Gore Allegations Said 'Simply Wrong'

George W. Bush's point man in Florida argued Tuesday it was ``wrong, simply wrong'' for Al Gore to claim that thousands of votes have never been counted in the state's bitterly contested

Tuesday, November 28th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

George W. Bush's point man in Florida argued Tuesday it was ``wrong, simply wrong'' for Al Gore to claim that thousands of votes have never been counted in the state's bitterly contested presidential election. Democratic running mate Joseph Lieberman said so anyway, over and over.

``There are more than 10,000 votes in South Florida that have never been counted,'' Lieberman said in an early morning interview on CBS, following up on Gore's nationally televised appeal for patience while he pursues his unprecedented legal challenge to Bush's certified victory in Florida. The vice presidential hopeful made the same claim on the other television networks, with only slight variations in phrasing.

But former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, speaking for Bush, sharply disputed that at a news conference in Tallahassee.

``It is wrong, simply wrong, and I would submit not fair to say, as our opponents do over and over, that these votes have never been counted,'' he said. The ballots contain no vote for president, he said, but even so, ``they've been counted just like all of the other nonvotes, not only in other counties in Florida, but across the United States of America have been counted. They've been counted, and they've been recounted by machines.''

Lieberman said ``our hope'' is for the election to be settled by Dec. 12, the date for final selection of Florida's 25 electors. The candidate who controls them will become the next president, since neither Bush nor Gore can command a majority of the Electoral College without Florida in his column.

That mathematical imperative has spawned an election controversy unlike any other â€” machine recounts, manual recounts, countless lawsuits â€” but not yet an acknowledged winner in the race for the White House.

Bush was in Texas on Tuesday, meeting with his aides, after serving notice on Monday he wanted the keys to the government's transition office â€” a request the Clinton administration rebuffed.

Gore was in Washington on the morning after his televised appeal to the nation in which he cast his court challenge as an obligation to assure that the true winner is known, and said, ``ignoring votes means ignoring democracy itself.''

Whatever the timetable Lieberman had in mind, the legal wheels were turning.

Gore's attorneys filed a motion in late morning to speed up the process of hearing their challenge to the vote count in three Florida counties, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Nassau.

A hearing was set in Seminole County in midafternoon on a Democratic lawsuit challenging thousands of ballots there.

And the Bush team labored over its written appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has set arguments for Friday in the Texas governor's lawsuit challenging the validity of the manual recounts that the Gore campaign triggered last week.

At the heart of the legal contest, and the public sparring between Baker and Lieberman, was a dispute over thousands of ballots on which voting machines failed to read a vote for president. The Gore campaign argues that an unknown number of them contained an imperfectly cast vote â€” meaning the voter failed to punch a hole out of the cardboard ballot fully. The Bush team says not all voters intended to vote for president in Florida, as elsewhere, and the votes have, in fact, been counted.

Republican running mate Dick Cheney was on the talk show circuit as well as Lieberman, making the case that Bush needed all the time available for his transition, especially given the time spent on recounting votes in Florida.

``It's time to wrap this up that we've had the election, we've had the count, we've had the recount now we've had the certification of George W. Bush as the winner,'' Cheney said on NBC's ``Today'' show.

He said the Bush team is ``rapidly running out of time to put together that new administration.''

Gore's remarks, carried live on prime time television Monday night, closed a day full of legal and rhetorical skirmishing.

Bush's legal team had written arguments to submit to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington in support of the Texas governor's lawsuit challenging the validity of manual recounts conducted in Florida.

At the same time, members of Gore's legal team said they were hoping to provide Bush's lawyers with their evidence and witness lists by Wednesday in their state court challenge to the Texas governor's 537-vote victory in Florida.

Gore's challenge to the results in Palm Beach, Nassau and Miami-Dade counties is before Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls, a jurist known for swift action. He told lawyers on Monday he understood their difficulty in trying to get the case resolved before the Dec. 12 deadline for selecting Florida's 25 electors.

Yet another interested party, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, was taking a step toward a special session that could result in appointment of its own slate of electors. A special joint committee was scheduled to meet for the first time to discuss election issues.

The candidate who has the support of the state's electors stands to become the 43rd president, since without Florida, neither Bush nor Gore can command a 270-vote Electoral College majority.

Gore and Cheney had one thing in common on Monday. Each spoke against a backdrop of a dozen or so American flags, meant to convey an image of legitimacy and presidential prestige.

Beyond that, though, their messages served political aims that were poles apart.

Gore's nationally broadcast remarks capped a day of persistent effort that enlisted President Clinton as well as the Democratic leaders of Congress to firm up public support for his court challenge in Florida. And thus far, only a few scattered voices of Democratic dissent had surfaced.

Cheney's comments were designed to convey the notion that the election was over and Bush was its winner.

Public opinion polls pointed to an uphill climb for the vice president. A CNN-USA Today-Gallup survey, released just before Gore spoke, showed 56 percent of those polled believe the vice president should concede, and 38 percent believed he should not. A Washington Post poll yielded approximately the same result.

``There are some who would have us bring this election to the fastest conclusion possible,'' the vice president said. I have a different view. I believe our Constitution matters more than convenience.''

He said he had decided to contest ``this inaccurate and complete count'' in Florida, and added there has yet to be a single, full and accurate count.''

He added that if he loses in the end, ``so be it,'' and if he wins, ``so be it....

``But whatever the outcome, let the people have their say, and let us listen. Ignoring votes means ignoring democracy itself.''

In a new twist Monday night, a Palm Beach County official said the results of a manual recount of thousands of presidential ballots did not match up with figures from the last machine count, conducted Nov. 12.

Denise Cote, a county spokeswoman, said ``unaudited figures'' from the manual recount were sent to state elections officials for certification, though that doesn't mean the numbers were wrong. She refused to discuss details. The manual recount was rejected Sunday by Secretary of State Katherine Harris because it arrived incomplete, throwing out a net gain of 180 votes for Gore.

Bush made only the briefest of appearances in public on Monday, and did not speak. Instead, he busied himself with what aides said were transition meetings in the state Capitol in Austin, Texas, and dispatched Cheney to make the case the election is over.

``Every vote in Florida has been counted. Every vote in Florida has been recounted. Some have been counted three times,'' he said.

Gore and Lieberman ``are apparently still unwilling to accept the outcome. That is unfortunate in light of the penalty that may have to be paid at some future date if the next administration is not allowed to prepare to take the reins of government,'' he added.

He said it was ``regrettable'' that the Clinton administration had declined to make available to office space in Washington and $5.3 million Congress approved for the transition. Cheney said Republicans would begin raising private funds to allow them to proceed.

Clinton, speaking with reporters at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting, said he had nothing to do with the decision of the General Services Administration to reject Cheney's request.