New Mexico Republicans request ballots be impounded

Florida secretary of state says Palm Beach ballot legal

November 10, 2000
Web posted at: 10:32 p.m. EST (0332 GMT)

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- A second legal front opened Friday night in the contested U.S. presidential race when Republican officials in two New Mexico counties requested that ballots there be impounded to ensure a fair count.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush: "I understand there are still votes to be counted, but I am in the process of planning in a responsible way a new administration."

In Dona Ana and Valencia counties, Republican state representatives filed an emergency request with county judges Friday evening to impound the votes in those counties to preserve the integrity of the votes, citing possible problems with the vote counting. In Valencia county for example, the county clerk, who oversees the ballot counting, was running against the state representative for his seat, a state GOP official said.

Early Saturday, the Associated Press reported that Bush had overtaken Democratic rival Gore by 17 votes in the New Mexico count.

Meanwhile, Florida's secretary of state said that the contested ballot in Palm Beach County, Florida, is legal and conforms "in all respects" to Florida law.

Gore's campaign manager, William Daley,said the secretary of state's decision does not put the issue to rest.

"Our legal team has concluded the ballot was unlawful," Daley said. "I assume that this is an issue that will end up in dispute."

In New Mexico, 257 votes that had been reported missing were found late Friday afternoon in a warehouse that contained all of Bernalillo County's ballots, said County Attorney Tito Chavez. Bernalillo County includes Albuquerque and is the state's most populous county.

New Mexico's Elections Director Denise Lamb chalked up the temporarily missing ballots to "simple incompetence, not conspiracy." She said she still does not know who won the state.

"We don't know what the true spread is," she said.

Another 355 ballots remain to be counted by hand, a spokesman for the secretary of state said. The 257 found Friday afternoon have now been counted.

In another development, a recount of Oregon's vote was a possibility as Gore's lead there shrank.

Oregon law requires a recount if the winning margin is less than one-fifth of 1 percent, or about 2,800 votes.

The Associated Press reported Gore leading Bush in Oregon by 5,973 votes with 99 percent of votes counted. On Friday afternoon, about 28,500 votes remained to be counted.

Whatever the outcome of these latest developments, New Mexico's five electoral college votes and Oregon's seven are not enough to decide the national race.

Speaking for a few minutes with reporters at the opening of an afternoon planning session in Austin, the Texas capital, Bush said: "I understand there are still votes to be counted, but I am in the process of planning in a responsible way a new administration."

VIDEO Bush spoke to the press Friday afternoon, saying he's preparing to lead even though there are votes outstanding (November 10) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Bruce Morton says the nation has muddled through worse than the current delay in election results (November 10) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) In 1996, a legal challenge to punch cards changed the vote. CNN's Bill Delaney has details. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Does a random sampling of people get the controversial Palm Beach ballot right? CNN's Jeanne Moos finds out (November 10) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Patty Davis has an update on the Florida recount (November 10) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) All video since Election Day

INTERACTIVE Election timeline Previous close elections

TRANSCRIPT Excellence in Journalism's Tom Rosenstiel: Media's role in calling elections

RESOURCES Contested Palm Beach County ballot (FindLaw)

ALSO Florida voters react to recount Gore edges ahead of Bush in ongoing Oregon count Popular vote still too close to call

MESSAGE BOARD Presidential race 2000

RELATED SITE Electoral College

The Republican went forward Friday despite criticism from some Democrats that doing so appeared arrogant, with the election yet to be decided. Bush met Friday afternoon with economic adviser Larry Lindsey and international relations expert Condoleezza Rice, among others.

"There have been a series of ongoing meetings that the (vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney) and I have had on a variety of subjects, so that should the verdict that has been announced be confirmed, we'll be ready to assume office and be prepared to lead," Bush said.

The "verdict" Bush spoke of was the eventual conclusion of Florida's statewide ballot recount, initiated Wednesday after close election returns rendered the state too-close-to-call for either Bush or Gore.

