Wednesday, November 15, 2000

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ELECTION 2000, Day 9 Buchanan threatens injunction in recount Says Palm Beach officials failed to notify him of county's action

by Jon E. Dougherty

An attorney for Reform Party presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan has warned Theresa LePore, Palm Beach County elections board supervisor, to halt any further manual recounts of the 425,000 ballots cast on Election Day because she failed to notify the Buchanan campaign of the county's action.

According to a letter sent to LePore by Thomas Buchanan, the Reform candidate's brother -- of the Winston & Strawn law office in Washington, D.C. -- LePore has not notified the Buchanan campaign officially that a manual recount of some of his votes is taking place.

Florida state law, under B' 102.166(4)(c), says that when a county canvassing board authorizes a manual recount, "the county canvassing board shall make a reasonable effort to notify each candidate whose race is being recounted at the time and place of such recount."

"It is clear that this statutory provision requires you, or your representatives, to notify Mr. Buchanan of the manual recount taking place in your county," the letter to LePore stated.

Tom Buchanan, in his letter, said the statute was "obviously designed to provide Mr. Buchanan and the other presidential candidates timely notice of the recount, so that they can effectively participate in the process."

However, the letter said, "neither the canvassing board of Palm Beach ... nor your office, nor any other agency or department of the state, has made any effort to notify Mr. Buchanan, formally or informally, of this recount.

"Considering that Mr. Buchanan's campaign address is on file in Palm Beach County and is easily accessible," the letter continued, "there is no excuse for not notifying him of the decision to initiate a manual recount."

Also, Tom Buchanan wrote, "subsection 7(a) of Fla. State. Ann. B' 102.166 provides that the county canvassing board must include, when possible, members of at least two political parties in the manual recount process." Though Republican and Democratic representatives are in Palm Beach to oversee the recounts, Buchanan, in his letter, said his Reform Party brother's ballots "are at issue."

"By not notifying him of the manual recount he was precluded from even attempting to have a representative from his party present during the recount. ..."

The letter, he said, was sent to request "a cessation of the recount in your county until [Patrick Buchanan] receives proper notification and the opportunity to be heard as to why a representative from the Reform Party should not be present during the manual recount."

The letter said if LePore refused to stop recounting ballots "and allow Mr. Buchanan or a member from the Reform Party to participate in the process, we will have no choice but to seek injunctive or other relief to stop the process in its tracks."

The Buchanan campaign requested "a prompt response," or threatened to seek remedy in a court of law.

Tom Buchanan told WorldNetDaily that the Palm Beach letter had also been sent to Volusia and Broward counties, and that he was considering sending one to Dade County as well.

"The state statute requires us to be notified" when manual recounts occur, Buchanan said. "They never notified us or allowed us to participate in any decision as to which parties should be present" during the recounts.

As of last night, Buchanan said he had not received any response in writing from any of the counties.

Some analysts said the Buchanan letter may have been responsible for the abrupt announcement by Palm Beach county election officials early yesterday to stop the manual recount that had already gotten underway.

WorldNetDaily could not confirm that analysis with Palm Beach officials or with officials with the Buchanan campaign before press time.

Other officials connected with the Buchanan action suggested that it was likely county election officials also failed to contact Libertarian Harry Brown and Green Party nominee Ralph Nader, but they could not confirm that.

-- Ooops (Ooops@slipofthetongue.com), November 15, 2000

Answers

If someone writes in "Santa Claus," do they have to contact him too?

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), November 15, 2000.

If someone writes in "Santa Claus," do they have to contact him too?

Dunno, but can we simply start by following the Florida LAWS and whom it applies/affected by FIRST?

Like many/most Democrats it doesn't really matter how you get there, just that you get there.

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), November 15, 2000.

If Santa Claus had a campaign manager and address, then yes. A reasonable needs to be made to contact other parties. I had heard this earlier and the answer was that those candidates "didn't matter".

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 15, 2000.

ANOTHER World Nut Daily article?

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), November 15, 2000.