Officials order full recount in disputed Florida county

By KARIN MEADOWS

Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Palm Beach County officials ordered an extraordinary countywide recount, by hand, of the more than 425,000 votes cast in the presidential election for Al Gore and George W. Bush.

Gore added 36 votes and Bush lost three in a machine recount of Palm Beach County in Florida’s disputed presidential balloting. A hand count of selected precincts turned up enough errors in the election night vote to prompt county election officials to order a complete recount by hand. The vote early today was 2-1.

“This clearly would affect the national vote,” said Carol Roberts, a county commissioner and a member of the canvassing commission.

Election officials said their exhaustive manual recount found numerous differences from the machine count. Roberts said the errors point to potentially 1,900 errors county wide – more than the existing statewide margin between Bush and Gore.

At stake is no less than the presidency, since Florida will deliver 25 electoral votes.

The new machine tabulation, the third in this populous Democratic-leaning county, gave Gore 269,732, or an add of 36 votes, and Bush 152,951, or minus three.

County election officials will meet again Monday to discuss further action. It was not clear when the labor intensive examination of ballots in all 531 precincts would begin.

County Judge Charles Burton said that he wanted to obtain an advisory opinion from the secretary of state before proceeding with a hand count.

A lawyer for the Republican Party, Mark Wallace, objected to a further manual recount.

“It has been pandemonium today,” he said. “We vigorously lodge our protest and plead with you not to put the county through that.”

Earlier Saturday, Republicans sent the 2000 presidential race into the federal courts at the same time election officials in one of Florida’s 67 counties ordered a complete laborious recount by hand sought by Vice President Al Gore. “We’re all in limbo,” said George W. Bush at the end of a week of unprecedented political turmoil.

A federal judge set a hearing for Monday in Miami on the Bush campaign’s request for a court order blocking the manual recounts from continuing in Florida’s improbably close vote.

The Texas governor holds a narrow lead after an unofficial recount, with an unknown number of overseas ballots yet to be counted. The winner of the state stands to gain an electoral college majority and become the nation’s 43rd president.

The GOP suit cited a need to “preserve the integrity, equality, and finality” of the vote. Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, said that with a manual recount, “human error, individual subjectivity, and decisions to, quote, ‘determine the voters’ intent,’ close quote, would replace precision machinery in tabulating millions of small marks and fragile hole punches.”

Democrats responded forcefully a few hours later, calling for the withdrawal of the suit and expressing confidence they would prevail in court. “The hand count can be completed expeditiously and it should be,” said former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, speaking on Gore’s behalf. He added that Bush, as governor of Texas, had signed legislation in 1997 specifying that hand recounts be used to settle certain disputed elections – a position at odds with the current stated preferences of the GOP high command.

The recount in Palm Beach County finished in the middle of the night. County officials, on a 2-1 vote, ordered a full recount by hand of the balloting after discovering more errors in a painstaking review of several precincts. Gore supporters claimed a poorly designed ballot may have caused them to vote inadvertently for Pat Buchanan.

Carol Roberts, a county commissioner and a member of the canvassing commission, argued for the labor intensive manual count of all 531 precincts, saying the errors found thus far “clearly would affect the national vote.”

A lawyer for the Republican Party, Mark Wallace, objected. “We vigorously lodge our protest and plead with you not to put the county through that.”

Gore emerged from his residence later Saturday to take in a movie, “Men of Honor,” with running mate Joseph Lieberman and their wives.

“We’re not giving interviews, we’re just on a double date,” Gore said when asked by a reporter about the election saga.

The unsettled situation in Florida held the candidates and their supporters in suspense and the nation in thrall, and sent the 2000 election on an unpredictable course.

Republican strategists, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that pending the outcome of the legal challenge, they were considering challenging narrow Gore victories in Wisconsin, Oregon or elsewhere, or possibly seeking recounts in additional counties in the Sunshine State.

“All options are open, of course” Bush told reporters at his ranch outside Waco, Texas, running mate Dick Cheney at his side.

Christopher, asked later how far he was willing to go legally, offered a noncommittal response. “We’ve been considering various other options,” he said. “No decision’s been reached.”

Copyright ©2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.