Florida Supreme Court Stays Certification of Florida Presidential Ballots; Counties Counting Overseas Absentee Ballots
JAMES BAKER, OBSERVER FOR BUSH CAMPAIGN: We now look forward to the prompt counting and reporting of the limited number of uncounted overseas absentee ballots.</s>WARREN CHRISTOPHER, OBSERVER FOR GORE CAMPAIGN: I think the plea that I have is that we take time, that we wait just these few days necessary to reach a result that will enhance the legitimacy of the next president of the United States.</s>NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Florida counties begin counting absentee ballots, which could make or break the presidential election.</s>LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: This as the Gore campaign loses a key legal battle, but vows to fight on. Right now, we have cameras trained on the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, home of the vice president of the United States. Al Gore is expected to step out momentarily to make a statement. That's part of our ongoing developments, which are happening at a frightening rate of speed here. I'm Lou Waters.</s>ALLEN: And I'm Natalie Allen. Here's a look at developments from this day. Lawyers for the Bush and Gore campaigns continue to fight tooth and nail in Florida courts, but the focus outside the courtrooms is now on those overseas absentee ballots. Florida counties have begun counting those ballots. So far, George W. Bush's lead over Al Gore has increased slightly. Secretary of State Katherine Harris says she expects to certify the final results tomorrow. A judge in Tallahassee this morning upheld Harris' decision to reject hand recounted ballots that are filed late, but the Gore camp says it will appeal. Despite the ruling, hand recounts continue in Broward and Palm Beach counties.</s>WATERS: Now, let's get on to Palm Beach County. Despite the judge's ruling today upholding the secretary of state's authority to reject the recount, the recount continues, and a judge in West Palm Beach says he will rule Monday on a request for a countywide revote. CNN's Martin Savidge is covering that aspect of the story from West Palm Beach. He joins us now live. Marty, what's new?</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, elections officials here with Palm Beach County say despite the ruling out of Tallahassee this morning that would say that the votes would be certified without the hand recount included, they say they will continue to count on here until they are told by some other court in the state of Florida that they cannot do so. Meanwhile just a few minutes ago, we received an update from the chairman of the elections canvassing board here in Palm Beach County. That is Judge Charles Burton. He essentially said that as of right now -- and this would be at about 3:30 or 3:40 this afternoon, that they had counted 39 precincts, or approximately 32,000 votes. And so far, they have only been able to really give us results from two of those precincts. They admit that the problem is that they have been bogged down somewhat, especially last night. They had some problems. And this is how the judge described what the difficulties were.</s>JUDGE CHARLES BURTON, PALM BEACH COUNTY CANVASSING BOARD: ... there's a couple of problems where we had agreed to allow each party more observers than we probably should have, because there's too much commotion running around, and it was getting late into the night, and I know one fellow dropped some ballots, and everybody was kind of hooting and hollering at him. So we agreed, fine, we'll just recount all of those and just put them back in and we'll deal with them.</s>SAVIDGE: You can imagine the atmosphere inside of that counting room is extremely tense, especially with all those observers, all of those attorneys that are there. The judge quipped at one point he had heard there were about 500 attorneys for each political party down here. So it's obviously very crowded inside the room here. Now as for the two precincts that he essentially gave us some what he called "unofficial results" for, that would be precinct 144(d) and for precinct 3. He said that the total count of only those two precincts showed a net gain for Republican George W. Bush of one vote. So, that's where it stands. Now, he's only reporting unofficial results from two precincts, even though they say that they had now counted a total of 39 precincts. The reason he says is there are so many questionable ballots that are brought to the attention of the canvass board that it's slowing their process down greatly. At this particular rate, Lou, it will take them 10 days, if you do the math in your head. They hope to be completed sooner than that -- Lou.</s>WATERS: Has that tension you referred to spilled over into any arguments? Is everything civil within the counting area?</s>SAVIDGE: Well, for the most part, we are told that it is fairly civil. There has been more talking in that room than they would like. Initially, they had a no talking rule and said that the only thing that the observers could say is "object" or "questionable." It appears a few more words are being said than that, but even if they aren't speaking, they can definitely feel the attitude in the air.</s>WATERS: Marty Savidge in West Palm Beach. Natalie, what's next?</s>ALLEN: Well, as we mentioned, George W. Bush has extended his lead over Al Gore with the absentee ballots that have come in. We can tell you of 14 of 67 precincts -- excuse me, 14 of 67 counties, Bush leads Gore by 339. Those are the partial results compiled by the Associated Press from counties that have counted the overseas ballot. These figures do not include any results from the various hand recounts going on in Florida. We'll report those hand recount results to you as they become available. Let's go now to Tallahassee, the center of the political and legal universe and CNN's Deborah Feyerick -- Deborah.</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, the bottom line here in Tallahassee is that the Gore team really wants the hand recounts in the final total, but this morning a judge effectively ruled that they don't have to be included. The judge sided with the secretary of state who said she had used her discretion, the judge even going so far as to say as far as he was concerned she had followed his directives.