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Gore Camp Welcomes Florida Court Ruling
U.S. Democrat Al Gore's campaign said Friday that the Florida Supreme Court has upheld the basic principle of the Gore campaign -- a full and fair count of all the votes.
Earlier, the Florida Supreme Court ordered manual recounts to start immediately in the state's contested presidential election, keeping alive Gore's hope of winning the U.S. presidency.
"We urge everyone to let the counting, supervised by the independent judiciary, proceed uninterrupted to a speedy conclusion," campaign Chairman William Daley said.
He said Gore and his vice presidential running mate, Joseph Lieberman, had pledged to "respect the results of this court supervised vote-counting. We urge everyone to respect the will of Florida's voters and honor the results of the count."
However, a senior Republican swiftly condemned the court decision, saying that all the members of the Florida Supreme Court were appointed by Democratic governors.
Republican George W. Bush has said that if he was dealt a setback in the Florida Supreme Court ruling, he was ready to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Florida Supreme Court's ruling came little more than an hour after two judges of Florida's Leon County Circuit Court rejected a bid by Democrats to throw out 25,000 absentee ballots in Seminole and Martin counties. The twin rulings were serious setbacks for the vice president, even though he was not a formal party to either lawsuit.
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