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Florida judge rules ...

Judge Sauls postponed his ruling on manual recounts while he reviews a U.S. Supreme Court opinion released Monday

WEB EXCLUSIVE Jonathan Karl on the possible 'sleeper case' in the election dispute Eileen O'Connor on Gore's strategy Mark Potter on Gore's court challenge

In this story: Closing witnesses Expert on voting devices testifies Statistician called to stand< RELATED STORIES, SITES

(CNN) -- A Florida judge ruled Monday ********* two of the state's largest counties should conduct hand recounts of some presidential ballots.

Leon County Circuit Court Judge N. Sanders Sauls announced his ruling after a two-day hearing in Tallahassee, the state capital.

During the hearing lawyers for Democratic Vice President Al Gore sought recounts of about 14,000 disputed ballots, and Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush opposed the recounts.

Before the ruling, lawyers agreed it's virtually certain the case would continue on in the Florida appellate courts. Regardless of what Sauls decides, attorneys said, the Florida Supreme Court likely would be asked to get involved in the matter by December 12, the deadline by which Florida must submit its 25 presidential electors to the federal Electoral College.

VIDEO CNN's Gary Tuchman reports on the importance of the ruling from Judge N. Sanders Sauls (December 4) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Gore campaign attorney Ron Klain defends contesting the results (December 4) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Gary Tuchman reports on the court sessions in Florida (December 3) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Brian Cabell reports on why in other parts of Tallahassee, people have other concerns Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Watch all up-to-the-minute video of Election 2000    ALSO Florida Senate leader undecided about electors session U.S. Supreme Court mulls election question Judge Sauls brings dose of wit to Florida election dispute Senator who lost to dead candidate observes Florida trial

GRETA@LAW Election analyst David Cardwell explains Florida's election contest procedure

DOCUMENTS Gore complaint to contest Florida election - November 27 (FindLaw) (requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™) More motions, briefs and orders in Gore v. Harris, in which Al Gore is contesting Florida vote certification

MESSAGE BOARD The U.S. Presidential Election  CASE FILE • Reviewing the Vote: The U.S. Supreme Court reviews the Florida election case • Who's Who: Court and lawyer profiles • Legalese: A layman's guide to the election case • Virtual tour of the U.S. Supreme Court

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Gore and Bush need only Florida's electoral votes to claim the White House.

Gore lawyer David Boies told Sauls in his closing argument Sunday night that the vice president's lawsuit is a "protest action" against injustice.

Last week, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris declared Bush, leading by 537 votes, the victor in Florida. Gore, targeting specific election counts in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Nassau counties, promptly contested the results.

Democrats are convinced that hundreds of legitimate votes for Gore were missed during an automated counting process, Boies said.

"There are ballots that the machine cannot read but from which voter intent can be discerned by manual review," Boies said.

By seeking a recount, particularly in heavily Democratic Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, Gore officials think they can find enough votes to overcome Bush's slim lead. State election officials certified Bush's win on November 26 after the Florida Supreme Court extended the deadline for counties to submit hand-counted tabulations.

Harris previously had tried to enforce a November 14 deadline for counties to submit election results. She argued the deadline was dictated by state law.

Richard said Florida law left recounts up to the discretion of the Florida secretary of state, and he said there was no evidence of abuse of that discretion.

"There is no right by the federal or state constitution to manual recounts," he argued. "There is no law that says that you must count dimpled ballots, constitutional or otherwise."

He also told Sauls that the burden of proof was on Gore and that "we are light years away from any carrying of that burden." Richard said the Democrats offered insufficient witnesses and evidence to prove their position regarding a constitutional right to recounts.

Attorney Joseph Klock argued on behalf of Harris.

Klock noted that in every county where Gore wanted manual recounts there were different standards for determining whether a presidential vote had been cast on disputed ballots.

Gore appeared Sunday night on CBS's "60 Minutes." The vice president said that "if at the end of the day when all the processes have taken place, if George W. Bush is sworn in as president, he will be my president, he will be America's president."

