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Gore Urges Court to Speed Up Vote Counts
Lawyers for US Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore filed a 50-page brief Thursday, November 30, with the Florida Supreme Court, asking for speeding up the recount of disputed ballots.
Gore's legal chief David Boies asked the court to issue an order to start counting immediately, saying the amount of time for counting ballots is limited and that the count may not start until next week if the Florida Supreme Court does not intervene.
"The Florida Supreme Court has said, and I believe the Florida Supreme Court is right about this, that this is going to come to an end on December 12," Boies said.
Leon County Circuit Court Judge N. Sanders Sauls Tuesday turned down Gore's request to immediately count about 14,000 disputed ballots from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties. He had scheduled a hearing Saturday to review the ballots.
Sauls granted a motion by the legal team of Texas Governor George W. Bush to have all the 1 million ballots cast in the two counties be moved to Florida's state capital Tallahassee by Friday in case they are needed to be counted.
Gore's lawyers argued that there is no "legitimate reason to count a million ballots that no one is contesting."
A truck carrying nearly 463,000 ballots left Palm Beach County for Tallahassee under police escort Thursday. A further 650,000 ballots from Miami-Dade will be transported Friday.
Separately, Gore's lawyers filed a responsive brief at the US Supreme Court in Washington Thursday challenging Bush's arguments to stop the recount altogether and certify the election results as of November 14.
Gore's lawyers urged the justices to uphold the Florida Supreme Court ruling that extended the deadline to include hand-counted votes.
The brief also argued that the Florida Legislature lacks authority to appoint its own slate of presidential electors.
Congress set Election Day as a uniform national date for selection of electors, Gore lawyers wrote in the filings.
A committee of eight Republicans and six Democrats from the Republican-led Florida Legislature voted Thursday along party lines to recommend holding a special session, probably next week, to choose the state's electors.
The U.S. Supreme Court Friday will hear arguments on Bush's motion to suppress all hand recounts in Florida.
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