Story note – This is one of more than a dozen stories I reported from The Tennessean
November 27, 2000 Monday
BUSH CERTIFIED IN FLORIDA, GORE WILL CONTEST RESULTS
BYLINE: BRAD SCHRADE AND JOHN SHIFFMAN
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1886 words
HARRIS DECLARES BUSH STATEWIDE WINNER BY 537 VOTES. SHE REFUSES PALM BEACH'S PARTIAL RECOUNT.
TODAY GORE PLANS TO FILE SUIT IN TALLAHASSEE, CHALLENGING ELECTION RETURNS IN 3 FLORIDA COU NTIES.
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT WILL HEAR ARGUMENTS FRIDAY FROM BUSH AND GORE OVER THE LEGALITY OF HAND COUNTS.
By BRAD SCHRADE AND JOHN SHIFFMAN STAFF WRITERS
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Florida's top election official declared George W. Bush the state's certified winner yesterday by a margin of 537 votes, and the Texas governor promptly proclaimed himself the victor in Florida and, thus, the next president of the United States.
But the matter hardly seemed settled last night, as Al Gore planned to protest the results and the U.S. Supreme Court prepared to hear arguments Friday.
Bush did not directly call himself "president-elect," but he did ask President Clinton to grant him access to the transition office in Washington.
The White House said last night that it was not willing to open government offices to Bush to begin a presidential transition until legal challenges were resolved.
"Secretary Cheney and I are honored and humbled to have won the state of Florida, which gives us the needed electoral votes to win the election," Bush said from Austin.
"We will therefore undertake the responsibility of preparing to serve as America's next president and vice president."
Gore did not concede and instead planned to make a national address of his own today.
His lawyers said he will contest certified results in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Nassau counties, places where Gore believes he illegitimately lost a winning margin from his statewide tally.
"This is not some forlorn hope," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. "This is not just acting out. They are, in fact, close to overcoming Governor Bush's lead."
Other challenges were expected. Perhaps the most significant was brewing in Seminole County, north of Orlando, where a judge today will hear an allegation that Republicans improperly filled out absentee voter applications.
Absentee ballots in that county netted Bush about 5,000 votes -- which could be lost if the challenged absentee ballots are discarded.
Last night's certification ceremony turned a corner in the closest presidential election in U.S. history since 1876 -- Republicans declaring victory and calling for closure, Democrats ramping up their legal contest and calling for fairness.
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris appeared before live television cameras last night with the two other members of the state election board to present the certified results.
She signed the official documents with a blue pen, then announced the official tally at 6:33 p.m. CST.
Of almost 6 million votes cast, she said, Bush won 2,912,790 votes and Gore got 2,912,253 -- a difference of 537 votes.
"Accordingly," Harris said as cheers erupted from Bush supporters in Austin, Tallahassee and Washington, "on behalf of the state election canvassing commission and in accordance with the laws of the state of Florida, I hereby declare Gov. George W. Bush the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes for president of the United States."
Should the certification withstand legal challenge, the victory would give Bush the state's 25 electoral votes for a total of 271 votes, one more than the needed 270. Gore's total stood at 267.
Republicans immediately seized upon the announcement to call for an end to the election dispute.
"The ninth inning is over," said Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., monitoring the recount in West Palm Beach. "The fourth quarter is over. Tonight is an important milestone. It's a milestone to celebrate. The American people are going to say enough is enough."
James Baker III, Bush's lead attorney in Florida, said the Republican campaign will continue its legal battles as a precaution, including its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Briefs in that case are due tomorrow.
Additionally, the Bush campaign has filed lawsuits in five Florida counties contesting overseas absentee ballots it says were improperly discarded.
Baker said he "can certainly understand the pain and the frustration of losing an election so very, very narrowly, but it is time to honor the will of the people."
"It is time to let the orderly process of transitioning go forward," Baker said.
"At some point there must be closure. At some point the law must prevail and the lawyers must go home. We have reached that point. ... It is time to honor the will of the people."
Minutes after Harris' official declaration, however, Gore's running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, appeared before cameras in Washington to explain why the campaign planned to protest the certified vote.
"From the beginning of this extraordinary period of time, Vice President Gore and I have asked only that the votes that were cast on Election Day be counted. This evening, the secretary of state of Florida has decided to certify what by any reasonable standard is an incomplete and inaccurate count of the votes cast in the state of Florida."
Lieberman said he was disturbed that Harris refused to include partial hand-count results from Palm County, which would have netted Gore at least 180 more votes.
When it became apparent yesterday that the Palm Beach election board could not finish its work by the 4 p.m. CST deadline, Judge Charles Burton, the board chairman, faxed Harris, asking for more time.
The board, which took Thanksgiving Day off, was just 800 to 1,000 ballots shy of finishing its hand count of all 462,567 ballots as the deadline approached.
But Harris declined to grant more time, reasoning that the deadline, set by an order of the Florida Supreme Court, was firm. Moments before the deadline, Palm Beach officials faxed the results they had. Harris declined to accept a partial recount, however, and relied on a previous vote tally that included no hand-counted votes.
"How can we teach our children that every vote counts if we are not willing to make a good-faith effort to count every vote?" Lieberman said.
Other Democrats shared his view.
Sen.-elect Bill Nelson of Florida said Americans don't want "an election that they feel like has been rigged or has not fully been counted."
"We shouldn't have a rush to judgment," he said. "Rather, we should be on a path toward justice."
Gore's lawyer, David Boies, said the contests would focus on three counties:
In Miami-Dade County, Gore will contest the local election board's decision to quit its recount, saying its reason -- that it didn't have time to meet yesterday's deadline -- isn't good enough. Dade County began a review of 10,000 so-called "undervotes," ballots in which a machine scan found no vote for president.
This netted Gore 157 votes before the board decided to quit after counting a small portion of the votes.
Gore now wants a court-appointed special master to complete the recount.
In Palm Beach County, Gore will challenge the standard used to consider dimpled ballots.
The local election board counted dimples cast for president only when it found similar dimples cast for other offices on the same ballot. Gore also wants Harris to certify those estimated 180 net ballots for Gore that she refused to include in statewide totals yesterday.
In Nassau County, Boies said the local election board "inexplicably" replaced one of its three members, then met in violation of the state's open meeting law and inappropriately revised its recount numbers, discarding ballots counted after the initial Election Day tally. Boies said the action cost Gore 51 net votes.
Lance DeHaven-Smith, a political science professor at Florida State University, said the certification presents Gore with an uphill legal challenge.
"Once the vote is certified, then the losing party is no longer asking for a recount," DeHaven-Smith said.
"He's now asking to overturn an election. That becomes very difficult. The problem for (the courts) may be: What is a remedy? You can win the contest and lose the election."
