November 28, 2000

Gore's Fights Spreads To 5 Courts
By Ron Fournier / The Associated Press
Al Gore, his fight for the presidency spread across five courts, sought a speedy recount of Florida's contested ballots Tuesday to ensure "no question, no cloud" hangs over the nation's 43rd president. Republicans said the votes were counted, recounted and now "it's time to wrap this up." [But] fearing the public is growing impatient, Gore asked a Florida court to approve his plan to count 13,000 questionable ballots in two Democrat counties – a process he said would take seven days starting Wednesday. The judge scheduled an emergency Tuesday evening hearing.

Bush, Gore Plea to Supreme Court
By John Solomon / The Associated Press
WASHINGTON –– In an extraordinary plea, George W. Bush's lawyers on Tuesday asked the nation's nine justices to bring "legal finality" to the presidential election by overturning the Florida courts and ending any further recounts. Al Gore's team countered that the U.S. Supreme Court should not interfere in Florida's presidential recount dispute. The matter "does not belong in federal court," the vice president's lawyers argued. Three days before the nation's highest court hears arguments, both sides filed final written arguments.

Gore Allegations Said 'Simply Wrong'
By David Espo / The Associated Press
George W. Bush's point man in Florida argued Tuesday it was "wrong, simply wrong" for Al Gore to claim that thousands of votes have never been counted in the state's bitterly contested presidential election. "It is wrong, simply wrong, and I would submit not fair to say, as our opponents do over and over, that these votes have never been counted," he said. The ballots contain no vote for president, he said, but even so, "they've been counted just like all of the other nonvotes, not only in other counties in Florida, but across the United States of America have been counted. They've been counted, and they've been recounted by machines."

Palm Beach County Opens Ballots
By Karin Meadows / The Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Palm Beach County gave a law firm access to thousands of contested presidential ballots Tuesday, angering Democrats who said the punchcards shouldn't be touched until election disputes are over. The ballots were opened under threat of a lawsuit from Judicial Watch, a law firm that has filed several suits against the Clinton administration in recent years. The firm enlisted hundreds of volunteers to inspect uncounted ballots in several Florida counties. Larry Klayman, chairman and general counsel for Judicial Watch Inc., said the conservative legal firm is trying to determine what standard canvassers followed in judging voter intent during the manual recount. He said its review so far found ballots counted with "no discernible standard."

Judicial Watch 2000 Florida Ballot Inspection
JudicialWatch.org
During the 2000 Florida presidential election controversy, Judicial Watch filed requests to inspect disputed ballots under Florida Statute 119.07 (Florida's Sunshine Law). In an innovative use of Florida's open records laws, Judicial Watch conducted its own inspection, investigation, and accountant-certified audit of disputed ballots, efforts which were mimicked subsequently by the media and other observers. Judicial Watch's independent audit, which reconfirmed a Bush victory, helped ensure that history was not rewritten incorrectly by partisans and their lawyers.

White House to Start Security Briefings for Bush
By Jim Wolf / Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday it would start daily national security and intelligence briefings for George W. Bush's team to ensure a smooth transition if the Texas governor sustains his claim to have been elected the next president. President Clinton's chief of staff, John Podesta, said White House National Security Advisor Samuel Berger would contact the Bush team later in the day to set up the sessions with Central Intelligence Agency briefers normally given to a president-elect.

Earlier News Articles...

Florida Legislature Enters Fray
By Frank J. Murray
The Washington Times
Florida's Legislature yesterday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss Texas Gov. George W. Bush's appeal and let the state Senate and House decide the issues as the U.S. Constitution directs. "The Constitution grants plenary authority to the state legislatures to appoint their presidential electors in any manner they direct. The Legislature itself, and not the courts, is the arbiter of when a failure to make such a choice has occurred," said a 15-page friend of the court brief filed by the state's newly organized lawmakers.

Bush Considers Dropping Supreme Court
Action; 'Olive Branch' To Gore
DRUDGE REPORT
George W. Bush is seriously considering removing his petition before the Supreme Court, a senior Bush source said late Monday. "We need to begin the healing," the source told the DRUDGE REPORT from Austin, "and the governor would love for this to end -- and end now. He would be willing to drop the Supreme Court, and all other court action, if the vice president would now do the same."

High Court May Pass on Bush Case
By Anne Gearan / The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Certification of the Florida presidential vote gave George W. Bush most of what he asked the U.S. Supreme Court to give him in a case to be heard this week. Now Bush must decide if he wants to keep the court case alive. And, if he does, the nine Supreme Court justices must decide if his new status as the certified winner leaves them anything useful to decide.

Bush Moving Key Staff to D.C.
By Tom Raum / The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - George W. Bush in a bold gesture to assert authority, is moving key operatives to Washington, D.C., and seeking private financing for a presidential transition. In the face of Democrat court challenges to the Florida presidential balloting, the Texas governor was pressing ahead with plans to form a new government and to fill thousands of top positions now held by Democrats. ``We believe it is time to get on with the business of organizing the new administration,'' vice presidential running mate Dick Cheney said Monday in Washington.

Bush Assembling His Administration
By Dave Boyer / The Washington Times
AUSTIN, Texas — George W. Bush yesterday moved forward with assembling his administration over resistance from the Clinton administration, which refused to make official transition money and office space available to the president-elect.

Gore Speaks to Nation on Election
The Associated Press
A day after George W. Bush summoned TV cameras to press for his concession, Al Gore made a prime-time TV address to the nation Monday night: It was perhaps his last, best chance to explain why the closest presidential election in 124 years didn't end Sunday night when Florida's top elections officer, a GOP partisan, certified Bush as the statwide winner by 537 votes out of 6 million cast.

