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Morning News

Election 2000: Plaintiff's Attorney in Seminole County Absentee Ballot Case Discusses Appeal to Florida Supreme Court

Aired December 11, 2000 - 9:20 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: Another slice of this election pie we are looking at today, the issue of the absentee ballots in Martin and Seminole counties. That issues move to the Florida Supreme Court.

With more on that, let's go to our Kate Snow in Tallahassee.

Kate, good morning.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Gore attorney David Boies yesterday refused to say that the vice president would concede if he loses in the U.S. Supreme Court. Why would he refuse to say that? Well, some Republicans are speculating that its because there are still a couple of more cases that potentially could help the vice president. They have landed here in the Florida Supreme Court, cases that involve Seminole and Martin counties. Republicans, at least in the state legislature here, say they are concerned about those cases, that those may be a ticket for Gore, even if he loses at the U.S. Supreme Court.

We are going to talk more about those cases because briefs were due by 9:00 a.m. this morning. They have, indeed, been filed in the both the Seminole and the Martin County cases.

And joining me now. Mr. Richman, Gerald Richman, who represents Harry Jacobs, who was the plaintiff in the Seminole County case.

Tell me, first of all, why are you appealing? What is your basic argument?

GERALD RICHMAN, PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY: We are appealing for two reasons. One is that the trial courts did not follow the standard set out by the United States Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court says that the state legislature is supreme with regard to a decision in the election process.

In this case, they didn't follow it. They ignored it, and they just say the right of suffrage is greater, which is in the Florida Constitution. But that right of suffrage, which says count every vote, doesn't apply if the votes that cast are illegal, as determined by the state legislature. That's argument one.

The second argument simply is: They misapplied the law in the more liberal standard of the Boardman case because they found that there was simply faulty judgment, and not intentional wrongdoing, and we can't understand how you can find that, when you have two felony statutes that are involved.

SNOW: There were two cases here, the Martin County case was Judge Nikki Clark, your case, Judge Terry Lewis, both circuit court judges here in Leon County. Both of them came out on Friday with a joint statement, fairly strongly worded. They said, "Despite irregularities in the requests for absentee ballots" -- so they gave you that -- "neither the sanctity of the ballots, nor the integrity of the election has been compromised." Nobody really suffered here. So it is not worth throwing out 25,000 votes.

RICHMAN: We respectfully disagree.

Everybody suffers when the neutral office of the supervisor of elections is turned into agent of one party. That's exactly what happened here for a period of between 15 days and three weeks. That I think is outrageous that that could happen. And for the court to simply find that that was -- it is irregularities, the law was violated, but it is just faulty judgment, when the violations involve two felony statutes; one statute basically says that it is the voter that must fill out the information. It doesn't say "may," it doesn't say "should," it says "must."

The other statue says, you have got to treat everybody equally. You can't have different treatment. That statute has totally been violated in this case.

SNOW: What about the remedy because that's what everyone has been focusing on, the so-called remedy, that if you throw out 25,000 votes, you are basically throwing the baby out with the bath water. How do you get around that? What do you argue to the Florida Supreme Court, that they can do to get around that kind of severe remedy?

RICHMAN: Well, first of all, it has happened before. The only thing that has actually happened in Florida is either they have called a new election of they have gone ahead and thrown out all of the entire tainted pool. So there's clear precedent to go ahead and do that.

What we tried to do is give the court an alternate remedy that simply makes sense. Because under the statute passed by the Legislature, the trial court can fashion equitable relief. And that's simply to say take a proportion.

SNOW: One last question for you. The vice president talked about these two cases last week. Should he be pinning any hopes on your appeals here, should he not succeed in the U.S. Supreme Court?

RICHMAN: I think he should. I think that we are right under the law, we are right under the facts, we are following the law of the United States Supreme Court. We are hopeful that the Florida Supreme Court will give us a hearing. And if it does, we're hopeful that we can win.

And if we win, the vice president hopefully will become president.

SNOW: Thank you very much, Gerald Richman, attorney for the plaintiffs involved in the Seminole County case. We did see the Bush attorneys turn in their briefs just before 9:00 this morning. We wait to hear now whether the Supreme Court of Florida will hear the case, perhaps whether they will schedule oral arguments, or whether they will dismiss the case on its face. We will wait to see later on today.

Back to you in Atlanta.

KAGAN: Kate Snow, thank you very much.

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