The Associated Press reported an unofficial recount, completed early Friday, showed Bush leading Gore by 327 votes out of nearly 6 million cast on Tuesday. The original count gave Bush an advantage of 1,784 votes. The Bush campaign claimed victory with the release of the numbers.

"We had a vote on Tuesday that showed Governor Bush won Florida," said Bush Communications Director Karen Hughes, standing in front of the governor's mansion in Austin. "We had a recount that showed Governor Bush has won Florida."

She pointed out that it would take a bit longer -- at least until November 17 -- to tabulate absentee ballots cast by Floridians overseas and postmarked by Election Day.

The AP tally is not the final word: State election officials must wait at least a week to certify vote totals that will determine which candidate gets Florida's 25 electoral votes. In addition, allegations of voting irregularities and the possibility of legal challenges could further delay the official outcome.

The Florida secretary of state's office released its own updated figures just after noon on Friday. With 65 of the state's 67 counties reporting, Bush had a 724-vote lead over Gore. The two counties missing from the final tally were Hernando and Palm Beach -- now ground zero in the Sunshine State voting dispute.

Bush's campaign urged Gore's campaign to cease its talk of legal challenges to the Florida vote.

War of words

Ongoing angst over possible miscast votes and other voting irregularities in Palm Beach led Gore campaign Chairman William Daley to issue a statement Friday, the contents of which he later underscored at a news conference.

"Contrary to claims being made this morning by the Bush campaign, this election is not over," Daley said. "Again, we want the true and accurate will of the people to prevail, and that means letting the legal system run its course.

"If, at the end of that process, George Bush is the victor, we will respect the result."

Hughes, addressing a throng of reporters, said the scales were tilting the governor's way and the Democrats should respect the process.

"We certainly hope the Democrats would stop this talk of endless legal battles and still more recounts," she said. "I hope the vice president and his campaign officials would think through their responsibility to this country and to the process."

Both camps had representatives in Florida to monitor the recount. Gore sent Daley and former Secretary of State Warren Christopher; Bush's observer is former Secretary of State James Baker.

Republicans, Democrats dig trenches for possible battle

Baker said should the Gore campaign's demands for continued recounts in several counties be honored, the risk of human error is magnified.

"The more often ballots are recounted, especially by hand, the more likely it is that human error can be introduced," he said. Baker hinted that the Bush campaign had suspicions about the dwindling gap between Bush and Gore, but would likely not raise questions about the new numbers because Bush was still ahead.

"Now, the Gore campaign is calling for yet another recount in selected, predominantly Democratic counties where there were large, unexplained swings in their favor in the recount," Baker said.

"I understand personally," Baker added, "that it is frustrating to lose presidential elections by narrow margins."

Two Republicans, he continued, lost close elections in the course of the last 40 years, but both, Richard M. Nixon in 1960, and Gerald Ford in 1976, put the "nation's interests first" and did not request recounts. Should the Gore camp not step back, Baker said, Bush's team would "vigorously oppose" all efforts to secure further recounts.

"To suggest that we should keep counting ballots that have been counted twice over and over again is not a fair position to take, and not a responsible position to take," he said.

Following Baker some minutes later in Tallahassee, Daley repeated his admonishment of the Bush campaign for tacitly declaring Bush the winner, and said the option to challenge the results in Palm Beach was still being held open.

"We continue to explore the possibilities of what can be done to remedy the unfairness of thousands of residents of Palm Beach County who believed they were voting for Al Gore, but had those votes calculated for Pat Buchanan," Daley said, adding, "Our legal team has determined that the ballot in Palm Beach County was unlawful."

"Calls for the declaration of a victor before all the votes are tabulated are inappropriate," the former Clinton cabinet member said, urging the Bush campaign to tone down its rhetoric. "Waiting is unpleasant for all of us, but suggesting the outcome of a vote is known before all the ballots are properly counted is inappropriate."

