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Morning News

Election 2000: Awaiting a Ruling on Gore Election Contest

Aired December 4, 2000 - 11:31 a.m. ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A lot to talk about. And as we have been reporting, much of that is happening from Tallahassee. So let's bring in Bill Hemmer, who has our David Cardwell with him.

Bill, go ahead.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Daryn, thanks again. David Cardwell, sitting to my right. let's go ahead and bring him in right now. And I guess the waiting game, David, how excruciating can this be for an attorney? It happens in every case.

DAVID CARDWELL, CNN ELECTION LAW ANALYST: This is the worst time. You just did your super-effort last night with your oral argument. You are waiting for the judge to rule. You know there is more to come. But, you know, lawyers don't like to go ahead and prepare an appeal, when you hope you are going to win. You know that there is going to be an appeal here so they have got to go ahead and prepare. Time is just too short.

HEMMER: Talk more about that. I was just talking about that with Ken Gross. One would assume, and we have been reporting anyway, that the appeal process was already under way, in terms of drafting that brief. It can't be finalized, of course, until the judge issues his ruling.

CARDWELL: That is right. We have seen some of the lawyers in the courtroom, and sort of the most visible ones, but back in the law offices, they've got teams of lawyers that have been assigned certain parts of the case. They are the most familiar with it. They are the ones writing those briefs and getting them ready so however Judge Sauls rules, whatever court they go to, they will be ready with a brief.

HEMMER: I mentioned the last time that we were here, about 20 minutes ago, on CNN that tonight at midnight begins that seven-day countdown toward when a special session may or may not determine the electors in Florida. Because in seven days you are going to get the deadline in which you have to have those electors appointed. How critical is that right now, as we enter that seven-day period here?

CARDWELL: I think everyone wants to have this resolved, at least in the judicial system, by December 12th. Between once we get into that period between December 12th and December 18th, we are sort of in -- you talk about unchartered territories, we are definitely in an area where we don't know what may happen, what could come out of that, or does this throw it into Congress?

HEMMER: Back into Atlanta. Daryn has a quick though for you, a quick question.

KAGAN: David, it's Daryn Kagan here in Atlanta. I want you to give us some of your Florida perspective for folks who live elsewhere, around the country, to understand how the system works and how we got to this point. As I understand it, in Florida, in this situation, it's easy to sue, but it's tough to win?

CARDWELL: That is true. We have a statute that allows you to contest an election after the results have been certified. It's, historically, until this year, only been used for county races, for like for a county commissioner or a sheriff. We really haven't even had a statewide contest. We have a few that were close, but not any recently. So this has really been something new for us.

But it's done on a county-by-county basis. And in this particular election, you have heard a lot about Miami-Dade, Broward County, Palm Beach County, three of our largest counties on the southeast coast, a lot of ballots there, they used the Vote-o-matic system, a lot of questions about how those ballots were counted. And as a result, we first had the protest, where you ask for a recount and keep counting to see what the result is, then once those are certified, you go into the contest proceeding in circuit court.

KAGAN: When I was watching the court proceedings over the weekend, I was taken with the attitude and the levity, shall we say, in Judge Sauls' courtroom at many different points. At some point, it seemed like they were all just a bit punchy, is that just the lack of sleep or how do you have an attitude like that and then also get to the very serious business of what has to be undertaken by Judge Sauls?

CARDWELL: That was a good observation. I was struck by that also. The tension in incredible because the stakes are so high here, but in that courtroom, everyone seemed to remain civil. We did not have a lot of the bickering and disputes you sometimes see in our courtroom with lawyers fighting over legal issues. And I think that starting with the judge, with some of his folksy sayings and jokes, was able to kind of break the tension every now and then, and I think that the lawyers sort of picked up on that and went with it to make sure that the case flowed and it didn't get bogged down in personalities.

HEMMER: You know, David, we were talking about the attorneys and what they are going to through right now. What is the judge thinking right now? This is a pretty significant ruling he is about to hand down.

CARDWELL: This is undoubtedly going to be the highlight of his judicial career. He has been in the spotlight. He knows this ruling is going to be appealed. He wants to make sure that however he decides that it is well-supported, because he doesn't want to have gone through all this process, and then have an appellate court slap him down and say: You didn't do your job. HEMMER: And ultimately we have talked on a daily basis now as to which direction we are headed, if we are moving the ball, anyway, is the analogy we have used. Based on this ruling, will we move that ball any?

CARDWELL: I think the ball has moved some. I would say we are out hear midfield and let's see whether or not, you know, there is a first down or if there is an interception later today.

HEMMER: Well, it is not going to happen before 12:00 noon Eastern, but possibly any time after that -- Daryn.

KAGAN: If you are going to start make college football analogies in the state of Florida that is a whole other show, a whole different controversy.

HEMMER: David said that the front page of the "Tallahassee Democrat," I can't reach it from where I am right now, but they have this case kind of like below the initial article, which says Florida State is the playing for the national title on January 3rd. So, as David pointed out, the folks in Tallahassee still have their priorities in order.

CARDWELL: That is right, but my Gators are going to beat the Hurricanes.

KAGAN: If you want to see some angry folks in South Florida, go talk to some Miami folks down there. Good to see both of you.

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