George W. Bush and Al Gore take their battle over the presidency back to court Thursday after Florida's top election official rejected new recounts and prepared to finalize the state tally by Saturday.
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris late Wednesday said she would refuse to accept amended returns based on manual recounts in several Florida counties, and pledged to certify Florida's decisive tally after overseas ballots are counted Saturday.
The move prompted a pledge of yet another court challenge by the Gore camp, and fresh barbs being exchanged by the candidates in the race for the White House that remains in suspense more than a week after the November 7 vote.
Bush Wednesday spurned proposals by Gore for a Florida-wide manual vote recount and a face-to-face meeting.
Gore said earlier that he would accept the final vote count in Florida if it included manual recounts in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties, or a statewide manual recount should Bush insist on it.
"If this happens, I will abide by the result, I will take no legal action to challenge the result, and I will not support any legal action to challenge the result," the vice president said.
He also offered to meet with Bush, the governor of Texas, in a bid "to improve the tone" of political discourse, which has degenerated into daily rounds of name-calling and recrimination.
But Bush rejected Gore's proposal for a statewide manual recount, saying it would be "neither fair nor accurate."
"This means every vote in Florida would be evaluated differently, by different individuals using different judgment, and perhaps different local standards, or perhaps no standards at all," said the Texas governor.
Bush also refused to meet Gore during the current standoff.
"Once this election is over," Bush said, "I will be glad to meet with Vice President Gore and I join him in pledging that regardless of who wins after this weekend's final count, we will work together to unite our great country."
The comments from the candidates came following a day filled with courtroom action, but the litigation was to continue Thursday.
- A federal appellate panel in Atlanta, Georgia, was set to hear arguments from the Bush campaign to halt manual recounts on federal grounds in several Florida counties.
- The Florida Supreme Court Wednesday turned down a petition by Harris to block manual recounts and consolidate the blizzard of lawsuits stemming from contested tallies throughout the state. But that court was expected to hear a petition by Democrats to overturn Harris' decision to refuse to accept the recounted vote totals.
- A state circuit court judge ruled that the canvassing board in Palm Beach County is not required to reject ballots that display a dimpled "chad," the detachable paper tab in a punch card, saying that election officials had to use their judgment. That case may be heard in the state Supreme Court as well.
- A judge in Palm Beach County set a hearing Friday on a lawsuit filed by Gore supporters but not endorsed by the Gore campaign seeking a new election in the county, claiming a confusing "butterfly" ballot skewed the results.
Following a Monday court decision that said the Florida secretary of state, who is in charge of the elections, has the discretion to accept amended returns after the seven-day deadline, Harris told the counties they had failed to justify the need for a manual recount.
She said she would finalize the tally on Saturday, after an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 overseas ballots due by midnight Friday are counted.
Harris, a staunch Bush supporter said that under Florida law, she decided to "exercise my discretion" in denying requests by four Florida counties to file hand-counted returns after Tuesday's legal deadline.
All 67 counties in Florida filed their certified results on Tuesday to meet a state-imposed time limit for final results from the November 7 presidential election..
But officials in Palm Beach, where the recount had been blocked pending court action, said in their request that a sample of one percent of ballots cast in the county resulted in a net gain of 19 votes for Gore.
Two other counties requested permission to file amended returns without conducting a recount. Collier County said it inadvertently omitted 24 ballots from the returns sent in Tuesday, while Miami-Dade County wanted to add six votes for Gore.
William Daley, campaign chairman for Democratic candidate Al Gore, slammed Harris' decision as "really unfortunate" and said the Gore camp would take legal action to reverse it.
The Gore campaign had insisted on manual recounts in several heavily Democratic Florida counties in the hope they would improve the electoral chances of the vice president, who is trailing Bush by 300 votes in the partial official tally unveiled Tuesday.
The winner of Florida will obtain the state's 25 electoral votes that will decide the race for the White House -- TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
