M A I N   N E W S

Gore moves Florida SC
Asks for recount of disputed ballots
From Vasantha Arora

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 — In what appears to be a race against time, US Vice-President Al Gore has moved Florida’s Supreme Court for an immediate manual recount of more than 13,000 disputed ballots from two of the state’s counties.

If the recount is permitted the outcome could rob Mr Gore’s Republican rival George Bush of the Florida victory and the US presidency. However, Mr Bush is not far behind. His lawyers have persuaded circuit court Judge N. Sanders Sauls to issue an order requiring that all votes cast in the Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties —more than one million — be transferred to the state capital, Tallahassee, for a possible recount.

According to observers, the Bush campaign is attempting to delay the court proceedings to frustrate Mr Gore’s strategy for an immediate recount of only 13,000 votes. Mr Gore expects relief from the Florida Supreme Court, which had earlier granted his demand for hand recounts, delaying by almost a week the certification of the result in the state. The court has seven judges, all appointed by the Democratic administration.

On Tuesday, Judge Sauls had fixed Saturday for the hearing of Mr Gore’s plea for an immediate recount. In the documents filed before the court, the Gore team said, The issues in this appeal are of great public importance because they directly affect the outcome of the election of the President of the United States and determine the sanctity of the electoral process in Florida law.”

On Judge Sauls’ order, the ballots cast in the two counties would be brought to Tallahassee, but he will not decide until Saturday whether they will be hand counted. He wants to await the outcome of Friday’s US Supreme Court hearing on the Florida election dispute.

In spite of the unfolding legal scenario the Republican-dominated Florida legislature is going ahead with its special session to choose the state’s electors, a kind of cushion for Mr Bush in case he loses the legal battle and the 25 electoral votes as a consequence. Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of the Republican presidential candidate, said he would sign such legislation if he thought it was appropriate.

Meanwhile, the Bush transition team, headed by his vice-presidential running mate Dick Cheney, has acquired office space here to expedite the search for possible Cabinet appointees and senior administration officials. Mr Cheney said he and Colin Powell, who is tipped to be the

next US Secretary of State, would travel to Austin, Texas, on Friday to meet Mr Bush for an extended discussion on the transition process. Like Mr Bush, Mr Gore too is also going ahead with the transition process to appear a winner and President-elect.

However, the most important lawsuits other than those filed on behalf of the rival candidates will go on trial on December 6. The suits filed are challenging some of the Seminole county ballots. If those cases are successful, it would cost Mr Bush about 4,800 votes.

Meanwhile, the Gore campaign has received some good news. For all of Mr Bush’s talk about Americans chafing over the contested election, the latest New York Times-CBS News poll shows they are not overwhelmingly distressed and remain deeply divided along partisan lines over who should be the next President.

Mr Bush’s voters, overwhelmingly, want Ms Gore to concede. They say they have lost patience. Mr Gore’s voters, overwhelmingly, say they are willing to wait longer for a resolution and do not seem moved by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris’s certification of Mr Bush as the winner from Florida.

Fortyseven per cent of the respondents polled, mostly Republicans, said the results so far reported from Florida accurately reflected how voters there had cast their ballots. But another 47 per cent, mostly Democrats, said the tally was not accurate. The public is split, just as it was on the eve of the election, over whether Mr Gore or Mr Bush should be President, The New York Times said. — IANS