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Gore Appeals to Seek Immediate Recount of Disputed Ballots
Lawyers for US Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore on Wednesday, November 29, appealed against a state court's order denying an immediate recounting of some 14,000 disputed ballots.
Gore's legal team, in a two-step process, went first to the First District Court of Appeals to secure permission to file "an original petition" with the Florida Supreme Court, asking it to order the immediate counting of the disputed ballots.
"The court must allow sufficient time to allow an accurate and fair count of the contested ballots, which is essential for the proper resolution of the contest action," the lawyers said in their written appeal.
They argued that there is little time left before a December 12 deadline for the appointment of Florida's 25 electors.
The appeal came one day after Leon County Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls denied Gore's request to immediately count the 10, 750 disputed ballots from Miami-Dade County and 3,300 from Palm Beach County.
The judge on Tuesday ordered all the disputed ballots be shipped to Florida's state capital Tallahassee and set a hearing on Saturday to determine if there would be any need to recount the votes.
On Wednesday, Sauls also granted a request from lawyers of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush that all 1.16 million ballots cast in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties be shipped to the state capital for possible recounting, not only the 14,000 disputed ballots.
Gore contested Florida's election results after the state certified Bush on Sunday as winner of the state by 537 votes out of nearly 6 million cast in the November 7 election.
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