</s>TERRE CASS, COURT ADMINISTRATOR: On the limited evidence presented, it appears that the secretary has exercised her reasoned judgment to determine what relevant factors and criteria should be considered, applied them to the facts and circumstances pertinent to the individual counties involved and made her decision. My order requires nothing more. Accordingly, it is ordered and adjudged that the plaintiff's motion is denied.</s>FEYERICK: The Gore team, of course, is appealing. Attorneys were here at the Supreme Court earlier today. This is Florida's highest court. They filed papers and in those papers, it said that they had found substantial ballot counting irregularities. They also said that this appeal is of great public importance. Now, the secretary of state has repeatedly fought the recounts today. She said she was pleased by the judge's rulings. She said that she will continue to follow election law procedure. Just to let you know about the absentee ballots. If everyone thought everything was going to go smoothly there, let me tell you how it stands here in Leon county. They received 49 absentee ballots. Now, of those 49, three are already in question, either because they were mailed out from a particular location, or because of the legitimate date. All of those things right now being investigated. That's three that are in question, 16 of the 49 have already been thrown out. And the reasons they were thrown out was because of a late postmark and also because they did not receive an official military forms and legalities and technicalities there. So, 49 received, right now, only 30 those counting -- Natalie.</s>ALLEN: All right, and that's Leon County. Thanks Deborah Feyerick, outside the state Supreme Court. Here's Lou.</s>WATERS: And another legal boomlet this afternoon: In Broward County, where members of the canvassing board were called into court to explain why the hand recount that's ongoing in Broward County should continue. A ruling came down a little more than an hour ago on that. The latest from CNN's Susan Candiotti, who's following along in Ft. Lauderdale -- Susan.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Lou, a wild and woolly hearing this afternoon in a courtroom in Broward County, Florida, with two lively characters, two attorneys, one Republican, and one Democrat going at each other in front of a judge. However, in the end, the Republicans failed in their effort to bring the hand count to a stop here in Broward County. Now, the Republicans actually had subpoenaed into court the three members of the canvassing board, two Democrats and one Republican, demanding an immediate trial. However, a judge ultimately ruled that the canvassing board members could go back to the hand count and furthermore asked, what's the emergency? No need for a trial at this time. And he said let the hand count continue, and so that is what is happening at this hour. They expect that the hand count will wrap up on Monday at 5:00. But will it be worth anything if Secretary of State Harris rules that the results will not be acceptable to her? In about -- at 5:00, in about an hour from now, the overseas ballots, however, in Broward County will be counted by the canvassing board and they hope to finish that up by about 8:00 tonight. Estimated numbers of those ballots to count, anywhere from 100 to 200 ballots, and they're punch cards. Back to you, Lou.</s>WATERS: All right, Susan Candiotti in Ft. Lauderdale -- Natalie.</s>ALLEN: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta also playing a role in this election battle. The court has received responses from both sides in lawsuits aimed at stopping the hand recounts in Florida. We get the latest on that part of the story from CNN national correspondent Bob Franken -- Bob.</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Natalie, they're playing a role, maybe. The Republicans had lost the district court level in Florida -- to please to end the hand recounts and they're appealing to the circuit court of appeals here to try and overturn those rulings. But there has been nothing out of the circuit court. It's all been incoming. The two sides have been filing a variety of arguments. There has been no word on whether there would be hearings, no word on whether there would be a ruling by the all 12 members of the appeals court. Many legal experts say they believe they're waiting to see how final developments unfold in Florida. The issue is a Constitutional one, whether the federal court should get involved in the matter that is traditionally reserved for the states. If the states were able, in this particular case, Florida by rulings by the Supreme Court make the hand recount irrelevant, it would leave the judges on the appeals court to rule they have no place in the case. They'd call it moot. That is on of the possibilities. Others include having a full open court hearing which they haven't done or ruling on the merits of the Constitutional claim. All this is possible. Some fairly colorful language in the latest filings that came today. The Democrats said that the Republicans were stunningly complaining that humans are incapable of accurately and impartially counting the votes cast. Brazenly, they invoke the Constitution, the Democrats charge. The Republicans said if the recounts are permitted to continue, the party will succeed, meaning the Democrats, in artificially skewing the main portion of the votes to the Democratic candidates. So those are the claims in the counterclaim. The court has not indicated if it's going to rule or even whether it's going to rule or when it's going to rule -- Natalie.</s>ALLEN: All right, well, thanks for keeping up. Thank you so much, Bob Franken in Atlanta.</s>WATERS: Now here's a new one, Natalie. With all the talk about recounts and deadlines, when is a deadline really a deadline? As we've been reporting for the last several days officials have been calling for all of Florida's overseas ballots to be handed in by midnight tonight. Right? Thus, midnight has been seen as a deadline for such ballots. But, get this: Florida law actually sets that overseas absentee ballot deadline at November 24th, which is next Friday. Stay tuned. CNN will be watching as those overseas ballots are counted. We'll present a special report at midnight, Eastern tonight with Joie Chen.</s>ALLEN: And again, a reminder we're waiting to hear from Al Gore who should step outside his residence at any moment and make a statement. We'll bring you live coverage.</s>WATERS: And we'll get a little clearer understanding of the legal picture down in Florida when Greta Van Susteren joins us right after a break. Hang in there.