NBC Carries Gore Speech After Giving Bush the Brush
NewsMax.com
Twenty-four hours after NBC declined to interrupt regular programming to cover George W. Bush's first speech to the nation as certified president-elect, the network decided to break into its Monday night prime-time schedule to air Vice President Al Gore's response live. NBC immediately denied any favoritism.

Jennings Denies Bearing Bush Bias
By Paula Bernstein / Variety
NEW YORK (Variety) - No, that wasn't a grimace on Peter Jennings' face on Sunday night. Amid accusations that the networks' election night coverage had a liberal bias, the ABC News ``World News Tonight'' anchor wants to make it clear that he is impartial when it comes to the still unresolved presidential election.

Vote Battle Moves Up A Notch
By Peter Roff / United Press International
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The post-election battle for the White House has moved into the next phase. Operatives for the Gore-Lieberman campaign moved ahead with efforts to contest the election results in the Florida courts. Carol Laham, a member of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Election Law, defines a contest as a challenge to the certification itself. She says that according to Florida law, the contest must be made in a state circuit court. At this stage, the county canvassing boards become the defendants rather than the hearing bodies.

Seminole County Ballot Dispute Moves to Tallahassee
CNSNews.com
After a brief hearing at the Seminole County Courthouse on Monday, lawyers representing President-Elect George W. Bush and Al Gore agreed to transfer a key election lawsuit to Tallahassee's Leon County. The suit seeks to disqualify 15,000 absentee ballots recorded in Seminole County because of Democrat claims of illegal tampering.

Federal Appeals Court Grants Bush Delay
United Press International
ATLANTA, Nov. (UPI) - A federal appeals court on Monday granted more time for Republicans to prepare for oral arguments concerning the presidential ballot recount in Florida. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it "reluctantly" agreed to a Republican request to delay oral arguments until next week in a case challenging recounts in Florida. Attorneys for Texas Gov. George W. Bush had asked for the delay, saying that they needed more time to prepare for an appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.

Election Snags, Voter Complaints Spur
Push For Remedies In Pulaski County
By Austin Gelder / The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Chad ballot punchers in Florida aren't the only ones claiming they got a raw deal this election season. Plenty of Pulaski County voters will remember Nov. 7, 2000, and the weeks leading up to it as the most frustrating election period ever. Computer bugs chomped down on the brand-new electronic ballots used at early voting sites. Voters waited in line for hours only to learn that their names had been left off voter registration lists and that their votes might not count.

Suit Filed Holds Up Tennessee's Election Certification
By Tom Humphrey / Knoxville News-Sentinel
NASHVILLE -- Florida may fret over chads and dimpled ballots, but Tennessee has John Jay Hooker. Certification of Tennessee's election results was delayed Monday by the latest lawsuit from Hooker, who says he was inspired by developments in Florida.

Stocks See End To Vote Impasse
By Daniel Sternoff / Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury bonds fell on Monday as blue-chip stocks climbed after Republican George W. Bush claimed he won the State of Florida and the presidency, raising hopes the U.S. election impasse is nearing an end.

Six in 10 Say Gore Should Concede
By Will Lester / The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Polling immediately after Florida's certification of George W. Bush as winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes found that about six in 10 Americans say it is time for Al Gore to concede the presidential race.

Voter Error Invalidated 2 Million Ballots Nationwide
By Audrey Hudson / The Washington Times
The uncounted ballots in Florida — which have played a key role in Democrat challenges — are just a drop in the bucket of ballots dismissed nationwide because of voter error, say political observers. An estimated 180,000 votes were dismissed in Florida — out of 6.1 million votes cast — because of improper voting procedures. However, more than 2 million ballots were tossed out in all 50 states and also will not be counted, said Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate.

The Mind-Numbing Morass
By Joseph Farah / WorldNetDaily.com
People want to know why I am not marching in the streets, or, at least urging others to do so. They want to know why I am not standing up for George W. Bush and actively opposing Al Gore's attempted theft of the presidency. Well, guess what? I'm not that worked up about it. For my money, if Bush couldn't take Michigan, the home state of the U.S. auto industry, from an opponent who publicly states he wants to ban the automobile, I wonder just how much he deserves the presidency. But I'm sure not going to expend any political or journalistic capital on saving his political behind.

Gore's Irrationality Is Dangerous To Freedom
By Jon E. Dougherty / WorldNetDaily.com
News on Friday that Al Gore will refuse to concede electoral defeat to Republican George W. Bush --regardless of the fact that since Nov. 7 all legitimate Florida vote counts have shown Gore losing this race electorally -- is nothing short of irrationality at its worst. It's a dangerous irrationality, too, and one that could --quite feasibly -- put the entire country at risk.

Thousands of Bush Voters Disenfranchised in Florida
NewsMax.com
Tens of thousands of Floridians were inadvertantly disenfranchised when the TV networks mistakenly called the election for Vice President Al Gore an hour before all the state's polls had closed, a Republican polster said Monday.

Recount Observers Tell NewsMax.com of Democrat Fraud
NewsMax.com
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Ballot observers have found one outrageous case after another of tampered ballots, miscounts and bias in the recount in Democrat-dominated Broward County, NewsMax.com learned in exclusive interviews over the holiday weekend.

Recount Officials Say They Received Death Threats
The Associated Press
MIAMI -- A Democrat congressman is under increased security after receiving numerous death threats following his outspoken support of Vice President Al Gore during Florida's recount of presidential ballots, an aide said Monday. U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler of Boca Raton is just one of several election participants who say they have been threatened or harassed since the recounts and election protests began.

A Presidential Election That Became A Civil War
By J.R. Nyquist / WorldNetDaily.com
It was a presidential election year and a threat was being made. According to this threat, if a certain presidential candidate won the presidency there would be a civil war and the country would be drenched in blood.

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