-Caveat Lector-
NOVEMBER 19, 10:18 EST
Palm Beach Recount Stress Mounts
By DEBORAH HASTINGS
AP National Writer
Protesting in Palm Beach
AP/Victor Caivano [29K]
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) � At the Palm Beach County recount,
everyone complains. Fingernails are too long, jewelry bumps
ballot cards, Post-It notes are improperly stuck on ballot piles.
But inside, counters and observers are banned from speaking or
making faces. The tedious process drags on and on, and the
participants are clearly unhappy.
Counters, political party observers, lawyers and the local
canvassing commission board slogged through Day Three of
examining by hand more than 462,000 punch-card ballots.
Scrutinized thus far: about 23 percent of that number.
Joseph Lieberman and Bob Dole on Sunday
Fatigue and stress are mounting. Uncertainty and fear have pushed
politicians into taunting each other like school boys. Democrats
spin on one side of the parking lot. Republicans spin on the
other. About 100 reporters, photographers and television crews
swing between the two like a pendulum.
Republicans blame the Democrats for slowing the recount to the
speed of mud. The Democrats say the Republicans did it. County
Judge Charles Burton, who heads the canvassing board, has taken
to blaming both parties.
``They object to everything that's going on,'' said Burton, who
often steps outside the guarded voting room for a cigarette and
gets mobbed by journalists. ``It's slowing us down.''
The process is fraught with tedium. Some 60 counters are here,
working in shifts of about 25. Spread across an amphitheater,
they sit in groups of two. Standing behind each group is a
Democratic observer and a Republican observer. If any of the four
find a ballot questionable for any reason, the card is placed in
a pile.
There is no chatting or making faces, by order of the supervisor
of elections.
The pile is reviewed by the canvassing board and lawyers from
both parties, who decide whether the ballot is accepted or
rejected.
The process is bogging down at the first step, with party
observers setting aside hundreds of ballots for reasons ranging
from folds and creases to dimples and dents.
The counters are not allowed to dispute the observers. They
simply hold up the card, admonished to clasp its bottom edge, and
the study tiny holes.
Burton said Saturday that the observers were clogging the
counting by setting aside ballots with perfectly punched holes.
``The spin for both sides is pretty obvious,'' he said.
And vehement. Dennis Newman, an attorney for the state Democratic
Party said Saturday the Republicans are ``cry babies'' whose
ballot claims ``are ridiculous.''
Tucker Eskew, George W. Bush's campaign spokesman, said Al Gore
gained votes because cards were placed in the wrong pile. Burton
said that problem was fixed.
And the counters, unidentified county workers forbidden from
speaking with the media, look just plain exhausted.
On Saturday, one whispered in a pool reporter's ear as she was
leaving, ``I've had it. I'm not coming back. There are some real
games going on here.''
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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