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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
Gore Attorneys Seek Emergency Hearing
By Roberto Suro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 21, 2000; 11:05 AM
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Nov. 21 -- Lawyers for Vice President Gore are seeking
an emergency court hearing this morning to argue that local election
officials are failing to count hundreds of so-called "dimpled" ballots that
should go in the Democratic column.
So far, the laborious process of hand-counting votes in three South Florida
counties has produced smaller gains for Gore than had been expected in his
effort to erase Texas Gov. George W. Bush's 930-vote lead, and lawyers for
the Democratic Party grew concerned late yesterday that the recount will fail
to produce the trove of Democratic votes they have been counting on.
In papers filed with Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Jorge Labarga late
yesterday the Democrats contended that the local canvassing board, a body of
three local officials which is overseeing the recount, has failed to follow a
previous finding by the judge allowing the counting of dimpled ballots –
paper-punch ballots that show a clear indentation but were not perforated by
the voter on election day. A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for
9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The Palm Beach canvassing board has completed a review of the hand recount in
103 of 531 precincts, producing a net gain of three votes for Gore.
"I have not seen much of a vote shift," said County Judge Charles E. Burton,
who heads the county canvassing board overseeing the Palm Beach recount.
Democrats have challenged the board's findings on 276 ballots so far that
they claim should be counted for Gore. The board concluded that in each of
those cases the ballots lacked sufficient evidence of the voter's intent to
be counted. In some cases, the ballot showed more than one dimple in the
presidential vote, Burton said. Another example he noted were ballots that
showed clear perforations in the votes for other offices but a dimple only in
the presidential vote. That was not judged clear evidence that the voter had
difficulty managing the paper-punch ballot but meant to cast a vote for
president, Burton said.
The Palm Beach board is using stricter standards than canvassing boards in
other cases where dimpled ballots have proved the key to determining a final
result, said Dennis Newman, and attorney for the Democratic Party. As of 9
a.m. Judge Labarga had not indicated whether he would grant the Democrats'
request for an emergency hearing, but with the hand recount proceeding he was
expected to move on the case quickly.
The canvassing board has examined less that 2,000 ballots so far and at least
another 3,000 await their scrutiny.
In Broward County, where 604 of 609 precincts and some absentee ballots have
been recounted, Gore had scored a net gain of 127 votes by late this
afternoon, according to unofficial tallies. In Miami-Dade, where the hand
recount just began yesterday and 67 of 614 precincts had been examined, Gore
picked up 46 votes, although that county’s vote was more closely divided
between the two candidates than the other jurisdictions doing manual recounts.
The key for Gore lies in the more than 5,000 ballots that have been set aside
in the three counties because poll workers and party representatives at the
counting tables were not able to agree on whether the ballots should be
counted. Most are partially perforated punch ballots in which the chad – the
bit of paper debris that is supposed to be punched out of the ballot – is
still attached.
According to Gore attorneys who pressed for the hand recounts, vote-counting
machines failed to tally thousands of partially perforated ballots in the
three counties. "We expect to see a sizable number of ballots that are
partially perforated or dimpled going for Gore once the canvassing board has
a chance to look at them closely," said Dennis Newman, a Democratic attorney
observing the Palm Beach recount.
But that could take a while.
In Broward County, the board will not begin examining 1,500 questionable
ballots until the initial hand recount of all the precincts is completed,
which could occur Tuesday. In Palm Beach County, the canvassing board has
examined some of the questioned ballots but is not scheduled to work its way
through the bulk of the more than 4,000 ballots awaiting examination until
after Thanksgiving Day.
Both Broward and Palm Beach counties have decided that a ballot that has been
perforated on two corners should be recognized as a vote at the counting
table. The canvassing boards will examine ballots perforated at only one
corner as well as "dimpled" ballots that were apparently indented by the
voter but not perforated.
"Such a ballot may be counted as a vote if there is clear evidence of a
voter's intent to cast a vote as determined by the discretion of the
canvassing board," according to a statement by the Palm Beach board.
Given that Broward County went 2-to-1 for Gore, County Judge Robert W. Lee
predicted that many of the questioned ballots would add to the vice
president's count.
However, the Palm Beach canvassing board's decisions on the relatively small
number of questioned ballots it has examined thus far have already produced
new disputes. Democrats are challenging the board's decisions to exclude 276
ballots and Republicans are challenging the exclusion of 73 more, Newman said.
In those situations, the party attorneys argue that the voter's intent is
clear enough on these ballots to be counted while the board has decided that
the ballots are either spoiled or that the perforation or dimpling of the
chad is not sufficient to determine what the voter had in mind.
The board will not look at the challenged ballots again unless one of the
parties successfully brings a lawsuit requiring such action. Most of these
ballots have two dimples or a dimple and a partial perforation, Burton said.
The hand recount shows that counting machines did not tally a large number of
ballots in the presidential race because voters either voted for more than
one candidate, thus spoiling their ballots, or voted in other races but did
not indicate any preference for president.
In Palm Beach, for example, the recount of ballots from about one-fifth of
the precincts turned up more than 400 ballots with no vote for president.
According to initial estimates, about 10,000 ballots out of 462,350 cast in
Palm Beach did not register a vote for president. The final status of most of
those ballots remains in dispute.
Questionable ballots are being passed from the counting tables to county
canvassing boards, made up of three local officials who will have to
determine whether the voter's intent is clear enough to count the ballot for
one of the presidential candidates.
The number of questionable ballots coming up from the counting tables in Palm
Beach County declined drastically Sunday and yesterday as counters became
more familiar with the rules and observers from the two major parties heeded
pleas from the canvassing board to work harder to resolve disputes at the
counting tables, county officials said.
Republican attorneys continue to challenge the legality of the hand recounts,
arguing that continued manipulation of the ballots and human interpretation
of the voters' intent is bound to introduce errors.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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