Judge upholds vote-counting deadline in blow to Gore

8:00 AM

TALLAHASSEE - A Florida court has upheld a deadline to end vote-counting from last week's disputed presidential election, dealing a serious blow to Democrat Al Gore's hopes of victory.

The decision by Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis upheld a ruling by Florida's Republican secretary of state to impose a deadline of 11 am today (NZ time) for final results from the state's 67 counties to arrive in her office.

That count is expected to confirm that Republican George W. Bush leads Gore by 388 votes, according to an unofficial media tally. A final certification of the Florida result would come on Friday, the cutoff date for overseas mail-in ballots to arrive.

A Bush win would give him the state's 25 electoral votes and finally decide the Nov. 7 presidential election in his favor.

The circuit court ruling did leave one slight window open for late-arriving results to be included in the count.

"The secretary of state may ignore such late filed returns but may not do so arbitrarily; rather only by the proper exercise of discretion after consideration of all appropriate facts and circumstances," the judge wrote.

"In all other respects the motion for temporary injunction is denied," he ruled.

The vice president's legal advisers were expected to appeal the decision to the Florida Supreme Court immediately.

"You can expect an appeal," said one Democratic source.

The winner of the state's 25 electoral votes would pass the 270 needed to be elected president. Neither can reach 270 without Florida.

Both campaigns continued to jostle for public support ahead of the ruling. Former Secretary of State James Baker, representing Bush, warned that the continuing confusion, which has now lasted almost a week since the inconclusive Nov. 7 presidential election, was causing uncertainty abroad and on financial markets.

"Why are the markets disturbed? Because they don't see any finality here," said Baker, suggesting the wrangling could continue all the way until Dec. 18 when the Electoral College meets to vote in the next president.

Gore campaign manager William Daley said Baker's account of events in Florida was inaccurate and suggested waiting for the legal process to play out.

Daley rejected the argument that markets had been affected, saying they had been more concerned about poor corporate earning reports than the electoral confusion.

One key county, Palm Beach County, suspended a hand recount of its votes until the confusion was cleared up, after receiving conflicting advice from two top state officials.

Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a prominent Republican, set the Tuesday deadline to certify the election results in Florida, even if hand counts of votes in four counties are not complete.

The Palm Beach County canvassing board, which had been prepared to begin examining around 430,000 ballots by hand, voted 2-1 to suspend its hand count based on an opinion from the secretary of state's office that the manual tally was illegal.

Only after it had voted and adjourned did the Democratic attorney general give his opinion - which said that the secretary of state's view was "at variance with the existing Florida statutes and case law." The board then decided to go to the state Supreme Court.

It was becoming difficult to keep track of the fast multiplying legal actions being fought on different courts in various jurisdictions which has turned the disputed presidential election into a veritable feast for lawyers.

Neither Gore nor Bush showed any sign of backing away from the confrontation, which many analysts believe will severely damage the authority of whoever eventually emerges the victor.

Palm Beach County is also at the center of a controversy because 19,000 ballots were disqualified because of confusion over a ballot design. Some voters say they mistakenly cast their ballot for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Gore.

While Gore was ahead in the popular vote nationwide by around 200,000 votes of some 100 million cast, he still seemed the underdog in Florida.

The Democrats appeared to be losing the recount battle in other Florida counties.

Broward County election officials decided yesterday not to proceed with a full, manual recount, but the Democrats immediately said they would take the county to court to force completion of the hand count.

Volusia County actually completed a manual recount of 184,000 precinct votes yesterday after filing its lawsuit and was wrapping up a count of absentee ballots. Media reports suggested it produced a 20-vote swing for Gore.

Florida's largest county, Miami-Dade, decided on overning that it would conduct a partial manual recount.

Republicans argue the recount is taking place in a partisan atmosphere and that the Democrats want recount after recount until they get the desired result: Gore as president.

The Democrats counter that voter irregularities need to be resolved and that with overseas ballots not due to be completed until Saturday (NZ time), there should be no rush with the recounts.

- REUTERS

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