M A I N   N E W S

Judge rebuffs Democrats
Says Harris exercised discretion

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (DPA) — A Florida judge today handed a major legal victory to Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, ruling that state officials did not need to include continuing recounts in the state’s final tally.

The ruling by Circuit Judge Terry Lewis upheld Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris’ decision to certify Mr Bush’s 300-vote lead over Vice-President Al Gore, pending final counts of overseas absentee ballots due by tomorrow.

US Vice-President Al Gore appealed against ruling excluding hand recounts from the final Florida vote tally.

If the ruling stands, the stage could be set for yet another strange twist in the 10-day saga over who won Florida’s 25 Electoral College votes — and therefore the presidency.

Tomorrow is the deadline for receiving absentee ballots from overseas, and once those are counted, Ms Harris would be able to certify the state’s vote total and declare a winner — even though recounts continue in two heavily democratic counties.

The Gore campaign had asked the judge to force Ms Harris to include new, revised vote totals from Palm Beach and Broward counties to recount one million ballots by hand. Because both counties are heavily Democratic, the recounts were expected to result in more votes for Mr Gore.

Ms Harris, the state’s top election official and a Republican Party activist who campaigned for Mr Bush, declared earlier this week that she would not accept revised totals following a legal deadline of 5 p.m. On November 14. Judge Lewis ruled today that Ms Harris “properly exercised her discretion” in enforcing that deadline.

Late yesterday, the state’s Supreme Court had ruled that the hand count could continue, but the High Court did not say that Ms Harris was required to include any revised totals in the official state tally.

The ruling did not surprise those who said that courts rarely interfered in the exercise of discretion by elected state officials, unless it was clear the decision was arbitrary.

In this case, lawyers for Ms Harris described in detail all the procedures she ordered and the advice of experts that she took before she made her decision. The Gore camp is now expected to move the Supreme Court against the ruling.

Ms Harris has declared that come what may, she would declare the winner in the presidential election on schedule tomorrow after the postal ballots were counted and added to or subtracted from the 300-vote lead Mr Bush had last Tuesday.

Republican vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney declared last night that if the Florida Secretary of State, after counting the postal ballots, certified Mr Bush to be the winner, Mr Bush would proclaim himself President-elect.