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Here's an article on today's findings.http://foxnews.com/election_night/111400/trail.sml
I saw the press conference this morning.
-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 14, 2000
I saw that the board vote was three to one at the press conference. This article says 2 to 1. Only the first paragraphs talk about today's events. The remaining recaps past events.
-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 14, 2000.
3 to 1?http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/14/ele ction.president/index.html
The Palm Beach County canvassing board voted 2-1 today to suspend its scheduled hand count after Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris ruled that it could only proceed if the county knew that its voting machines had made errors.
http://www.ne wsday.com/ap/text/national/ap129.htm
The Palm Beach officials voted 2-1 to delay the manual recount of about 430,000 ballots until they could clarify whether they had the legal authority to proceed. The Gore camp planned to appeal.
-- (try to @get it. right), November 14, 2000.
http://foxnews.com/election_night/111400/trail.smlTuesday, November 14, 2000
With a 5 p.m. deadline for reporting its election results rapidly approaching, Palm Beach County suspended its manual ballot recount amid questions about whether the recount was authorized by law.
A preliminary legal opinion by Clay Roberts, director of the division of elections, said the recount was not authorized by law, while the attorney general maintained the law does allow for a hand count.
Both sides have faced accusations of partisan bias: Attorney General Bob Butterworth chaired Al Gore's presidential campaign in Florida; the division of elections is under the office of Secretary of State Harris, a Republican.
Palm Beach County officials voted 2-1 to delay the hand count of 430,000 ballots until the state Supreme Court could clarify the matter.
The recount began after voters in the heavily Democratic county complained that they were confused by their ballots.
Republicans argue the manual recount should be ended because the process is prone to abuse and political bias. Democrats hope the recounts will help Gore pick up enough votes to overcome George W. Bush's narrow lead in the state, which an Associated Press tally put at 388 votes.
Former Secretary of State James Baker, representing the Bush campaign in Florida, offered the Gore campaign a deal: Drop the legal challenge to the deadline, and the Bush camp will drop its challenge to the legality of the hand recount. Baker called his offer "very fair" and said it "should not be rejected out of hand."
While Gore's campaign did not immediately respond, the deal would essentially mean the vice president would concede the state B unless overseas absentee ballots, still to be counted, erase Bush's lead.
But even if the Supreme Court lets the recount go forward, Palm Beach and three other counties currently face a tight deadline: According to Harris, all Florida counties must certify their election results by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
A Florida judge was set to decide Tuesday morning whether to to grant a request by the Gore camp and two counties to extend the deadline.
"The process of counting and recounting the votes cast on Election Day must end," she said in a written statement Monday.
But after hearing arguments in a state courtroom in Tallahassee, Judge Terry Lewis noted that counties can continue counting absentee votes through the end of the week. "What's the good of doing a certification ahead of time?" he asked.
Regardless of the fate of the contested deadline, absentee ballots from overseas will be counted at the end of the week; they are due by midnight Friday night. Florida plans to certify its statewide results on Saturday B a day before Palm Beach County expects to complete its manual recount.
Gore's requests for hand recounts in the four counties -- Broward, Volusia, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach -- have received very different results in each location.
-- In the area around Fort Lauderdale, a check of a few precincts turned up only a few changes, and local officials voted 2-1 against a recount of all of Broward County that Gore had sought. The partial recount, covering 3,892 votes in three precincts, turned up four additional votes for Gore. Democrats promptly planned an appeal.
-- Officials in Miami-Dade County said they would decide Tuesday whether to yield to a Gore campaign request and conduct a manual recount in their area.
-- County workers sifted through thousands of ballots in Volusia County, where a complete Gore-requested hand recount was in progress.
The Bush camp failed Monday to stop the hand recount in four Democratic counties when a federal judge ruled it had no jurisdiction in the matter. Bush's lawyers were considering whether to appeal.
-- The Associated Press contributed to this report
-- (The@2000.election), November 14, 2000.
Try (or Hawk), I saw the press conference with four members sitting and four members voting on the suspension. One woman who I had seen interviewed before (a real Gore supporter) was the only nay to the suspension. Let's see (4 minue 1) that means that there were three yays.
-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 14, 2000.
