Manual recount in Florida could be determining factor in election

By David Drucker
Daily Bruin Reporter

The weekend ended in Florida with that state’s popular
vote winner in doubt and the presidential race still too close to
call.

Fueling the uncertainty, media outlets reported Saturday that
former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, emissary for
Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush, announced that the Bush
campaign filed a motion in United States Federal District
Court.

The suit seeks to block results from a hand count currently
underway in Volusia County and one scheduled to begin today in Palm
Beach County.

According to the Associated Press, Bush leads Vice President Al
Gore by 288 votes Sunday following completion of the automatic
machine recount triggered by Florida election law.

The Florida Secretary of State’s office reported
Bush’s lead at 960 with 66 of 67 county results certified.
Palm Beach, the lone county yet to be certified could decide who
wins Florida, and therefore the presidency.

Speaking on CNN’s Late Edition Sunday, Baker offered a
compromise to the legal action pending on both sides.

“The Gore campaign ought to agree with us that we will go
with the automatic recount,” Baker said. “We will then
withdraw our lawsuit, and we both agree to accept the results of
the overseas ballots,” Baker added, in reference to the
approximately 2,300 absentee ballots that still have until this
Friday to arrive and be certified.

Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Gore’s
representative in Florida, responded later on NBC’s Meet the
Press, but did not address the offer directly.

“This is the procedure called for by Florida law,”
he said. “They are checking the machine count to make sure it
was accurate.”

The overseas ballots still to be counted could tip the race in
Gore’s favor, which would win him Florida’s 25
Electoral votes, and the White House.

But both sides have said they assume those absentee ballots,
predominantly from military personnel, will favor Bush, since GOP
candidate Bob Dole carried 54 percent of such votes in 1996 even
though President Clinton handily won the State.

Meanwhile, New Mexico added to the controversy Friday when AP
reported that Voter News Service, the consortium of major TV news
outlets which monitors election results for the media, put the
state back in the “too close to call” column. Bush
overcame an approximate deficit of 6,000 votes to take a 17 vote
lead.

Members of the Bush campaign said if Gore insists on hand
recounts in Florida, they might pursue recounts in Iowa, Oregon and
Wisconsin. Gore won those states by small margins.

If recounts were to put those states in the Bush column,
however, he would top Gore in Electoral votes and win the election,
even without winning Florida or New Mexico.