's contested presidential election on Friday, breathing new life into Al Gore's quest for the White House.

``Because time is of the essence, the recount will commence immediately,'' said the court's spokesman, Craig Waters.

On a ruling of 4-3, the court also added 383 votes to Gore's total.

George W. Bush was certified the winner of the state's contested election by 537 votes, and the court's ruling threw that in doubt. Cheers erupted from the vice president's supporters gathered at the steps of the courthouse where Waters read a statement summarizing the opinion.

The opinion overturned a ruling by Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls, who had refused to order a recount.

``Because time is of the essence, the recount shall commence immediately,'' the supreme court said.

It ordered a far broader recount than Gore had sought, however, saying that so-called undervotes _ meaning ballots on which there was no vote for president _ must be recounted in all 67 Florida counties.

It was not clear whether Bush would appeal the ruling.

The ruling came little more than an hour after two trial court judges rejected a bid by Democrats to throw out 25,000 absentee ballots in Seminole and Martin Counties. The twin rulings were serious setbacks for the vice president, even though he was not a formal party to either lawsuit.

Circuit Court Judges Nikki Clark and Terry Lewis ruled jointly, saying that despite irregularities in ballot applications _ the basis of the Democrats' challenge _ ``neither the sanctity of the ballots nor the integrity of the elections has been compromised.''

The legal maneuvering unfolded as the Republican-controlled legislature met in special session, ready to assure that Bush got the state's disputed 25 electoral votes regardless of the outcome of the various court cases.

While the court ordered the recount to begin immediately, it was not immediately clear where or how that would happen.

Waters, relaying the court's opinion, said the votes were to be counted using the following standard:

``In tabulating what constitutes a legal vote, the standard to be used is the one provided by the legislature. A vote shall be counted where there is a clear indication of the intent of the voter.''

It was not immediately known precisely how many ballots would be subjected to the recount order.

There was no immediate response from the Bush camp. The reaction inside the Gore's high command and among Democratic supporters was predictable.

``Two strikes, two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and Gore gets a hit,'' said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, one of the Democrats who had said an adverse ruling could spell the end of the vice president's hopes.

It was not immediately known how many ballots would be subject to the recount order.

The court also trimmed George W. Bush's certified 537-vote lead in Florida to 154 votes by ordering that those tallies that had been counted in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties be added to the totals of each candidate.

The opinion overturned a ruling by Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls.

The high court's ruling came almost two hours after Gore had been pushed to the edge of his legal options when two Leon County Circuit Court judges refused to throw out any of 25,000 absentee ballots that had been challenged in Martin and Seminole counties.

In those cases, judges Nikki Clark and Terry Lewis ruled that ``despite irregularities in the requests for absentee ballots, neither the sanctity of the ballots nor the integrity of the elections has been compromised,'' a court clerk read from a prepared statement.

The elections ``reflect a full and fair expression of the will of the voters,'' in Seminole and Martin counties, the clerk, Terre Cass, read.

The ruling by the Supreme Court guaranteed to renew debate about how to decipher a vote on a paper ballot.

It also left in doubt what would Tuesday, Dec. 12 _ the deadline for Florida to certify its 25 representatives to the Electoral College.

The high court ruling may have been foreshadowed by a surprising legal step taken by Bush's lawyers Friday morning when they filed papers to supplement arguments made Thursday before the Supreme Court.

In a rare clarification one day after oral arguments, Bush's lawyer told the state Supreme Court it did not have authority to grant Gore's request to set aside Bush's 537-vote victory and order recounts of thousands of disputed ballots.

Gore's lawyers rebutted in a last-minute filing of their own, telling the Supreme Court that Florida law made it clear that ``the results of this election _ and every election'' were subject to judicial review.

The split decision was not surprising considering that the state Supreme Court justices posed tough questions for lawyers on both sides.

``We're now here on December the 7th, with December the 12th, you know, fast approaching,'' Justice Harry Lee Anstead told Gore lawyer David Boies in the final question of the session. ``How can we resolve an issue like that at this late date?''

``There's never been a rule that says you have to recount all the ballots in an election contest,'' Boies replied. He said only a small fraction of more than 1 million ballots need be reviewed.

Besides, he said, the Bush campaign never asked for a recount.

Earlier, though, lawyers for Bush and Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris argued that the court would be exceeding its legal authority if it granted Gore the relief he seeks.

Harris has already certified Bush's 537-vote lead, a margin Gore insists would evaporate if all the votes were counted.

Joseph Klock, representing Harris, said the court would have to ``create a pile of law'' to grant Gore's request _ an obvious word of caution in view of a separation-of-powers argument that says that would intrude on the Legislature's prerogatives.

An appeal was already being prepared in a third absentee ballot case dismissed Thursday by another local judge, said Alvin Smith, an attorney who represented a Florida Panhandle voter looking to throw out more than 12,000 votes in that region of the state.