On Wednesday, Nov. 15th, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (Illustration A at right) announced she would not allow results of hand recounts. She stated she would certify the state's election results on Saturday once overseas absentee ballots were counted. The Gore campaign filed a lawsuit as a result. Few people realize that Secretary Harris violated Florida law in regard to the overseas ballots. While ballots must arrive at the county headquarters by November 17th, the counties had until November 24th to submit the results to the Office of the Secretary of State. Harris' action to demand immediate submission of county results to her office by the 17th violates Florida law.

Harris also created a major controversy by ordering the disqualification of a significant number of overseas military ballots (see Military Up In Arms).

Friday morning, Judge Terry Lewis upheld the Florida Secretary of State's decision not to include hand recounts in the official tally of the presidential election. He stated the Secretary had not abused her discretion and applied "reasoned judgment" in her decision. Illustration B (at right) highlights the Friday release by Terre Cass, Court Administrator for Judge Lewis.

This court decision elated the Bush campaign. Illustration C highlights Bush spokesperson, James Baker, commenting on the court ruling. Baker stated that the "rule of law has prevailed." The Bush campaign has consistently claimed a hand count is unwarranted (see Hand Counting).

The Gore campaign responded at 12:45pm EST they would appeal Judge Lewis' ruling to the Florida Supreme Court. The Gore camps noted that Florida law requires all votes to be considered if they "...would have changed, could have changed, or at the least, could place the election outcome in doubt."

At 4:30pm EST, the Florida State Supreme Court - on their own motion - released a statement blocking Secretary of State Harris' intent to certify the results of the election as she had intended for Saturday afternoon. The Court noted they would hear oral arguments 2pm EST on Monday. The implication is that the Court does not want Bush (or Gore) celebrating for two days over a potentially preliminary decision from Secretary of State Harris.

The situation in Florida forces all of us to consider the issue of fairness. One critical issue is the absense of a valid voting method. In a 1988 report, the National Bureau of Standards found that "It is generally not possible to exactly duplicate a count obtained on pre-scored punch cards..." (see Florida Recount Issue).

Due in part to the Bureau report, many election precincts do not use punch card systems. George W. Bush, as governor of Texas, recently signed legislation requiring a hand count rather than a machine count in closely-contested elections. The question posed here is whether it is "fair" to rely on a known, flawed counting system in such important matters?

Actual Palm Beach Florida Ballot

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