Vote Hand counts Underway in Three Florida Counties
GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: The George W. Bush presidential campaign has asked a federal judge in Florida to put a stop to hand counts of ballots in the state. That hand count is underway in Volusia County and also is planned in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties. The Bush camp says, after the Texas governor won the first vote and the Florida machine recount, hand counts carry too high a risk of errors or mischief.</s>JAMES BAKER, BUSH ELECTION OBSERVER: The manual vote count sought by the Gore campaign would not be more accurate than an automated count. Indeed, it would be less fair and less accurate. Human error, individual subjectivity, and decisions to, quote, "determine the voter's intent," close quote, would replace precision machinery in tabulating millions of small marks and fragile hole punches.</s>TONY CLARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gene, the Gore campaign -- or, rather, the Bush campaign -- held some late-night discussions, conference call between the governor, Jim Baker in Florida and some of the Republican attorneys before deciding how to proceed in this because, as they have said, as Mr. Baker has said, they think this is unnecessary; that there have been two counts already, and so a third count is not appropriate in this matter. But one other concern that was not mentioned, a concern that lawyers have expressed, is that, traditionally, when there is a hand count, more votes end up being counted than before. And what usually happens is the person who won that county in which there is a hand count, they tend to get proportionately the larger number of those new votes. And so what could well happen -- the fear is that Al Gore could pick up a substantial number of votes in those four counties, enough so that he would lead in Florida -- take the lead from Governor Bush. And if that happens, the Bush campaign is then put in a position of, should they ask for hand counts in counties where the governor did well, perhaps, say, in the Florida panhandle; and how does that make them look since they have argued against the Gore campaign calling for hand counts. And so it is a very tricky situation as it now heads to the courts.</s>RANDALL: And Patty Davis is in Washington this weekend. Vice President Al Gore is there as well. Patty, what are they saying on that side of the aisle?</s>PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right; we are hearing that William Daley, the campaign chairman for the Gore campaign will be holding his own little press briefing to get word out from the Gore campaign in about 25 minutes. He and Warren Christopher have been at the residence -- the vice president's residence -- here in Washington this morning going over the situation with the vice president and briefing him. Earlier today, a spokesman for the Gore campaign said that what's really going on here is that the Bush campaign is trying to preempt local officials in Florida. They're going to federal court, trying to take away local officials' right to count their own citizens' votes. Now, we also heard from a senior Gore official who said, quote, "It is now clear that George W. Bush wants to use every legal means available, including lawyers and court injunctions to block the speedy and accurate count of Florida votes." The officials saying that, we are confident Americans will reject Mr. Bush's arrogant stance and will demand a full, fair and accurate counting of Florida votes. So the official adding that Al Gore wants that. The official also told CNN that it's kind of ironic because they are asserting that, in Florida's Seminole County yesterday that Republicans supported and, in fact, did a hand count in that county, overseen by Republican congressman; and now they're coming out today and saying they don't want a hand count. So there's a little back and forth going on here between the Gore campaign and the Bush campaign, Gene.</s>RANDALL: Thanks, Patty.