Baker:
Fla. ruling keeps status quo
AP, 11-17-2000
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida's
high court gave the go-ahead Thursday to ballot
recounts in the state's chaotic presidential election
but left unanswered the question of whether the
results will matter.
"There is no legal impediment
to the recounts continuing," the court said in a
case brought by Palm Beach County. Within minutes,
county officials announced they would join adjacent
Broward County in reviewing hundreds of thousands of
ballots by hand. The Palm Beach count began Thursday
evening. A state judge was to decide as early as
Friday whether to overturn the Republican secretary of
state's decision to reject any further recount totals
from Democratic controlled counties.
In the overtime campaign between
Bush and Al Gore, the ruling was a victory for the
vice president, who had pressed for manual recounts in
four counties in hopes of overturning the Texas
governor's 300-vote lead. About 2,600 overseas
absentee ballots remain to be counted, but so far
there is no dispute about them. "The Supreme
Court's clear and unambiguous ruling that the counties
are authorized to proceed with a manual recount is a
victory for everyone who wants to see the votes
counted clearly and fairly here in Florida," Gore
campaign chairman William Daley said. Republicans
called the decision minor.
"The one-paragraph, interim
order of the Florida Supreme Court has just been
presented to you as the best thing since night
baseball," said Bush's recount manager, former
Secretary of State James A. Baker III. He said, in
fact, the order "does nothing more than preserve
the status quo."
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