Electoral College deadlines loom for Bush and Gore

By Deborah Zabarenko/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- As lawyers haggle and U.S. politicians posture, the Electoral College clock keeps ticking toward December 12, December 18 and finally January 6, which may be the ultimate deadline for declaring the next president.

Attorneys for Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore were focused on a more immediate timetable on Tuesday, the last day both sides were allowed to file briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court, which is hearing arguments over Florida voting challenges on Friday.

But the real deadlines are set by federal law for action by the Electoral College, an evanescent group that comes into being for a brief moment every four years to elect the American president, and then disbands.

On the Monday following the second Wednesday in December -- this year, December 18 -- members of this group gather in their respective state capitals to cast their ballots for president and vice president.

But six days before that, on December 12, Florida's electors are supposed to have resolved all questions over vote recounts and contests, and for at least one legal observer, this will be the day the new president's identity is known.

"Of all the questions in this election, this is one that has a definitive answer: federal law requires that a state designate its electors by December 12," Erwin Chemerinsky, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Southern California.

But is that really the drop-dead end? Chemerinsky hedged, noting that some of Florida's crucial 25 electors could stray from voting along party lines even if Bush is found to have won the popular vote in that state. As of Tuesday, Bush led by 537 votes in Florida, and Gore was pushing for recounts of votes in heavily Democratic districts.

With Florida's electoral votes, Bush would have a total of 271 votes in the Electoral College, a bare majority compared with Gore's 267. Only three Bush electors would have to switch to give Gore the victory.

"It is conceivable, though not likely, that some electors somewhere in the country may not follow the popular will and it's conceivable that, assuming Bush carries Florida, that three electors will choose to vote for Gore," Chemerinsky said in a telephone interview.

Chemerinsky concurred with another legal scholar, Michael Seidman of Georgetown University Law School, that time was on Bush's side.

"I do think Bush has a tremendous advantage in terms of trying to run out the clock," Seidman said by telephone.

Seidman said that Florida's procedures for contesting a vote result was not built for presidential election deadlines, but rather for local elections where there was thought to be time for a full-scale trial that could take months.

That would not favor Gore, who has said repeatedly that he wants a complete vote recount in Florida in time for the December 12 deadline.

Both Gore and Bush were at pains to blame the other team for delays in the long-drawn-out election.

"Under their plan, none of the thousands of votes that remain to be counted would be counted at all," Gore told reporters at his official residence. "I believe this is a time to count every vote and not to run out the clock. This is not a time for delay, obstruction and procedural roadblocks."

Bush attorney Barry Richard said at a Tuesday news conference that there was no "intention or desire to unnecessarily delay the contest proceedings."

Ron Rotunda, a law professor at the University of Illinois who was a consultant to independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the investigation of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, said any delay could hurt a nascent Bush presidency.

"It's to (Bush's) advantage to get this thing settled quicker rather than later," Rotunda said in a telephone interview. "I think to some extent, even if Gore ultimately loses, he's put a real crimp into Gov. Bush's new administration."

To Rotunda and Seidman, the final date to know who the next president is would be January 6, the day members of Congress are scheduled to meet in joint session to conduct the official tally of electoral votes.

Even then, Rotunda said, debate could rage on for days.

"We are in a constitutional crisis, we're in areas we've never pushed in before," he said. Acknowledging that order was being maintained -- "We're talking peaceful, this is not a 19th century banana republic" -- Rotunda summed up by saying, simply: "It's mind-boggling."

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