Ruling on Recount Expected Today

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —  Al Gore’s political fate--and perhaps that of the White House--rested Sunday night in the hands of a county judge who began considering the vice president’s election challenge after hearing marathon testimony on chad buildup, statistical sampling and other fine points of presidential balloting.

Leon County Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls, who presided over the two-day trial without a jury, indicated that he would rule this morning in a case that is the first of its kind: an attempt to adjudicate a race for the nation’s highest office.

But Sauls’ decision may not be the last word. The losing side is certain to appeal his verdict to the Florida Supreme Court, which could push the nation’s election limbo well into its second month.

In their closing arguments Sunday night capping 10 hours of testimony, attorneys for the two presidential candidates clashed one last time over legal standards for ordering a new vote count.

Gore is seeking a tally of roughly 14,000 votes he claims were never properly counted.

Lawyers for the Democratic candidate argued that a manual recount of the disputed ballots is the only appropriate way to settle one of the most bitterly fought presidential campaigns in history.

“The court has heard witnesses . . . who have told the court that a manual recount is the only way to be sure that certain contested ballots are counted,” said David Boies, lead attorney for Gore. Even one witness for Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the GOP nominee, testified Sunday that a hand count was the best way to settle a close contest.

But Bush attorneys challenged Sauls’ right to order a hand count, arguing that the state Legislature vested that authority solely in local election officials.

“There is no right by the state or federal constitutions to a manual recount, ever,” said attorney Barry Richard, who further argued that hand recounts are only permissible when there has been “voter error”--something unproved by Gore’s side.

As a backup, attorneys for Bush said that, if Sauls orders a recount, it should cover all 6 million votes cast statewide, not just those in the two Democratic-leaning counties that Gore is contesting.

While the two sides slugged away in court, their stand-ins made the rounds of political chat shows. Gore appeared Sunday night on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” where he sounded a conciliatory note.

“Let’s cut to the bottom line,” Gore said. “On Jan. 20, if the person standing up before the Capitol taking the oath of office is George Bush and not me, he will be sworn in as my president too.”

Gore said he would then “spare no effort in saying to people who support me: ‘Let’s not have any talk about stealing the election.’ ”

For his part, Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney, sought to hasten that outcome.

“We all understand how difficult this is,” the GOP vice presidential hopeful said on NBC, offering Gore a modicum of sympathy. “With the enormous investment he made in the campaign, it would be hard for anybody to go through that process.”

Still, he went on, history will look kinder on Gore if he quits now. “I do think that it’s time for him to concede,” Cheney said.

But attorney Warren Christopher, one of Gore’s key legal advisors, suggested that Cheney was improperly “trying to hurry history along.”

If Gore’s legal fight falls short, “I can assure you that the vice president, when the time comes, will concede in a very gracious way,” Christopher said on CBS. “It depends upon when the Florida courts rule. The date of Dec. 12, of course, is an important date.”

Under federal law, states much choose their electors by Dec. 12, just six days before the electoral college meets to choose the nation’s next president.

As that date nears, this week could prove decisive:

* The U.S. Supreme Court may rule on whether Florida’s Supreme Court acted inappropriately when it extended the deadline for counting votes. The court’s action--or inaction--could have a dramatic effect on public opinion.

* Florida’s GOP-run Legislature may call a special session to award Bush the state’s 25 electors, should the courts rule against him. Although Gore won the popular vote nationally, he is shy of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. Florida, now certified for Bush, would give the Texas governor 271 electoral votes, making him the next president.

* On Tuesday, a federal appeals court in Atlanta is set to hear Bush’s suit challenging the constitutionality of hand recounts. The Florida Supreme Court will hear a similar case.

* Wednesday, two separate lawsuits are set for trial in Leon County Circuit Court alleging Republican tampering with absentee ballot applications in Seminole and Martin counties. Democrats hope to nullify nearly 25,000 absentee votes--more than enough to overcome Bush’s statewide lead.

Bush was certified Nov. 26 as the winner of Florida by 537 votes. Gore is asking Sauls to overturn that certification. The vice president maintains that roughly 10,000 ballots cast in Miami-Dade County should be hand tabulated because counting machines failed to detect a choice for president.

Separately, Gore also seeks a hand recount of 3,300 imperfectly punched Palm Beach County ballots, which he claims were disqualified by local election officials because of excessively stringent standards for discerning voter intent.

