FLORIDA RECOUNT

	November 13 , 2000
	Betty Ann Bowser reports as this year's election controversy moves into the courts.

JIM LEHRER: The political struggle over the presidential vote in Florida became a legal fight today. On one front, a federal judge in Miami refused to stop hand recounting in several counties. Governor Bush's campaign had sued to end those recounts. There was no word on a possible appeal. On a second front, the Gore campaign went to state court to overturn Florida's chief election officials' ruling that all counties must certify results by 5:00 PM tomorrow. As of today, the unofficial Associated Press tally had Bush ahead of Gore by 388 votes statewide. Betty Anne Bowser begins our unfolding of this day. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Election officials continued their labor-intensive manual recounts today in three Florida counties. Over the weekend, Volusia County chose to count all 184,000 ballots by hand, as did Palm Beach, where over 400,000 ballots were cast. Broward is hand counting three precincts. If there is a significant change from election night, officials said they will consider a full recount. And in a fourth county, Miami Dade, officials will meet tomorrow to consider a manual count there. But as their work continues, the two presidential campaigns are engaging in legal battles that could preempt their efforts. Today each side won a procedural victory. The first dispute concerns a Florida state law that says all county vote tallies must be done and certified by tomorrow evening if they are to be counted at all. Under the statute returns must be filed by 5:00 PM on the 7th day following the general election. If the returns are not received by the Department by the time specified, such returns may be ignored. Early this morning, Gore's running mate, Senator Joe Lieberman, argued against implementation of that law. SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: To cut off the counting of votes in Florida would strike me as so extreme that I'd be very surprised if someone, particularly people in Florida, want their votes to be counted did not go to court. And, you know, the effect of that would be to delay this process even longer. BETTY ANN BOWSER: The decision to enforce the 5:00 PM deadline came a few hours later. BOB CRAWFORD, Florida State Election Canvassing Board: The instructions to me are clear; that we have to review the votes that are submitted by 5:00 PM on Tuesday. So, we looked very closely to see if there was any discretion. There is no discretion. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Meanwhile officials in Palm Beach County explained why they went to court to seek an extension of the deadline. JUDGE CHARLES BURTON, Chair, Florida Canvassing Board: I was concerned that in the process of doing a manual recount that clearly cannot be completed by 5:00 PM tomorrow, that in the process we were not going to disenfranchise every vote in the county. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Volusia County sued too, even though officials there think they will finish on time. DAVID BYRON, Volusia County Spokesman: We will be represented, are being represented this morning, in Miami in the federal action. Our layman's terms response in the federal action is that this canvassing board has the right to do what it's choosing to do. BETTY ANN BOWSER: This afternoon, attorneys for the Gore campaign joined Volusia County in this Florida state courtroom asking that the deadline for certification of the vote tally be extended. Meanwhile, the refusal of a Miami federal court judge to stop the hand count was a victory for the Democrats. One of their lawyers was Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe. LAWRENCE TRIBE: If the district court had decided to shut down the process of manually recounting the ballots and to interfere in the operations of the state, it would have been quite a landmark. I think as it stands what he did was fairly normal and standard. It's important because the presidency of the United States might turn on it. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Another Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, has been retained in the suit by several Florida voters. ALAN DERSHOWITZ: I think it takes incredible chutzpah for a candidate for President of the United States, who ran on a platform of leaving it to the states and leaving it to the local communities and keeping the federal government out of supervising the states and against judicial activism, to come into a federal district court this morning and ask to stop an ongoing state process, which is why I was asked by seven voters in Palm Beach County to come in to court and represent their interests this morning in trying to oppose the federal cost granting the injunction. We won and that means that the count goes on. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Bush's lawyers had argued the hand count in four counties discriminates against residents in the other 63. Governor Bush's attorney said he was disappointed in the decision. THEODORE OLSON, Bush Campaign Attorney: We think that these issues are quite fundamental and fairly basic. Every person in this country is entitled to have their vote valued and weighted equally and to be counted by persons who do not have an interest in the outcome. The Florida process allows individuals who are interested in the outcome to participate in the process and to make decisions with respect to how a person intended to vote and that that process treats Florida citizens differently, depending upon which county they reside in. We think that that is a fundamental flaw in the system. It violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution of the United States and every citizen's right to due process.