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Presidential election recount questions spark new court battles

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz (left), who represented Florida voters seeking a recount, defended Judge Middlebrooks' decision to allow the recount to proceed, while attorney Theodore Olson said the Bush campaign would consider an appeal

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- A pitched battle over the recounting of election results in four Florida counties was being waged in state and federal courts Monday, with the presidency of the United States hanging in the balance.

A federal judge refused to halt a hand recount of presidential election ballots in Florida Monday afternoon, setting the stage for an appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

The latest Associated Press tally of recounted ballots from all Florida counties showed Republican George W. Bush leading Democrat Al Gore by 388 votes. The candidate who gets Florida's 25 electoral votes will win the election.

Florida's Republican secretary of state, Katherine Harris, refused Monday votes to extend the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for certification of the recount from the presidential election.

DOCUMENTS • Judge Middlebrooks' ruling denying injunction sought by Bush campaign • Federal complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief filed by the George W. Bush campaign (FindLaw) (PDF format) • State court complaint seeking a new election in Palm Beach County, Fladell v. Palm Beach (FindLaw) • Palm Beach County voters' class action civil rights complaint, Horowitz v. Lepore (FindLaw) (PDF format) More related documents PDF documents require Adobe Acrobat Reader

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She said Florida law requires her to ignore any votes turned in after that time with the exception of overseas absentee ballots.

Volusia County, currently recounting its votes by hand, filed suit in state court to stop her even though that is the one county that expects to meet the deadline.

The Bush campaign filed suit in federal court in Miami seeking to halt the hand count in all four counties as subjective and inaccurate.

U.S District Judge Donald Middlebrooks in Miami denied the Bush camp's lawsuit, saying the question of halting recounts is not a matter for federal courts and properly belongs in state court.

Middlebrooks said the question of halting recounts is not a matter for federal courts and properly belongs in state court.

"While I share a desire for finality, I do not believe it is served" by involving a federal court, he said after hearing arguments from lawyers representing Bush an Gore.

Palm Beach County officials moved ahead with plans to recount roughly 425,000 votes -- saying the recount would start Tuesday and last six days.

A state court judge had issued an injunction barring Palm Beach County officials from certifying their results until she hears a lawsuit challenging the election ballot. That lawsuit and five others challenging the ballot were consolidated into one Monday.

Harris met with representatives of the Bush and Gore campaigns early Monday and told them Florida law required her to cut off all voting counting, except for overseas absentee ballots, on Tuesday afternoon.

Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Gore's representative in Florida, said Harris' decision was "arbitrary and unreasonable" and promised it would be challenged in court.

"You can't have a law that says you have to have all votes in at 5 o'clock tomorrow afternoon and then another law that allows you to have a hand recount that obviously is going to take more than just 5 o'clock tomorrow afternoon," said Democratic Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana. "They're in conflict, so a court I think has to resolve that conflict."

In federal court, attorneys for Bush argued that a judge should stop the hand counts, contending that machine counts are more accurate. Attorneys for Gore countered that the Republicans had not shown any irreparable harm would come from hand recounting the ballots.

Palm Beach County officials voted to hand recount their ballots after a Sample recount of four precincts turned up a number of errors and showed Gore gaining 19 votes.

In Broward County, officials were due to begin recounting votes Monday afternoon. Dade County officials were due to meet Tuesday on whether they would hold a hand recount.

In Volusia County, election officials said they believed they would complete their recount before the deadline but went ahead with their lawsuit as a precaution. They wanted an injunction blocking Harris from enforcing the deadline.

Judge grants injunction to freeze Palm Beach vote certification
November 10, 2000

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