From CNN:

GOP will go to court to prevent manual Florida vote recount

The Republican Party will go to federal court to seek an injunction to prevent a recount of presidential election ballots by hand in certain Florida counties, CNN has learned.

The announcement will be made at 10:30 a.m. EST by Republican Party election observer and former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, according to a GOP source. The GOP source says the injunction will be sought to prevent "potential mischief" in the manual recount in South Florida counties. Such a recount, the official said, would "not be in our national interest."

FULL STORY SOON

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), November 11, 2000

Answers

This just in, from the N. Y. Times...

N. Y. Times link

-- eve (eve_rebekah@yahoo.com), November 11, 2000.

Such a recount, the official said, would "not be in our national interest."

An *accurate* accounting would "not be in our national interest"? I don't get it.

I think what he meant to say was "An accurate accounting would not be in OUR best interest. We want to win so badly we're willing to do so with tainted and questionable numbers."

-- IWant (TheREAL@Numbers.com), November 11, 2000.

Bush campaign asks court to stop hand recount of Florida ballots

November 11, 2000

Web posted at: 11:38 a.m. EST (1638 GMT)

LINK

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- The Bush campaign has filed a federal injunction to stop Democratic-supported hand recounts of presidential votes cast in some counties in Florida, Republican election observer James Baker said today.

"This course of action is regrettable," Baker said at a news conference announcing that the GOP campaign will ask the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to bar any hand counts.

He said manual counting would be subject to "human error, individual subjectivity and decisions to determine the voters' intent" that would not occur if machines were used.

"Machines are neither Republicans nor Democrats and therefore can never be consciously or even unconsciously biased," he said.

Baker's announcement comes on the day when hand counts were planned in three counties in which Democrats have challenged ballots.

The presidency hangs in the balance, Florida's vote -- remarkably close and fiercely contested -- is virtually certain to tip the electoral tally in favor of either Bush or Democratic Vice President Al Gore.

Gore campaign criticizes GOP move

Gore's campaign criticized on Saturday the Republican Party's attempt to prevent the manual recount.

"We believe the hand count should go forward," said campaign spokesman Doug Hattaway. "There is absolutely no reason why people's votes should not be counted by human beings."

Hattaway said the campaign's attorneys were ready to press the case legally. "These recounts are authorized by local officials," Hattaway said. "They're going to court to stop local officials from counting their citizens' votes. We support the decision to have a full, fair and accurate count."

Hattaway did not mention that Democrats requested the hand counts.

The Gore campaign, which was criticized Friday by the Bush camp for considering its own legal options, stressed Saturday that it is now the Bush campaign that is going to court. "Our campaign," Hattaway said, "has not brought any legal action here."

Bush campaign requests machine recount

At the same time, however, the Bush campaign has asked for another machine recount in Palm Beach County.

Ballot recounts by hand began Saturday morning in Volusia County and were set to begin in Palm Beach County.

In West Palm Beach, about 4,300 votes were being counted by hand at the request of the Democratic Party. On about 10,000 of the so-called punch style ballots, no presidential candidate was punched, county election officials said.

Democrats said those ballots suggest the machines in Palm Beach County may have been faulty. At the same time, a machine recount in Palm Beach County requested by Republicans was scheduled to begin Saturday.

Broward County was set to begin a hand recount Monday, while Miami-Dade County was expected to begin a hand recount early next week.

With 66 of Florida's 67 counties reporting, the Florida Secretary of State's office said Bush was leading Gore by 961 votes. Palm Beach County has not yet announced its recount numbers.

The tally does not include overseas absentee ballots, which will be counted until November 17, as long as they were postmarked by November 7, Election Day.

Both candidates in seclusion

While election observers for the Democratic and Republican camps were involved in the recount debate in Florida, the two candidates were in seclusion for the weekend.

Bush left Friday night for his ranch near Crawford, Texas, where he and running mate Dick Cheney were continuing to map out a possible Bush-Cheney administration.

"It's in our nation's best interest that I should assume the presidency, that this is an administration that is prepared well," Bush said.

Gore also was staying out of the spotlight, although he attending a football banquet for his son Friday night in Washington.

Members of the news media were not allowed to attend the event.

NAACP hearing

With feelings running high, hundreds of Floridians who complain that their votes may not have been counted Election Day gathered Saturday to tell their stories at a public hearing organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Miami.

In his weekly radio address Saturday, Democratic President Clinton cautioned patience as the recount proceeds in Florida.

"The people have spoken," he said. "The important thing for all of us to remember now is that a process for resolving the discrepancies and challenges to the election is in motion. The rest of us need to be patient and wait for the results."

CNN Correspondents Mike Boettcher, Candy Crowley, Patty Davis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), November 11, 2000.

"Machines are neither Republicans nor Democrats and therefore can never be consciously or even unconsciously biased," he said.

What did they ever do before they had machines?

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), November 11, 2000.

Hmmm:

And you wonder why the general public doesn't trust political spokesones [how is that for PC]. Of course electronic counting is subject to error; haven't any of these folks used windows]. But that is a minor point. The big source of error is the readers/scanners [electronic]. A number of years ago all of the ballots in my county were rejected. It turns out that the ballots had been stored in a room without humidity control. They had absorbed water, changed in shape and the scanners could not find the appropriate information. Everything had to be hand counted. This is just an extreme example. The hard copy to computer input methods leave a lot to be desired.

Best wishes,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), November 11, 2000.

Why not just use all them real accurate Polls from the independent folks from Potrait of America instead of voting?

-- Doc Paulie (fannybubbles@usa.net), November 11, 2000.