Bush, Gore Go Public Over Recount

Al Gore said Thursday that George W. Bush's rejection of his recount overture raises questions about whether a fair election is going to be ``short-circuited,'' but pledged to work for reconciliation

Thursday, November 16th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Al Gore said Thursday that George W. Bush's rejection of his recount overture raises questions about whether a fair election is going to be ``short-circuited,'' but pledged to work for reconciliation when a president is chosen. That choice, said Bush, must come soon.

Gore, a surprise guest on a radio talk show, said the choice in the impasse ``is whether the voters are going to decide this election or whether the process is going to be short-circuited.''

Bush and Gore went before the cameras Wednesday night to put their cases to the public.

Republican Bush declared ``this process must have a point of conclusion, a moment when America and the world know who is the next president.'' He rejected Gore's proposal to expand hand-counting in the disputed Florida election.

Speaking by phone on ABC Radio host Tom Joyner's show, Gore held to the calming tone he had struck in his televised statement, when he offered Bush a deal Democrats knew would be turned down.

``However it comes out we're going to come behind the winner,'' Gore said. ``I just want to do my part to try to protect our country and our ability to come together.''

But the legal battle pressed on, with his supporters asking a federal appeals court Thursday not to intervene in the Florida election dispute.

Bush's team has turned to that court, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, to try to stop the hand counting of ballots in four Democratic-leaning Florida counties. His lawyers described the stakes in stark terms, saying in their brief, ``The entire nation is witnessing the disintegration of a process that was designed to elect America's president.''

Gore's supporters said in their brief that the case ``is simply not appropriate for federal court intervention of any kind at this point in the proceeding.''

A supportive Joyner and his co-host tried to draw Gore into talk of a stolen election but the vice president wouldn't bite.

``I would discourage the use of that word because, however it comes out, we're going to come behind the winner,'' he said, cautioning that there are ``high emotions on the other side,'' too.

Gore offered in his televised statement to go along with a statewide hand recount of Florida's 6 million votes if Bush did not want the outcome settled by recounts in selected Democratic counties.

No deal, said Bush.

``The outcome of this election will not be the result of deals or efforts to mold public opinion,'' Bush said. Hand recounting ``introduces human error and politics into the vote-counting process.''

Bush holds a 300-vote lead over his rival in Florida, the state that will hand one man or the other a majority of the Electoral College and the keys to the White House. Overseas ballots are to be counted Saturday.

The prospect of continued legal battles was underscored Thursday by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Gore's running mate, who said voters who supported the Democratic ticket need to see a ``reasonable and just conclusion'' to the impasse if the next president is to have legitimacy.

Legal action is ``the American way,'' Lieberman said on NBC's ``Today'' show. ``When you feel that you've not received a fair deal, the one place you turn in America is to the courts. I hope that's not necessary but that's still on the table for sure.''

Speaking of Floridians and all Democratic supporters, he said: ``Their anger, their frustration with the way this ended as well as the anger and frustration of millions of other people around the country who voted for us, I think has to find a reasonable and just conclusion or else this country will go into the new century divided with a president who does not have legitimacy.''

Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., said of the Democrats: ``It doesn't take much for them to feel they need to go to court.''

Gore had offered to set aside further litigation if Bush agreed either to let manual recounts finish in three Democratic-leaning counties, or have ballots recounted by hand everywhere in the state.

President Clinton, in Brunei for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, said Thursday that the Florida controversy will likely spur election reforms.

``I think there will be a lot of pressure to improve the form of ballots and the methods of voting and have more clear standards around the country,'' Clinton said.

The dueling appearances by Gore and Bush capped a tumultuous Wednesday in which Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris said she would not accept the results of any hand recounts when certifying final totals on Saturday. Only absentee ballots from overseas, due in by midnight Friday night, will be rolled into the totals, she said. Gore's lawyers said they would challenge her decision Thursday.

With Gore urging them on, officials in Broward County said they intended to continue recounting 588,000 ballots by hand Thursday. Just up the Florida coast, Palm Beach County officials said they, too, intended to review ballots cast on Election Day.

Thursday's legal docket stretched to the federal appeals court in Atlanta, where judges called for written arguments on Bush's bid â€” he lost in Miami federal district court on Monday â€” to shut down the recounts altogether.

Just over the legal horizon was the U.S. Supreme Court, and already there were predictions the election to pick the nation's 43rd president would wind up there. ``Anything this important is going to find its way to the most important court in the land,'' former Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, a longtime friend of Bush's running mate Dick Cheney, said in an interview.

In their TV appearances, both men strove for a statesmanlike presentation.

Gore went first: ``We need a resolution that is fair and final,'' he said. ``We need to move expeditiously to the most complete and accurate count that is possible.''

Suggesting expanded manual recounts, he said: ``Machines can sometimes misread or fail to detect the way ballots are cast.''

He invited Bush to meet with him immediately, ``not to negotiate, but to improve the tone of our dialogue in America.'' And he proposed a second meeting, after the election, ``to reaffirm our national unity.''

Bush responded: ``Not for ... Vice President Gore, or for me, but for America, this process must have a point of conclusion, a moment when America and the world know who is the next president.''

``The way to conclude this election in a fair and accurate and final way is for the state of Florida to count the remaining overseas ballots, add them to the certified vote and announce the results as required by Florida law,'' he said.

Bush said he was willing to meet Gore after the election.