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Morning News

The Florida Recount: Manual Counts Continue With All Eyes on State Supreme Court

Aired November 21, 2000 - 11:22 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS: The recount also continues in Miami-Dade County, and that's where we find our Frank Buckley. He's standing by with the latest from there.

Hi, Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. The voting does continue here at the Stephen P. Clark building, the county building in -- for Miami-Dade Count. The counting has been underway for roughly three hours now. Reporters who've been inside observing all morning say it's been a little tense inside, with some of the Republican observers questioning some of the procedures and process of the supervisors of this manual hand counting.

And that's exactly what happened in a courtroom here in Miami earlier this morning -- Republican attorneys arguing about the fairness of the process and asking a judge to order for preservation of evidence, specifically referring to those chads -- the punch-outs from the ballot cards. The Republicans want those swept up and kept secure as possible evidence; also asking the judge for better access for Republican observers to the manual vote count process which began yesterday.

Attorneys for the Democrats said the process is wide open for all to see. Cameras are inside, as are party observers for both Democrats and Republicans, both watching that vote counting process that began yesterday. Judge David Tobin, in the end, dismissed the Republican motions and said he had no jurisdiction in the matter. Also said he was not going to manage the, quote, "minutia of the vote recount."

That count is expected to continue on this day, until 8:00 p.m., that is the schedule that they're on -- 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The latest tally -- one as of yesterday. We're expecting a new tally at around the noontime hour; but the latest tally was 67 of 614 precincts counted. Gore has gained 60 -- or, rather, 46 votes here. Gore has gained 46 votes in Miami-Dade County area.

One additional note: Democrats plan to have a high-profile observer coming here to the Stephen P. Clark building to observe the process. At about 1:00 this afternoon, Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska coming by to do some observation -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Frank, just moments ago when Craig Waters came out on the PIO for the Florida Supreme Court -- he came out on the steps and made a press conference, an announcement that no decision, of course, is going to come out today or tomorrow.

Any type of reaction from the folks there counting votes or inside the cloistered room?

BUCKLEY: Well, we were outside, so we weren't able to see what the reaction was inside, but I can tell you that people here are very mindful of what's been happening. Judge David Tobin, today, in his decision to dismiss the Republican motions was mindful of the fact that the state Supreme Court is ruling on some of these same matters and said, this is not within my jurisdiction.

But, so far, no visible reaction, at least outside of this building where the counting is taking place.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Frank Buckley outside of Miami-Dade County, thank you -- Leon.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's run up the coast now and check in with our Jeff Flock, who's in West Palm Beach.

Jeff, how are things shaping up there?

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a breezy Palm Beach County here today and inside -- if, perhaps, we can take a look live inside -- that you can, perhaps, see that the counting continues here.

I just got some information from Dennis Newman, who is the lawyer for the Gore side; and Dennis Newman tells me that, in terms of the dimpled ballots -- obviously that's the big question -- if the dimpled ballots get counted, they make the assumption and the plea that Gore -- Vice President Gore -- will begin to see a large shift in votes. Dennis Newman tells my 557 dimpled ballots for Gore, 260 for Bush. And he says that would be a 300-vote swing in the precincts that have been counted thus far.

I'm joined now by David Cardwell, who used to head the Florida division of elections.

First of all, in reaction to what the Supreme Court did -- that didn't surprise you, what you saw them do, because we were, sort of, expecting a ruling at 10:00, perhaps.

DAVID CARDWELL, CNN ELECTION LAW ANALYST: The court often releases their opinions at 10:00, and I think, sort of, the rumor got around that 10:00 today would be a magic time. But the court spokesman came out and announced there was no opinion, no decision to release at 10:00, and that he would give 30 minutes' notice if there would be an opinion forthcoming.

FLOCK: Now on dimpled ballots -- you've had a lot of experience with these over your life. The presupposition is, perhaps, that they will ultimately be counted or not?

CARDWELL: Well, dimpled ballots have often been counted in other elections where it was an indication the voter wanted to vote for that particular punch, but then didn't get the punch all the way through.

FLOCK: And, right now, here, as we pointed out, they're not counting them here in Palm Beach County.

CARDWELL: That's true. Now, something that is interesting is that we have both over-votes and under-votes here. In the case of an over-vote where you've got a -- say a dimple by -- in the Pat Buchanan punch and a clear punch for the Gore campaign, that would have been counted as an over-vote, and there, you don't want to count the dimple if you're Gore, because then you get the vote for Gore.

FLOCK: I could cut both ways.

CARDWELL: It could cut both ways, that's right.

FLOCK: David, thank you, I appreciate the perspective as we try to stay in touch with all that's going on.

Obviously, the count continues here and we continue to watch it. We'll have the latest numbers in a little bit.

I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, reporting live from Palm Beach County, Florida.

HARRIS: Good deal; thanks Jeff -- get back to you later.

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