The Gore camp rested its case Saturday after calling just two witnesses. The Bush camp put on nine witnesses, seven of them Sunday, before concluding its case.

One key witness was John Ahmann of Napa, Calif., who designed some of Florida’s voting machines. He testified in painstaking detail about “dimples,” “dings” and “dents”--all the things that can happen to imperfectly punched ballots. He bolstered Bush’s case by arguing that not every blemish represents a thwarted vote. “It’s quite possible you can dimple the ballot and have no intention of voting,” he said.

Ahmann also disputed a point made by one of Gore’s witnesses, asserting that it is impossible for built-up chads to prevent a voter from properly poking through a ballot.

Chads--the confetti-size paper tabs that fall out of a ballot when properly punched--”don’t just stack up,” Ahmann testified. “They spread out.” More important, he said, the fallen chads would not have settled under just Gore’s name on ballots.

But Stephen Zack, a Gore attorney, countered by reading a statement Ahmann made 20 years ago, saying that voting machines can get “clogged” when chads build up. Zack noted that it has been eight years since Miami-Dade County cleaned the chads from its machines.

Under cross-examination, Ahmann also stated that a hand recount “is advisable” in close elections--but only for local races, where one candidate is ahead by a few votes.

“You need either reinspection or manual recounts where you have that situation,” Ahmann said.

Also testifying for Bush was Laurentius Marais, a professional statistician and math expert. He was summoned to counter Gore’s claims that he could overtake Bush in a manual recount of disputed ballots. Marais called that “a false premise.”

But under cross-examination, Marais acknowledged that he only reviewed statistical analyses done by the Gore team and conducted no independent research himself.

The point is significant because the Gore team, to win their legal challenge, must prove that a final hand recount would appreciably change the outcome of the Florida election.

Another Bush witness was called to challenge efforts to infer voter intent from partly punched ballots. William J. Rohloff, a Fort Lauderdale voter, testified that he started to pick one of the presidential candidates when he suddenly pulled back and left the voting booth.

Phil Beck, a Bush lawyer, asked Rohloff if he thought he caused a “dimple” on the ballot. “I have no idea,” Rohloff replied. Did he want his vote counted for president? “No, sir.”

Still other Bush witnesses denied using intimidation to shut down Miami-Dade County’s hand recount of ballots. Election officials cited time constraints in abruptly quitting their canvass. But Democrats accuse Republicans of inciting a near riot.

“Absolutely not,” testified Thomas J. Spargo, an attorney and GOP observer in Miami-Dade County. “There was no roughhousing. There was no fighting. We were just sitting around, socializing.”

The seventh and final witness was Shirley King, Nassau County’s supervisor of elections for 20 years. She defended her decision to certify an election night tally instead of a mandatory machine recount that left Bush with 51 fewer votes.

She said that the first count was of 25,387 ballots and the second of 25,169. Apparently some of the ballots were missed the second time because they had been turned upside down. King then certified the first count. Why? “Because I had lost 218 votes. . . . I wanted every vote to count,” she said.

The Gore team wants the second count to be certified instead of the first.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Gore and Bush went about their Sunday routines on yet another Sunday that was anything but routine.

Gore attended church in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Va., where he heard a sermon fittingly titled, “A Time for Waiting.”

After largely staying out of public view for several days, Gore allowed cameras from “60 Minutes” into the vice presidential residence, seizing one more avenue to make his case to the nation. The vice president said he expected the election dispute to be settled within two weeks--the point at which members of the electoral college are to meet.

Asked whether he is in a state of “deep denial” about the election outcome, Gore responded with a smile. “I deny that,” he said.

Bush stayed out of sight at his secluded ranch outside Waco, Texas, allowing Cheney to continue as chief spokesman for their administration-in-limbo.

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Cheney expressed confidence that the country could pull together behind Bush. “I think the prognosis is pretty good, because I don’t believe the country is deeply divided,” Cheney said. “I think this is a time of relative peace and prosperity in America, that we should be able to pull together.”

Cheney, who recently suffered his fourth heart attack in 22 years, said that he would “absolutely” step aside if he had any doubts about his fitness to serve as vice president.

“I do have a history of coronary artery disease,” Cheney said, “but . . . there’s been no progression in the artery disease [since 1988] except for this one narrowing, which has now been repaired.

“So if anything, I’m stronger and healthier now than I was six months ago. . . . If I had any doubts about that or if [doctors] expressed any doubts or reservations about my capacity to do the job, I would not do it.”

