Tuesday, December 12, 2000, updated at 10:04(GMT+8)
World
US Democrats Ask Florida Supreme Court to Reverse 2 Rulings
US Democratic lawyers urged the Florida Supreme Court Monday, December 11, to reverse two lower court rulings and toss out thousands of absentee votes for Republican George W. Bush, giving the state justices another chance to affect the outcome of the presidential election.
In legal briefs, Democrats asked the state's highest court to reverse rulings handed down Friday rejecting their claim that 25,000 absentee ballots cast in Seminole and Martin counties should be invalidated because Republican Party officials were allowed to alter hundreds of ballot request forms, either adding or correcting information.
The Florida Supreme Court received filings from both Al Gore and Bush lawyers in the case Monday as the U.S. Supreme Court was considering an earlier decision by the Florida justices requiring more recounting of votes.
In their papers, Republicans argued that Democrats were " attempting to turn an innocent correction of a printing glitch into the commission of a crime somehow to justify the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters."
US Democratic lawyers urged the Florida Supreme Court Monday, December 11, to reverse two lower court rulings and toss out thousands of absentee votes for Republican George W. Bush, giving the state justices another chance to affect the outcome of the presidential election.