Source is from "The American Spectator":
Published: November 22, 2000 Author: Byron York
Is anyone surprised that the Florida Supreme Court sided with Al Gore in the dispute over the presidential election? There's not a conservative in America who could be stunned or even mildly taken aback that a liberal, Democratic court would take it upon itself to rewrite a law it found disagreeable. (In this particular circumstance, the fact that the Chief Justice is a past contributor to
Bill Clinton didn't hurt, either.) So don't even talk about surprise. It's not a surprise.
But is it a disappointment? To hear the commentariat tell it, the ruling is a tremendous victory for Gore and an equally momentous loss for George W. Bush. Maybe so. But in the days ahead, it might turn out that the Court's decision will not only not help Gore as much as he thinks -- it might actually hurt his chances of winning the White House.
Yes, the justices ruled that Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris acted improperly when she tried to enforce the November 18 deadline for certifying the results of the election. But we already
knew what they thought about that -- the November 18 deadline was blown last Friday when the Court,acting on its own, forbade Harris from enforcing it. Now, in their opinion, the justices criticize the
"arbitrary seven-day deadline" in the state's election law. But they go on to set, arbitrarily, a new deadline: 5 p.m. Sunday, November 26.
As any connoisseur of Clintonian tactics knows, the imposition of a deadline is an invitation for one side to delay a given process in order to frustrate and ultimately defeat its opponent. Bush's goal is to maintain his 930-vote lead, in part by undermining the politically-tinged manual recounts going on in Democratically-dominated Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade counties. None of those counties has finished its recount, and the longer the process takes -- the closer it comes to the Court's new deadline
-- the more Bush benefits.[/i]
It appears that Broward County is the farthest along. Officials there have counted all of the county's 609 precincts, and Gore is said to have gained 118 votes. But there remain 2,000 questionable ballots that officials have set aside for further examination. They will begin evaluating them Wednesday morning, and each one could be a time-consuming fight. In Palm Beach, counting teams have completely finished just 65 of 531 precincts. While they have partially counted many others, there are reportedly 8,000 questionable ballots waiting for the individual -- and slow-going -- attention of the county canvassing board. And in Dade County, which only began counting on Monday, officials have gone through 135 of 614 precincts. Early this week, members of the canvassing board predicted Dade would finish by December first.
Now, in light of the Court's decision, everyone has to be finished by Sunday, November 26. Assuming that Democrats become highly motivated to work quickly, and assuming that they decide to give up
their Thanksgiving holiday to search for votes for Al Gore, it still seems likely that vigorous Republican challenges to each vote can turn the process into a painstaking, even tortuous, exercise. After all, a process of such paramount importance to our democracy should not be rushed. And if Democratic officials become frustrated and attempt to use their power to hurry things up, the GOP
might be forced to seek legal remedies -- another clock-eater.
But the deadline is not Gore's only problem. The Supreme Court created another dilemma for the Democrats by declining to set a statewide standard for evaluating contested ballots. As the world now knows, Gore cannot win the White House unless dimpled chads -- those ballots in which the voter failed to punch a hole, as required, through the space next to the candidate's name, but instead left a faint indentation or some other mark -- are counted as votes for him. If only those ballots in which a hole is fully punched, or in which the chad is hanging by one or two corners, are counted, George W.
Bush will become president.
The Gore campaign had hoped the Supreme Court would instruct all counties to count dimpled chads as valid votes. But since the justices did not act, each local canvassing board will be able to set its own standard. While that might seem no better for Bush -- after all, each board is made up completely of Democrats -- consider this: If the Court had set a statewide standard, Bush would have had little or no chance at relief, and the local boards would have had very clear guidance. It's not our decision, they would say, it's the law. Now, the canvassing boards are vulnerable to Republican legal challenges at the local level. Republicans can take each election board to court (they've already tried and failed in Dade County, but can try again at a higher level, as well as for the first time in the other counties). As the GOP tries to exclude dimpled chads, the clock will be tick, tick, ticking away.
None of this will be a very gratifying sight. But watching vote-counters stare at un-punched ballots in an effort to guess the intent of a non-voting voter isn't very gratifying, either. And Republicans should
remember -- and say so publicly every chance they get -- that this whole situation stems from Al Gore's refusal to accept the results of both the original Florida vote count and the mandatory recount. The vice president wanted this painful, I-think-I-see-a-faint-indentation-on-this-ballot circus. Now he's got it -- along with a new deadline set by his friends on the Florida Supreme Court.
[This message has been edited by Ripsnort (edited 11-22-2000).]