*

Barabak reported from Los Angeles and Serrano reported from Tallahassee. Times staff writers Geraldine Baum and James Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this story.

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Day 26: A Summary

Developments Sunday in the Florida presidential election recount:

*

COURTS:

In Tallahassee, Fla., the owner of a small election supply company said hand recounts were the only way to look for damaged or dimpled chads”bits of paper that are supposed to be punched out of a ballot when a vote is cast”but he also said it was easy to mar a ballot unintentionally. John Ahmann of Napa, Calif., testified for Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who is trying to preserve a 537-vote lead in the state. Vice President Al Gore wants a recount of 14,000 disputed ballots from two South Florida counties.

In Washington, there was no indication from the Supreme Court about when justices would rule on the Bush campaigns request to overturn a Florida Supreme Court ruling allowing recounts that helped Gore cut into Bushs lead. Bush’s lawyers argued Friday that the Florida court rewrote the law when it gave counties extra time to certify their results.

*

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE:

Lawmakers prepared for a yet-to-be-called special session to name presidential electors who would vote for Bush in the electoral college. House Speaker Tom Feeney plans to declare the session today, but Senate President John McKay says he won’t follow suit until reviewing a committee report recommending the session.

In Tallahassee, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson claimed “a clear pattern of voter suppression of African American votes” in Florida. He wants the Justice Department to begin a formal investigation. The department has sent representatives to Florida to gather information about alleged voting irregularities.

*

Source: Associated Press

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Full-Court Press

A progress report on the major court cases related to the disputed presidential election in Florida.

Federal appeal

(U.S. Supreme Court)

*

THE STORY

Republicans argue the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its authority when it ordered the secretary of state to accept results from hand recounts past a state-mandated deadline. The recounts helped Al Gore cut into George W. Bush’s lead.

THE STATUS

After a landmark 90-minute hearing in Washington on Friday, the justices are deliberating and may rule this week.

THE STAKES

If the justices side with the Republicans, Bush’s lead in Florida would grow. But other cases pending could keep the justices from having the final word.

*

Another Bush appeal

(U.S. Court of Appeals)

*

THE STORY

Republicans filed this separate but similar challenge to the hand recounts submitted after the state deadline.

THE STATUS

Oral arguments are scheduled for Tuesday in the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

THE STAKES

A Bush win in the Supreme Court could make this case moot, but a loss would probably not prevent the lawsuit from continuing.

*

State appeal

(Florida Supreme Court)

*

THE STORY

A Bush supporter from Naples, Fla., seeks to strike down the state law allowing hand recounts of ballots.

THE STATUS

A lower court upheld the hand recount law Nov. 17 and tossed out the suit. The Florida Supreme Court will consider today whether to hear the appeal.

THE STAKES

It’s unclear what effect a ruling striking down the law would have on Gore’s suit demanding hand recounts.

*

Gore’s challenge

(Leon County Circuit Court)

*

THE STORY

Gore attorneys argue Miami-Dade County election officials improperly halted a hand recount of votes, that the secretary of state should accept results of a hand count in Palm Beach County and that Nassau County’s results should not be certified until all court challenges are resolved.

THE STATUS

On Sunday, the rapid two-day trial ended in Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls’ courtroom. His ruling may come within days.

THE STAKES

Gore stands to gain votes from hand recounts of thousands of ballots, but time to begin such counts is running out.

*

Absentees: Seminole

(Leon County Circuit Court)

*

THE STORY

An Orlando-area lawyer sued Seminole County election officials, saying they improperly allowed Republican Party operatives to correct thousands of incomplete applications for absentee ballots.

THE STATUS

The case, which was transferred to Tallahassee, will be heard Wednesday by Leon County Circuit Judge Nikki Ann Clark.

THE STAKES

Democrats want more than 15,000 absentee ballots thrown out, which would give Gore a far bigger Florida lead than Bush enjoys now.

*

Absentees: Martin

(Leon County Circuit Court)

*

THE STORY

Local Democrats sued election officials in Martin County, accusing them of the same practice at issue in the Seminole County case.

THE STATUS

The case, which was filed in Tallahassee, will be heard Wednesday by Leon County Circuit Judge Terry P. Lewis.

THE STAKES

Democrats want nearly 10,000 absentee ballots rejected, which would take votes from Bush.