In Austin, Bush refused to answer questions about the situation in Florida. Asked about the machinations within the Gore camp, he said, "I think each candidate and each team is going to have to do what they think is in the best interests of the country."

Repeating his position, Bush said, "I think it is in our country's best interest that we plan in the best possible way a possible administration."

Gore quiet in Washington

Gore returned to Washington on Friday and had no public events scheduled. President Clinton spoke to Gore on the telephone during the day, but the contents of that call were said to be personal in nature.

As the day developed, some close aides appeared to pull back just a bit from their willingness to mount legal challenges in Florida, with one saying he hoped such moves would not be necessary.

"Let's see what happens in the recount before talking about courts and legal challenges," a second senior Gore adviser said.

Senior Democrats in Washington are virtually unanimous in the view that the Bush camp has been unseemly in publicly talking about a transition and naming Cabinet members before the Florida results are certified.

Still, as much as some Democrats would like to see a party brother in the White House, some voiced frustration with the ongoing uncertainty.

"I want Al Gore to win this election, But more than that, I want somebody to win this election," Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-New Jersey, said. "I would urge both Al Gore and George Bush to think of the country -- the continuity of government, its stability -- and avoid any collateral attacks on the process."

Earlier Friday, Hughes accused Democrats of "trying to change the rules because they don't like the outcome."

"But that's not the way we do things in America," she said. "We have laws. We have rules. Those laws and those rules were complied with in this election. And we can't just keep counting votes until Al Gore likes the outcome."

Christopher, however, said it was premature for Democrats to accept defeat. "Until the overseas votes come in, until there is an official count, this will not be concluded," he told CNN.

Results of the official recount were at least several days away.

Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris said it could be as late as Tuesday -- a week after the election -- before the state certifies ballot results from all counties.

It was unclear how many such ballots there are. The New York Times reported Friday that at least 13,000 ballots had been requested by Florida residents living overseas. The newspaper interviewed county election officials who said more than 5,000 overseas ballots had been received and counted while others will never be returned.

Gore supporters have repeatedly criticized the ballots in use in Palm Beach County as confusing, and the Gore campaign asked for a hand count of votes cast there and in three other counties -- Dade, Broward and Volusia.

Three of the four -- Palm Beach, Volusia, and Broward, agreed to conduct a manual recount, Democratic Party officials said. Miami-Dade officials will consider the request for a manual count on Monday. Palm Beach's manual recount may be completed Saturday.

Palm Beach County agreed to hand-count ballots in three precincts on Saturday in order to come up with a statistical sampling.

In the meantime, a circuit judge issued a preliminary injunction barring Palm Beach County officials from certifying the final recount results until a hearing is held Tuesday.

That was in response to a legal challenge filed with the support of Democrats who say a poor ballot design in the county led some Gore supporters to inadvertently mark their ballots for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan.

In other cases, confused voters may have voted for both candidates, invalidating their ballots.

Palm Beach County election officials said 19,120 ballots were voided because they were double-punched. Apparently, many voters who realized a mistake in their first attempt and punched a second hole for their presidential choice, voting for both Gore and Buchanan.

The court order said the ballot was designed and printed in such a way that voters were deprived of their right to freely express their will.

Republicans, who expressed outrage at the Democratic tactics, suggested they might seek recounts in Iowa and Wisconsin, two states where Gore won narrowly.

Karl Rove, chief strategist for the Bush campaign, noted tens of thousands of votes had not yet been counted in Colorado, Arizona, Washington and California. Rove said he was confident results in those states would increase the number of popular votes for Bush.

"I hope they won't (call for recounts) just out of retaliation," Christopher said. "I hope they'll only do it if they think it can make a difference in the long-term outcome."

CNN Miami Bureau Chief John Zarrella, Correspondents Mike Boettcher, Jonathan Karl, John King, Jeanne Meserve, Bill Hemmer, CNN.com's Ian Christopher McCaleb and The Associated Press contributed to this report.