Florida Attorney-General's Advisory Legal Opinion that the manual recount is legalhttp://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0044Wx
-- (in@new.developments), November 14, 2000.
RIGHT ON THE COVER OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TODAY:The elections board in Palm Beach County, Fla., decided 2-1 to suspend its manual count. The board acted hours before a state judge was due to rule on a request by Democrats to extend a 5 p.m. deadline for recounts.
But disregard the paper of record. Maria knows better.
-- Thanks for a laugh, Maria (bush@league.net), November 14, 2000.
Perhaps Maria should read this. But don't expect her to. She'll keep hopping around the board blurting out nonsense like "the law clearly states!" and "I saw the news conference on TV!"Whatever, Maria. We know you'd hang someone to get your tax break....
"The opinion ignores the plain language of the statute which refers not to an error in the vote tabulation system but to an error in the vote tabulation. The Legislature has used the terms "vote tabulation system" and "automatic tabulating equipment" elsewhere in section 102.166, Florida Statutes, when it intended to refer to the system rather than the vote count. Yet the division, by reading "vote tabulation" and "vote tabulation system" as synonymous, blurs the distinctions that the Legislature clearly delineated in section 102.166.[3]
"The error in vote tabulation might be caused by a mechanical malfunction in the operation of the vote counting system, but the error might also result from the failure of a properly functioning mechanical system to discern the choices of the voters as revealed by the ballots. The fact that both possibilities are contemplated is evidenced by section 102.166(7) and (8), Florida Statutes. While subsection (8) addresses verification of tabulation software, subsection (7) provides procedures for an examination of the ballot by the canvassing board and counting teams to determine the voter's intent.
"The division's opinion, without authority or support, effectively nullifies the language of section 102.166(7), Florida Statutes. Nothing in subsection (7) limits its application to the recount of all ballots. Rather, the procedures for a manual recount in subsection (7) equally apply to the initial sampling manual recount authorized in section 102.166(4)(d)."
-- Funny farm for Maria (bush@league.net), November 14, 2000.
Yes, I do believe my eyes over an article. Also, the judge said that the suspension would stand until reviewed by the DA. Obviously the DA has rendered his decision. Let the recount begin. Hawk you are more than just an idiot.
-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 14, 2000.
"Palm Beach County officials voted 2-1 to delay the hand count of 430,000 ballots until the state Supreme Court could clarify the matter." This does not follow what occured this morning. They were NOT waiting for a Supreme Court decision but for the DA to decide. Hawk this doesn't apply to what I saw in the press conference. Get your facts straight.
-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 14, 2000.
"Yes! I do believe what I saw with my very own little eyes is more accurate than what the New York Times, the Washington Post, and all the other reputable news organizations are reporting!"
-- Hilarious Maria (good@foralaugh.com), November 14, 2000.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Officials in heavily Democratic Palm Beach County put their hand recount of ballots on hold Tuesday while representatives of Al Gore and George W. Bush argued over a deadline for certifying the results of all votes cast in the state.Also Tuesday, officials in Miami-Dade County -- the state's most populous -- unanimously voted to start an immediate hand recount of 5,871 ballots in three precincts as requested by Gore's lawyers.
A state judge also was expected to issue his ruling in a lawsuit by two counties challenging Secretary of State Katherine Harris' decision to follow state law and require the state's 67 counties to finish their ballot recounts by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Leon County Circuit Judge Terry P. Lewis expressed doubts about the deadline during court arguments on Monday. Gore's lawyers want the deadline extended; Bush's attorneys do not.
Palm Beach officials voted 2-1 to delay the manual recount of about 430,000 ballots until they could clarify whether they had the legal authority to proceed. The Gore camp planned to appeal.
Palm Beach County is asking the Florida Supreme Court to clarify which of the two opinions -- from the Democratic attorney general and Republican elections official -- is correct.
Clay Roberts, director of the division of elections, issued an advisory opinion Tuesday to Palm Beach County, saying it does not have a right to conduct a hand recount of ballots.
''Unless the discrepancy between the number of votes determined by the tabulation system and by the manual recount of four precincts is caused by incorrect election parameters or software errors, the county canvassing board is not authorized to manually recount ballots for the entire county,'' Roberts said.
