Bush Questions Court's Authority on Setting Vote Counting StandardsThe legal team of US Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush filed a new legal brief with the Florida Supreme Court Tuesday, questioning its authority on setting standards for counting ballots.The written document from the Republicans is supplemental to their oral arguments at a hearing Monday. Bush's lawyers said the court was "without power" to set standards for the counting of ballots by county canvassing boards. They suggested that the court should not even address the issue of a voter's intent when punching a ballot. "This is an intensely fact-bound question, and there is no existing Florida law on this question. It would thus be particularly inappropriate to decide this question in this legal and evidentiary vacuum," Bush's lawyers argued. Lawyers for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore filed an immediate response, saying that it looked as if the Republicans were stalling and urging the court to set standards on disputed manual vote recounts. "The issue is one of laws appropriate for determination by this court," Gore's lawyers said. Gore's spokeswoman Jenny Backus accused the Bush camp of attempting to "delay action by this court." Both camps are still waiting for a ruling of the Florida Supreme Court on whether the hand recounts results from several South Florida counties should be included in the state's final tally. "There's no timetable at the present time as to when a decision is going to be made. We just don't know," Florida Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters told reporters. Meanwhile, the hand recounting of Florida's presidential votes continued Tuesday in the three heavily Democratic counties, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward. Bush led Gore by 930 votes in Florida, not including the hand recounts. At mid-afternoon, Gore had picked up 194 votes in the recounts. |
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