Bush camp attacks court decision on votes

7:30 PM

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's Supreme Court ordered that manual recounts be added to the final tally of the November 7 presidential election - throwing Democrat Al Gore a lifeline in his race for the White House and drawing bitter cries of foul from Republicans.

Gore, barely restraining his delight, quickly hailed the ruling as a victory for democracy and offered to hold a conciliatory meeting with his Republican rival George W. Bush.

But Bush lieutenant James Baker, a former secretary of state, attacked the court decision as "unfair and unacceptable" and promised the Republican campaign would study "remedies" but stopped short of announcing an actual appeal.

The ruling from the Democrat-dominated court paved the way for results to be accepted from manual recounts of 1.7 million votes from three heavily pro-Gore counties, a process the Gore campaign hopes could give the vice president victory in Florida and by extension the keys to the White House.

Bush has a 930-vote lead after machine counts of the 6 million ballots cast in the state in the presidential election two weeks ago, and the Republican secretary of state in Florida - Katherine Harris - had wanted to certify him as victor on November 18.

But the Supreme Court blocked that plan pending its consideration of the case this week.

In a 42-page, unanimous ruling, the seven judges gave the three Florida counties - Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach - until Monday to submit final tallies.

"Twenty five years ago, this court commented that the will of the people, not a hyper- technical reliance upon statutory provisions, should be our guiding principle in election cases," the ruling said.

Gore, standing next to his running mate Senator Joseph Lieberman, sought to offer an olive branch to Bush in a televised address from Washington.

"Together, let us testify to the truth that our country is more important than victory," he said. "I firmly believe that the will of the people should prevail and I am gratified that the court's decision will allow us to honour that simple constitutional principle."

But Baker responded at a news conference with an acrimonious attack on the Supreme Court, accusing it of changing the rules in the middle of the game.

"Two weeks after the election, that court...has invented a new system of counting the results," Baker said.

"Statistical experts have indicated that based on the results so far, unless the counting standards are changed, there won't be enough votes to overcome Governor Bush's lead, so they now argue a punchcard vote should count even if there appears only to be an indentation...the famous 'dimpled chad'."

Baker, hinting at likely legal appeals, said it was incumbent on the Bush campaign "to consider and examine whatever remedies are available to us to reverse what we consider to be an unjust result".

The court in its ruling said it was invoking its powers "to fashion a remedy that will allow a fair and expeditious resolution of the questions".

"The right of the people to cast their votes is the paramount concern overriding all others," the judgment said.

By late on Tuesday, according to unofficial figures, the recounts in the three counties had produced about 270 extra votes for Gore - fewer than his party had been expecting.

Broward had all but finished counting on Tuesday night, and the other two counties both said they could finish in time for the Monday deadline.

In arguments to the Florida Supreme Court on Monday, the Republicans said the manual recounts were arbitrary and should be ignored because they had missed a statutory November 14 deadline for returns from the election two weeks ago - one of the closest in U.S. history.

Republicans have repeatedly complained that no uniform criteria are being observed in the manual recounts, and accuse Democrats of trying to "divine" voter intentions from ballot cards disregarded in the initial machine count.

Addressing this point, the Florida Supreme Court cited a ruling by another court that "voters should not be disenfranchised where their intent may be ascertained with reasonable certainty, simply because the chad they punched did not completely dislodge from the ballot".

Still pending is a Republican appeal in a federal case lodged with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta asking for a halt to the recount. The court has asked both sides to file merit briefs by November 28.

Gore allies hailed the court ruling as a victory which would ensure the legitimacy of whoever won in the end.

Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska said he did not know if it would be enough to change the outcome of the election, "but I think it increases the certainty that whoever wins is going to be able to comfortably say that...they are the duly elected president-elect."

Lawsuits seeking clarification of how to read ballots that are not fully punched are still pending in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach.

Earlier on Tuesday Republicans pressed their case to reverse the disqualifications of hundreds of absentee ballots from overseas military personnel, a move that could produce votes for Bush.

Two Republicans who head subcommittees of the Senate Armed Services Committee urged Defence Secretary William Cohen to ensure that ballots sent in by military personnel overseas were counted in the presidential election.

World leaders were watching the drawn out saga. In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference with Prime Minister Tony Blair they had discussed "this very important issue" over a beer.

- REUTERS

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Florida Dept. of State Division of Elections

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