Attorney General Robert Butterworth immediately issued a conflicting opinion, saying the county has a right to hand count ballots.
''The (county) canvassing board has the authority to determine that the voter's intention is clearly expressed ...,'' Butterworth said.
The division of elections is under the office of the Republican secretary of state, who sent a letter to counties Monday saying each faced a 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline to report results.
Harris and Butterworth are both members of the Florida Cabinet, which also includes Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of George W. Bush. Each is elected statewide with equal standing.
The conflict over the Palm Beach count was likely to be settled in court.
''We've got two opinions, and a judge needs to tell us how to proceed,'' said County Judge Charles Burton, canvassing board chairman in Palm Beach County.
A senior Gore strategist said the board's decision to delay the recount would be challenged immediately in Circuit Court, along with the Florida secretary of state's ruling on which that decision was based.
Palm Beach County is a Democratic stronghold where voters first complained that they were confused by their ballots. Their outcry unleashed a political tide that froze Florida's 25 electoral votes and left Americans waiting to see who their 43rd president will be.
With the deadline fast approaching, judges in three Florida cities were deciding the fate of recounted votes.
In Volusia County, where workers began hand counting 184,019 ballots Sunday, officials said they would be unable to finish by 5 p.m. The county was prepared to send partial results to the state.
Lisa Bullion, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Florida, was kicked out of a convassing board meeting in Volusia County for complaining loudly that her party wasn't represented in the recount.
Regardless of the fate of the contested deadline, absentee ballots from overseas will be counted at the end of the week; they are due by midnight Friday night.
On other legal fronts:
--The Democratic Party filed a motion Tuesday in Circuit Court arguing that Broward County should be ordered to conduct a full hand count of its 588,000 ballots. The motion says the county canvassing board's decision not to conduct such a recount was based on an erroneous opinion by Harris, who said a manual recount can only be conducted if the board finds a problem with the computer that counted the ballots.
--Democrats sued the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board on Monday evening, challenging the board's method of reading the ballots. The party wants ''pregnant chads'' -- dimpled fragments not detached from the card -- counted as votes.
--In West Palm Beach, a judge considered the lawsuits of voters seeking a new vote in their county. The voters argue the punch-card ballots they were given on Election Day may have confused them enough to mistakenly vote for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan when they intended to vote for Gore.
''We intend to file litigation seeking judicial relief from this decision, which we think was based on an erroneous legal decision sent down by the secretary of state,'' Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jenny Backus said.
A federal judge who turned away Bush's initial effort to stop the recounting said Monday the stakes couldn't be higher.
''I believe these are serious arguments. The question becomes who should consider them,'' said U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who declined Bush's request for emergency federal intervention and ruled the issue was best left to local courts.
In Tallahassee, judge Lewis repeatedly questioned Monday why the state had set the Tuesday deadline when absentee votes coming from overseas can continue to be counted through the end of the week. ''What's the good of doing a certification ahead of time?'' Lewis asked. He also questioned how a large county could ever get a hand recount done within seven days since voters have three days before they even have to request one. Lewis was expected to rule Tuesday.
Republicans argue the manual recounting should be ended because the process is prone to abuse and political bias. Democrats hope the recounts will help Gore pick up enough votes to overcome Bush's narrow lead in the state, which an informal Associated Press tally put at 388 votes.
With six of seven of Florida's Supreme Court justices appointed by Democrats, Bush lawyers signaled their strategy was to play defense in the state courts. The seventh was picked by Democrat Lawton Chiles and seconded by Bush's brother, Jeb, the Florida governor.
---------------------------------------
Members of the Palm Beach County canvessing board that voted this morning.
1. County Judge Charles Burton
2. Carol Roberts
3. Theresa LePore
-- (try to @get it. right), November 14, 2000.
Thanks Hawk, my memory is failing me. I really didn't see you sitting in my living room with me this morning watching the press conference. Hope you didn't step on my cat. How did I do my exercises?
-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 14, 2000.
1. County Judge Charles Burton2. Carol Roberts
3. Theresa LePore
There are 3 people that serve on a canvassing board.
Can you guess WHY?
-- (try to @get it. right), November 14, 2000.
So there isn't a tie?
-- duh (gimme@break.com), November 14, 2000.