Gore's attorneys, however, have filed a motion in Leon County in response to a Bush campaign complaint.

The latest legal tit-for-tat focuses on Broward, Volusia and Seminole counties. The Bush campaign is seeking to have the hand counts in Broward and Volusia -- which showed net gains for Gore -- rejected on the grounds that they were improper.

A Democratic attorney filed a separate suit earlier, seeking to have 15,000 absentee ballots thrown out in Seminole County because of what he alleges is Republican voter fraud. A hearing is set to start Wednesday in Leon County Circuit Court before Judge Nikki Clark.

Closing witnesses

Witnesses on Sunday included voters, vote-count observers, voting-machine experts and statisticians.

Among the final witnesses were two women who recalled how the press called Florida for Gore before the polls closed in part of the state, leading one woman to go home rather than go to her polling place. That may be used to explain what Democrats consider lower than usual numbers of ballots cast in some counties.

Another witness, Nassau County Elections Supervisor Shirley King, described how a machine recount conducted one day after the election came up 218 votes short from the first count. She said the county canvassing board held a meeting and voted to send in the original tally.

Thomas Spencer, who witnessed the hand recount of ballots in Miami-Dade County, also testified that he saw very different methods being used to determine whether a "dimple" on the punch card was considered a vote or not.

"In certain circumstances, Judge (Lawrence) King would use sort of a dimple test, and (County Supervisor David) Leahy or (County Court Judge Myriam) Lehr would go along with him," Spencer testified. "In other cases, Judge Lehr would say there were no other indications on the ballot of a voter's intent to actually vote and she didn't think there was actually that kind of indication."

Sauls then asked Spencer if that inconsistent judgment meant that three different people might get three different results while counting.

Spencer replied, "Absolutely."

Expert on voting devices testifies

Earlier, a businessman who said he spent much of his career redesigning and selling punch-card voting devices testified. The witness, John Ahmann, said he had redesigned voting devices for International Business Machines and currently owns an election equipment supply store in Florida.

Ahmann, a witness for Bush's legal team, used colorful illustrations to testify how the punch-card voting system works and what potential pitfalls are contained in such a system.

Bush attorney Phil Beck asked Ahmann about the Gore camp's assertion that punch-card ballots without missing chad in the presidential column actually may have been votes for the vice president.

"I seriously doubt that a voter would be unable to push the chad through using such a device," Ahmann testified.

Ahmann said he doubted very much that so-called chad buildup would prevent a voter from dislodging chad from a ballot card and leaving a so-called dimple instead.

"As you are punching downward, the material that's being punched ... will tend to go outward and they will form a pile outward," Ahmann said. He added that there is enough room underneath the punch-card voting device to hold chad buildup left over from eight to 10 previous Election Days.

Ahmann said Florida distributes one voting device for every 125 voters in a precinct.

Statistician called to stand

A statistician, Laurentius Marais, was the first witness to take the stand Sunday morning.

Marais disputed previous testimony from a Gore witness who said statistical projections for a Gore-proposed hand vote recount in Miami-Dade County would result in additional votes for Gore.

During his questioning, Beck asked about so-called undervotes, or punch-card ballots that were not clearly marked for either presidential candidate. Undervotes consist of a significant portion of the 14,000 disputed ballots that are at issue. The Gore campaign believes that many of the undervote ballots were actually votes for the vice president.

The Bush campaign attorney appeared to blame the punch-card ballot system -- not voter error -- for the undervotes.

Marais endorsed a study that said, in general, that the method of voting -- punch-card balloting, for instance -- influences voter turnout and whether voters vote for all offices on the ballot.

On cross-examination, Boies questioned Marais' credibility by referring to his testimony in an unrelated case about lead paint.

Greta Van Susteren on the significance of the contested ballots hearing
December 2, 2000
Gore camp says time is running out for ballot recounts
November 30, 2000
Gore team asks Florida Supreme Court to speed recount
November 29, 2000
Bush, Harris urge end to Florida recount; Gore seeks uniform standard
November 19, 2000

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