Florida Official won't take late votes

Gore camp to contest decision in court today By Pete Slover and Charles Ornstein / The Dallas Morning News TALLAHASSEE, Fla. â€“ Florida's secretary of state announced Wednesday

Thursday, November 16th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Gore camp to contest decision in court today

By Pete Slover and Charles Ornstein / The Dallas Morning News

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. â€“ Florida's secretary of state announced Wednesday she would refuse to accept any late votes in the presidential election, countering a state Supreme Court ruling hours earlier to allow disputed hand recounts in several key counties.

William Daley, chairman of Al Gore's campaign, vowed to go to court early Thursday to contest what he called a "rash and precipitous" action by Katherine Harris, a Republican whom Democrats have accused of partisanship in blocking hand counts expected to generate critical votes for Mr. Gore.

George W. Bush officially leads Mr. Gore by only 300 votes in the battle for the state's 25 electoral votes, which will decide the presidency. After Friday's midnight deadline for overseas ballots passes, Ms. Harris said she intends to announce the final vote count on Saturday.

On another legal front, a federal appeals court in Atlanta agreed Wednesday to consider arguments on the Bush campaign's attempts to shut down the manual recounts. That could set the stage for a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ms. Harris turned down requests for time extensions from South Florida's Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which blamed a rash of lawsuits, high turnout at the polls and other factors for their failure to make Tuesday's deadline for all ballots.

She said the counties had failed to demonstrate any of the conditions required by law for her to grant a waiver â€“ voter fraud, improper polling place procedures or circumstances beyond their control, such as power failures.

"I want to reassure the public that my decisions in this process have been made carefully, consistently, independently and, I believe, correctly," Ms. Harris said.

Hours earlier, the seven-member state Supreme Court panel had turned down Ms. Harris' request to force all election-related suits statewide into a single case in Tallahassee. The court ruled unanimously without a hearing.

Over the day, the list of parties filing papers before the Supreme Court grew to include Mr. Gore, Mr. Bush, Ms. Harris, the state's Democratic attorney general and two counties.

After the state's highest court finishes considering the numerous matters, legal experts said, a combined case is likely to go to the federal court system.

Remaining questions

Among the legal arguments still hanging:

â€¢Are hand counts legal, and what are the standards for hand counting? Democrats said Wednesday that they would ask the court to set standards for recounts and to rule on the arcane questions of what sort of hole punches should be counted during ballot examinations.

â€¢Where should the various lawsuits be heard?

Democrats said they would ask the Supreme Court to take over and settle the various disputes. All but one of the panel's seven judges were appointed by Democratic governors.

Meanwhile, the state's vote-tabulating process staggered on in South Florida. Manual recounts began Wednesday afternoon in Broward County, which reversed a Monday decision not to conduct a full recount.

In Palm Beach County, Circuit Court Judge Jorge Labarga was still working Wednesday under the assumption that the dozen or so cases before his court would stay with him.

In a morning hearing dominated by minutiae of hand-counting procedures, Judge Labarga ruled that the county canvassing board had it wrong. The board had required that one corner of a tiny paper "chad" be detached from a punch card ballot for the ballot to be counted. Democrats wanted the election counters to also consider ballots that had "dimpled" chads that were indented but not completely pushed out. The judge agreed.

Judge Labarga also set a hearing for Friday morning to explore the constitutionality of calling a new election. Most of the lawsuits filed by voters in Palm Beach County seek to invalidate the results and force a new election.

The lawsuits allege that the design of the county's ballot was so confusing that thousands of Mr. Gore's supporters mistakenly voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan or inadvertently punched the holes of two candidates. Mr. Buchanan received 20 percent of his state vote tally in this highly Democratic county.

"It seems to me that the only time we can have an election for president again will be in the year 2004," Judge Labarga said.

Even if another election were possible, Bush attorney Barry Richard told the judge that officials could not coordinate it before state electors cast their ballots for president on Dec. 18. Lawyers for plaintiffs disagreed and asked for a chance to present their evidence as soon as possible.

The full manual recount of more than 450,000 ballots in Palm Beach County had trouble getting off the ground for a second straight day Wednesday. On Tuesday, the delay was caused by a letter from the state election director saying that the manual recount violated state law. That issue was resolved when Judge Labarga gave his permission for the hand tally.

Another delay

The county canvassing board then agreed to start Wednesday. When 50 ballot counters and an equal number of observers showed up, board members agreed to another delay because of the Democratic Party's lawsuit over the way the county counts its ballots.

After the Supreme Court ruling, the Palm Beach canvassing board agreed to wait until Thursday to begin its hand count. The board is waiting for a ruling from the high court on its motion, which seeks explicit clarification of the legality of hand counts.

Meanwhile, the back-and-forth drama moved to neighboring Broward County. On Monday, that county board voted 2-1 not to conduct a manual count, citing advice from the state elections director. The next day, it decided to reconsider that decision. And Wednesday, members reversed themselves, voting 2-1 to proceed with a recount.

In Miami-Dade County, the canvassing board will meet Friday to decide if it will go forward with a hand recount.

The canvassing boards of both Broward and Palm Beach counties submitted letters to Ms. Harris, as required, in an attempt to justify their recounts. Palm Beach's one-page letter summarized the arguments it has made for days.

A partial hand recount of four precincts, representing 1 percent of the vote, showed Mr. Gore picking up a net of 19 votes. If that translated countywide, the vice president would net an additional 1,900 votes.

"Clearly, the results of the manual recount could affect the outcome of this very close presidential election if the manual recounts in the other precincts also vary in this degree from the machine counts," wrote board Chairman Charles Burton, a county judge.

Talking to a group of reporters, Judge Burton said the recount has had trouble getting started because of lawsuits. "Every time we do something to try to move ahead, there's a lawsuit by either party," he said.

If needed, Judge Burton said, ballot counters will work around the clock. "Once we start this, we can do it in six days." he said.

Staff writer Todd J. Gillman in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., contributed to this report.