Election 2000: Martin County Case Set to Resume; Florida Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: At this hour, the trial regarding Martin County and the applications for those absentee ballots gets underway. Over to circuit court and Mark Potter now for a quick set up for what's happening over there. Mark, good morning again.</s>MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Bill. Well, after a marathon session last night, the Martin County trial is ready to get underway right now. We're expecting to hear more witnesses and for this trial to go until about noon. The lawyers say they will be putting on a statistician, and we will be hearing the deposition of the supervisor of elections, Peggy Robbins. You can see the courtroom, it is empty, right now, or at least the judge is not there, but we have seen some of the lawyers filtering in this morning. Now, in the Martin County case, the plaintiff, a Democrat is asking that as many as 10,000 absentee ballots be thrown out, which would give Al Gore the election. At issue: Did election officials and Republicans break the law when Republican Party members added voter registration numbers to absentee ballot applications after they had been rejected by the supervisor of elections because those numbers had been mistakenly omitted. The plaintiffs say, adding those numbers and resubmitting those applications was a conspiracy to help Republicans.</s>EDWARD STAFMAN, PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY: It's very ironic that these same lawyers vigorously argued to Judge Sauls, just a few days ago, that where an elderly voter misses a chat by a millimeter, the strict role of machine counting must nevertheless be applied and the vote should not count, thereby disenfranchising the voter. But in a case such as this, where the express provisions of law were intentionally violated, these same lawyers label that as a technicality and those votes become precious to them.</s>DARYL BRISTOW, BUSH CAMPAIGN ATTORNEY: Every voter voted exactly the way the statute said, their vote was counted, they expressed their will. If this vote is thrown out, they will never have had a chance to vote. This is not an illegal ballot.</s>POTTER: Now Republicans scoff at the idea of throwing out thousands of ballots because of what they say was a hyper-technicality on a ballot application, not on the ballot itself. And they say the Democrats knew about this situation before the election, but chose not to do anything about it until they saw the election results. Later today, at 1:00, in this same courthouse, the Seminole County trial will resume. We're expecting there, before Judge Nikki Clark, to hear the closing arguments. And if you recall, that is the case in which the plaintiff is asking that as many as 15,000 absentee ballots be thrown out. Bill, back to you.</s>HEMMER: All right, Mark. Mark Potter, again outside circuit court. Now inside, by telephone, here's CNN's Gary Tuchman inside Judge Lewis' courtroom. Gary, what's happening there?</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, I'm sitting in the jury box right now because there's no jury in this case so they've let us sit here, and I'm staring at these lawyers, and they look very subdued; not necessarily because they're depressed, but because they are, frankly, very tired. Seventeen and a half hours yesterday in this courthouse between the Martin and Seminole County case, and it's like a boxer who takes too much punches -- too many punches and keeps on going. These lawyers took lots of legal jabs yesterday, but they know this is important, they know this is historical, and they keep on going. They went to 12:30 in the morning in this Martin County case. The judge said, what time do you think you need to come in this morning to get it done by 12:00 noon, they said we need to be in by 8:00 Eastern time. So here they are waiting for the judge, and the announcement just came that he will coming in any minute. But they hope to finish this by 12, and then pick up the Seminole case at 1:00, and we could possibly, potentially get decisions in both of these important cases by the end of the day today. Bill, back to you.</s>HEMMER: Gary, curious about this item, Barry Richard, a prominent attorney on the Republican side, was arguing in that courtroom yesterday, then we saw him later in Seminole County, and the courtroom there. We also expect him at state Supreme Court. Is he there just yet today or not?</s>TUCHMAN: Bill, Barry Richard is the lead attorney for George W. Bush in both the Seminole and Martin County cases. But yesterday he left after the Seminole case ended at 7:00, and did not participate in the Martin case arguments, because he needed a good night rest, and a chance to read the briefs for today's Supreme Court hearing, and he's also not here today.</s>HEMMER: All right, Gary. Gary Tuchman, by telephone. inside the courtroom there. Meanwhile, let's shift our focus now to the state Supreme Court. Again, those oral arguments get underway in a bit less than two hours' time. Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti tracking that part of the story today. Susan, good morning to you.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. By now, Florida's seven Supreme Court justices have reviewed 50 page briefs, submitted by the campaigns of both Gov. Bush and Vice President Gore, and the Supreme Court has also ordered the transfer of those 14,000 so-called under votes from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties, from the Leon County courthouse, over here to the Supreme Court. Now, in its brief, Gov. Bush's team had urged this court to reject the Gore appeal, saying that, even if the justices decided to order the count of those contested ballots, the 14,000 or so, it would be, in the Republicans' words, unfeasible to try to get the job done by December 12th; that of course is when Florida's electors must be chosen. Also the Republicans argue, in its brief, that the result would likely be appealed and that Americans would distrust the outcome. Now Democrats argue that, to ignore all those ballots, would be to undermine a fundamental question of this election: Which candidate got more votes? Here are spokesmen for both campaigns, starting with the Democrats.</s>DOUG HATTAWAY, GORE SPOKESMAN: We're very optimistic that the Florida Supreme Court will see that Florida law was not adhered to in these matters thus far, and that key evidence has not been taken into account to determine who won the election, and that we feel very optimistic that they will agree with us on those points.</s>GEORGE TERWILLIGER, BUSH ATTORNEY: Our arguments will basically track what's in our brief and that is that Judge Sauls made a very careful, well reasoned decision. He assimilated a lot of factual information into that decision, and based on those findings of fact, reached very cogent and clear and concise and correct conclusions of law.</s>CANDIOTTI: When proceedings begin at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time, each side will have a half hour to make its case, and the proceeding is scheduled to last for an hour, but naturally, if the justices have additional questions, the proceeding could go longer. How long it will take for this court to rule of course is unknown, but as many have said, the world will be watching for the ruling. Bill, back to you.</s>HEMMER: Indeed they will. Susan, thanks a lot. Susan Candiotti there with us live this morning at the state Supreme Court.