Election 2004: Vote Early and OftenNovember 15, 2000
Wednesday, October 20, 2004, 11:17 PM
NYT Headline: "Judge Upholds Hand Recounts in Florida; 2 Counties are Facing New State Deadline".
The lead paragraph:
"The Florida secretary of state announced tonight that she would comply with a state judge's order to consider results of further recounts in the disputed presidential election, but she gave the two Democratic counties that are moving ahead with, or considering, a time-consuming hand recount a deadline of 2 p.m. Wednesday to explain their reasons in writing."
An excerpt from her statement:
"Unless I determine in the exercise of my discretion that these facts and circumstances contained within these written statements justify an amendment to today's official returns, the state elections canvassing commission, in a manner consistent with its usual and normal practice, will certify statewide results reported to this office today. Subsequently, the overseas ballots that are due by midnight Friday will also be certified and the final results of the election for president of the United States of America in the state of Florida will be announced."
The election "system" got more coverage on page 3:
"If it is not quite a dirty little secret, it is at least a rarely considered component of American politics: from local canvassing boards, like those in Palm Beach County, to the Federal Election Commission, people with a partisan stake can play a significant role in determining winners and losers."
The timeline of the previous day's events:
8:15 a.m. Palm Beach County suspends its hand recount of all ballots after it receives conflicting instructions over whether it can proceed.
10:25 a.m. A state court ruling on extending the 5 p.m. reporting deadline is postponed to noon.
11:25 a.m. Miami-Dade County agrees to partial hand recount requested by Gore campaign.
11:28 a.m. James A. Baker III of the Bush campaign challenges the Gore campaign to accept a 5 p.m. deadline for reporting Florida votes.
12:06 p.m. William M. Daley of the Gore campaign says the Bush offer was not fair.
12:46 p.m. State judge rules that 5 p.m. deadline should stand but that exceptions are at the discretion of the secretary of state.
1:11 p.m. Gore campaign says it will appeal decision to uphold 5 p.m. deadline.
2:00 p.m. State judge rules that 5 p.m. deadline does not apply to Broward County and gives its canvassing board the option to conduct a manual recount.
2:30 p.m. Warren Christopher of the Gore campaign says judge's decision implies that counts reported after the deadline must be considered.
3:05 p.m. Florida secretary of state's office restates expectation that it will be able to count all votes by midnight Friday.
3:17 p.m. A judge dissolves a restraining order that kept Palm Beach County from continuing its hand recount.
3:23 p.m. Miami-Dade County begins its hand recount.
4:32 p.m. Palm Beach County votes to submit its machine counted results but to continue the hand count.
4:40 p.m. Bush campaign files notice to a federal appeals court to stop all hand recounting in Florida.
The conflicting instructions Judge Burton got about the Palm Beack County recount consisted of a letter from the director of the Florida Division of Elections, saying that "an error in the vote tabulation" which would permit manual recount of ballots had to be from incorrect election parameters or software errors, and a letter from the state Attorney General, saying that the error could also include "failure of a properly functioning mechanical system to discern the choices of the voters as revealed by the ballots", and that the Division of Elections opinion was wrong.
An excerpt from the judge's ruling denying a temporary injunction against the secretary of state except for one crucial piece (accepting late returns within her discretion):
"That the secretary may ignore late-filed returns necessarily means that the secretary does not have to ignore such returns. It is, as the secretary acknowledges, within her discretion.
To determine ahead of time that such returns will be ignored, however, unless caused by some act of God, is not the exercise of discretion. It is the abdication of that discretion. ... Rather, the exercise of discretion, by its nature, contemplates a decision based upon a weighing and consideration of all attendant facts and circumstances."
On the editorial page, Kathleen Sullivan, dean of the Stanford law school, called for uniform standards for election procedures nationwide.
Well, heck, hell *did* just freeze over. Maybe it'll happen after this year. But I'm not holding my breath.
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