Florida certifies votes with Bush leading by 537

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Florida's top election official certified the results of the state's hotly disputed presidential recount Sunday with Texas Gov. George W. Bush leading Vice President

Sunday, November 26th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Florida's top election official certified the results of the state's hotly disputed presidential recount Sunday with Texas Gov. George W. Bush leading Vice President Al Gore by 537 votes as Gore's lawyers prepared to formally contest the results.

Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced the certified totals from Florida's 67 counties Sunday night, after a deadline for counties to submit amended returns from hand recounts passed at 5 p.m. Earlier, Harris rejected a request for an extension by Palm Beach County, where the canvassing board said it had less than 1,000 ballots left to count.

The final tally, according to Harris, was 2,912,790 votes for Bush; 2,912,253 for Gore.
"Accordingly, on behalf of the state Election Canvassing Commission and in accordance with the laws of the state of Florida, I hereby declare Governor George W. Bush the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes for the president of the United States," Harris said.

Gore did not plan to concede Sunday regardless of the outcome. His legal chief, David Boies, announced plans Sunday to challenge results in at least three counties after the certification. And the significance of Sunday's deadline diminished throughout the day as it became apparent that both campaigns would continue their battles in court no matter what the outcome.

Gore's running mate, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, said Harris' decision ignored hundreds of votes and thousands of hours of labor by election workers.

"This evening, the secretary of state of Florida has decided to certify what by any reasonable standard is an incomplete and inaccurate count of the votes cast by the state of Florida," Lieberman said.

"Vice President Gore and I have no choice but to contest these actions as provided under Florida law and in accord with the decision of the Florida Supreme Court," he added. "It is in our nation's interest that the winner in Florida is truly the person who got the most votes."
Bush's top observer in Florida, former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, urged Gore to avoid a challenge.

"At some point, there must be closure. At some point, the law must prevail and the lawyers must go home," Baker said. "We have reached that point ... It is time to honor the will of the people."

Latest developments:

â€¢ Boies said Gore, the Democratic nominee, plans to contest the results from at least three counties -- Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Nassau, where the canvassing board abruptly threw out the results of its mechanical recount and reverted to its original results. He described the plans as "a work in progress."

"It probably will not be until tonight that we have a complete view of what has happened and a complete understanding of what the nature of our contest will be," Boies said.

Gore was said Sunday to be considering a televised address to discuss why he will pursue further legal action in the Florida recount.

â€¢ Bush waved to reporters but said nothing Sunday morning as he entered the Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas. Gore attended Sunday morning services with his family at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia. His only comment to reporters as he entered the church: "Good morning."

â€¢ In Palm Beach County, the canvassing board had between 800 and 1,000 ballots left to tabulate when the deadline elapsed, said Judge Charles Burton, chairman of the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board. He said counting was suspended to allow county officials to submit results to Tallahassee. Palm Beach County eventually wrapped up its recount Sunday night, and Harris left open the possibility that she could still include the results of a complete manual recount. The Palm Beach board submitted figures to Harris' office Sunday evening, but continued counting after the deadline, in case Harris accepted later results. Palm Beach County election officials lost a precious hour of work early Sunday morning as Republican attorneys challenged the order in which county precincts were being selected for ballot examination

â€¢ Florida's senior senator, Bob Graham, and Sen.-elect Bill Nelson -- both Democrats -- warned against "a rush to judgment" in the recount. Graham said extending the deadline for Palm Beach County "would have been an act that would have bled off some of the poison that has affected this process."

â€¢ After hand-counting votes for 11 days, Broward County completed its work just before midnight Saturday, giving Gore a net gain of 567 votes. Republicans complained that election officials were including questionable absentee ballots as valid votes. Broward's canvassing board chairman denied that. "Anything that we had to remotely guess on, we decided not to count," Judge Robert Lee told CNN.

â€¢ The Miami Herald reported Sunday that seven convicted felons -- three Democrats, two Republicans and two independents -- were able to vote in Palm Beach County because election officials failed to purge voter rolls of felons as they are required to do under state law. The paper said thousands of felons, who are not allowed to vote, remained on the voting rolls statewide. A Palm Beach County spokeswoman declined comment on the story.

â€¢ Hillsborough, Okaloosa, Orange, Pasco and Polk -- face Republican lawsuits to force review of absentee military ballots rejected for lack of a postmark or other problems. The county-level action came after Bush's lawyers Saturday dropped a state court lawsuit over rejected overseas absentee ballots.

â€¢ The U.S. Supreme Court will hear next Friday an appeal from Bush that seeks to bar hand-counted ballots. At issue will be Bush's request to overturn a Florida Supreme Court decision allowing the hand recount totals to be added to the state's presidential tally. CNN has applied for permission to televise the Supreme Court proceedings.

The certification process

Harris, a Republican, is one of three members of the state canvassing board that will certify Florida's results in the presidential election. The others are Agriculture Commissioner Robert Crawford, a Democrat who supported Bush, and state elections supervisor Clay Roberts, a Republican appointee.

Crawford replaced Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the younger brother of George W. Bush, when the governor chose to remove himself from the process.

Under the certification procedure, the state canvassing board members will examine the results in their respective offices in the state Capitol in Tallahassee, then send them to Harris, who is expected to certify them as official on Sunday evening.

Theoretically, the person named as the winner gains Florida's 25 electoral votes and, with them, the White House. But legal challenges mean Sunday night's result won't be the final word.

Correspondents "/CNN/anchors_reporters/snow.kate.html", "/CNN/anchors_reporters/flock.jeff.html", "/CNN/anchors_reporters/franken.bob.html" and "/CNN/anchors_reporters/oconnor.eileen.html", The "/interactive_legal.html" \l "AP" and "/interactive_legal.html" \l "Reuters" contributed to this report, written by CNN.com Writer Matt Smith.