Revisiting the roller coaster ride from hell
6 years later, I still find it hard to discuss without boiling over. But every once in awhile, it's good to take a look back as a reminder of why we are where we are, and the role Harris played as FL Secretary of State
(and by sheer coincidence co-chair of Bush's Florida campaign). It's all fun and games until an election is stolen...
The Florida Supreme Court heard two and a half hours of arguments from both the Bush and Gore camps on the 20th. The Gore camp argued that there is no hurry to the certification of the election, since US law states that electors do not need to be appointed until December 12. The counties that wished to do recounts ought to be done with the recounts by that time, and the Court should err on the side of caution, allowing every ballot to be counted. The Bush camp argued that the more time that slips by, the more chance there is for fraud in the recount process; that Florida law plainly states when the counting and recounting deadlines are; and that it is not the place of the judiciary to step on the shoes of the executive departments charged with certifying the election in law duly passed by the legislature. For a day and a half, the Court deliberated on the issue.
On the 21st of November, late in the evening, the Court did rule, saying that the Florida Secretary of State must continue to accept returns from counties doing recounts, but setting a deadline of no later than 5 p.m. on November 26th (as this is a Sunday, the Court stated that if the Secretary's office was not to be open, then an alternate deadline of 9 a.m. on November 27th would substitute - the Secretary assured Floridians that her office would be open on the 26th). The 43-page ruling did not address some issues, such as the countability of some of the ballots. The date chosen by the Court were designed to allow ample time for manual recounts to be finished, and to allow ample time for either candidate to protest the results under Florida law, and still meet the December 12th date set in US law for the appointment of electors.
>snip<
Florida Secretary of State Harris's office was open for business on Sunday the 26th, in order to receive any recount numbers and for the purpose of certifying the election. In accordance with the trend of the three weeks past, there was no lack of drama. In Palm Beach County, the canvassing board raced to finish counting ballots before the 5pm deadline. When it was apparent that they would need a couple extra hours, the board sent partial recounts to the Secretary and pleaded for extra time. The Secretary denied the extra time and rejected the partial numbers. She used the county's previous recount numbers instead, and certified the election: By a vote total of 2,912,790 to 2,912,253, or a difference of 537 votes, Bush was certified the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes.
Bush supporters were ecstatic, and Bush himself appeared on TV on the evening of November 26th to ask the Gore camp to accept the certification and stop any legal proceedings. He announced the appointment of his chief of staff and announced that Cheney would be heading the transition team. But the Gore team was not ready to give up. It was angry about the rejection of the Palm Beach results, and was also challenging the lack of hand recounts in several counties (Florida law requires that multi-county challenges be heard in one county, causing hope for quick and uniform settlement). In addition, in Seminole County, individual voters were challenging absentee ballots that had been sent after ballot applications were allegedly altered by Republican workers to fill in missing required information, and in two counties, local Republicans challenged the disqualification of overseas ballots that had not been properly postmarked.
http://www.usconstitution.net/elec2000.htmlSunday
Election 2000: Florida Recount Deadline Looms; Palm Beach County Keeps on Counting
Aired November 26, 2000 - 3:07 p.m. ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: And so, now we want to take it live to Bill Hemmer, who is standing by in Tallahassee.
Reaction, Bill?
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Andria, good afternoon from the Florida capital.
A few housekeeping notes to bring you up to date on right now. We know that Katherine Harris, the secretary of state, is inside the administrative building here, inside of her office, is said to be meeting with lawyers at this time. She arrived about 25 minutes ago.
It's also my understanding that Bob Crawford, the second of three members of the canvassing commission will arrive at any moment. Clay Roberts, the head of elections here in Florida, the third member of that team, he's been here, they say, since the early morning hours today. So all three members, again, inside at work today on this Sunday afternoon.
Now, what we do understand at this time is that 10 counties have amended their votes at this point, one of which is Broward, that turned in their results at 9:30 a.m. this morning. You may remember last night it was about midnight when they finished up the recount there in Broward. Again, they are in as of 9:30 a.m. this morning.
Now, to the matters of certification -- before I go into the following explanation, I want to make it quite clear that through talking with attorneys here in Tallahassee and reading the opinion delivered by the state Supreme Court on Tuesday night, it's quite clear on page 40 the following scenario could or could not happen. The state Supreme Court told the secretary of state and the canvassing commission that they must accept amended votes here by 5:00 this afternoon, no later than 9:00 a.m. tomorrow if the office is closed, but now we know the office is open today.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0011/26/sun.04.html
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