Election 2000: Florida Court Decisions Could Bring Closure to Legal Battles
DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we're going to take a look now at the Bush campaign's hopes that the fight for the presidency will come to an end today.</s>DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: But Al Gore is holding out hope for a court decision to extend the battle. Linda has details now. Good morning, Linda.</s>LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, David and Deborah. We may hear the final gavels drop in this post-election standoff sometime today. In a crucial ruling for Al Gore by Florida's Supreme Court, the seven justices are expected to decide if there should be more recounts in Florida. On Monday Gore received a huge setback when a state judge rejected his election contest; he appealed that decision and his running mate Joe Lieberman says the Florida Supreme Court should be the final arbiter in this election dispute. Gore's team maintains hand counts are necessary so Americans will know who really won this election.</s>RON KLAIN, GORE CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Some day historians, journalists, will count those votes and the American people will know who got the most votes; so the best thing for everyone is to have that count done before our next president is sworn in, and not afterwards. Until those votes are counted, there will always be a doubt; and wouldn't it be better if we resolved that doubt now, before our next president is sworn in, instead of later?</s>STOUFFER: The Florida Supreme Court resumes deliberations in about an hour and a half, then a ruling could come at any time. However, word from Florida's Supreme Court is only one of three rulings we're actually waiting for today. Two Circuit Court judges are expected to make their decisions in the Seminole and Martin County absentee ballot cases. Judge Nikki Clark will have to decide if 15,000 absentee ballots in Seminole County should be voided. A democratic attorney accuses a county election official of collusion with Republicans, who were allowed to revise incomplete absentee ballot applications. Now, Clark gave no indication of when she might issue a ruling; but in a similar case, Judge Terry Lewis says he will rule at noon Eastern on 10,000 absentee ballots Democrats want thrown out in Martin County. He says he plans to consult with Judge Clark before making his ruling. Now, Bush attorneys say throwing out the ballots would really disenfranchise thousands of voters who believe they legally cast their ballots.</s>BARRY RICHARD, BUSH CAMPAIGN ATTORNEY: The law clearly provides that minor violations of statutory provisions are not sufficient to invalidate ballots. We're not talking about anything here that affected the integrity of the ballots. Do you think that ballots should be invalidated because somebody put accurate information on a request for an absentee ballot form? That would be ridiculous.</s>STOUFFER: And there's also action in Tallahassee today, away from the courtrooms. The Florida legislature opens for a special session to consider appointing the state's 25 electors. The legislature is dominated by Republicans, so you can probably guess which candidate they want to give the electors to. Democrats have accused the legislators of conspiring with the Bush campaign. The speaker of the Florida House admits he has been receiving advice from low-level officials in the Bush campaign, but says he and his Republican colleagues are acting completely independently. And one of the state's leading journalists says the legislature is really only acting as a Bush safety net.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The election results that were certified by Governor Jeb Bush after Katherine Harris...</s>STOUFFER: OK; some technical problems there, as you can see. Our apologies for that. I can tell you that the legislature begins its special session at noon today. It is not expected to actually take any action, though, to designate the state's electors until the beginning of next week, from what we are being told right now. Now on to the man who would be president. Our Tony Clark is an Austin, Texas this morning; he has been following what the Bush campaign has been up to through all of that. Tony, was's the latest from there?</s>TONY CLARK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Linda. The sign, I guess, perhaps, of the growing confidence of the Bush campaign -- yesterday the governor was at his office at the state capitol, the TV was on, but he didn't watch the court proceedings. Instead he was briefed before and after the court proceedings by his point man in Florida, James Baker. This morning he has his security briefing from the CIA and then he's going to meet with some of his top aides: Carl Rove, the campaign strategist; Karen Hughes, his communications director will be there; Andy Card, the man he has designated as his chief of staff will all meet at the governor's mansion and they will be talking about transition. Dick Cheney will be on the phone from Washington as they map out a Bush administration, should the election end in their favor. And it is kind of a sign of the growing confidence here. In fact, they are quietly making some plans for a small gathering, a celebration of sorts -- quiet celebration -- if he does become the president-elect. The plan now, the talk now is for some type of celebration maybe 24 hours after a Bush victory is announced and then, perhaps, the governor going to Washington to meet with President Clinton, pay a courtesy call to President Clinton and, perhaps, make some of his cabinet appointments public. Over the past few days he's indicated that he knows pretty much who he wants for his White House staff and he's got some general ideas about top cabinet positions. All of that, though, has not been announced. He's waiting for a resolution to the legal battles in Florida. And Linda, as you say, those legal battles -- we may have some of that resolved today, although Barry Richard has indicated that the Florida Supreme Court's decision could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and lower court decisions, if they go against the Bush campaign, could be appealed as well -- Linda.</s>STOUFFER: Tony Clark, I'm hoping you can talk a little bit about this -- what the Gore campaign has been saying about their actions if they were to lose the state Supreme Court ruling and whether they would concede at that point. What is the Bush side on that, do they think that, if the state Supreme Court comes out against Gore, it should be over?</s>CLARK: Well, you know, that's the feeling. But they're doing an interesting strategy here: they're having surrogates say that it's time for the vice president to concede; but over the past several days, perhaps past week, the governor himself has taken a softer tone. He says the vice president has to do what he has to do; he says things like he knows the vice president is in a difficult situation right now, he understands what it's like to campaign very hard and come up short. And so he has taken a very much softer approach while allowing both lawyers and other surrogates to go out and push for the vice president to concede defeat. One other thing, Linda, while I'm thinking about it. You know, all of this lawyering has cost a lot of money; both sides raising funds to pay for the recount. The governor, Texas governor, has shown his fund-raising prowess once again: he's raised $7.4 million to pay for the recounts, while Al Gore has raised less than half of that. And so he and the campaign still moving very strong here in Austin, Texas -- Linda.</s>STOUFFER: Interesting times for both men and for all of us. Tony Clark, live in Austin, Texas. Thank you very much.