Word: handing
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...said only that a legal vote exists if there is "clear indication of the intent of the voter," a frustratingly rubbery phrase. In its Friday ruling ordering counts of the undervotes, the Florida Supreme Court simply quoted that vague guideline. Nor did Judge Terry Lewis, who was implementing the hand count, offer any specifics. So on Saturday, before the U.S. Supreme Court halted the counting, each of 64 canvassing boards was making its own decisions - on dimples, on who would observe the counts, on how to separate the undervoted ballots from the others, and so on. Hillsborough County, for instance...
...pricier voting technology used in more Republican areas. Brevard County, for instance, which went 53 percent to 45 percent for Bush, uses optical scanners. "There are no dimples, crimples, pimples or anything else to interpret," says election supervisor Fred Galey. That's good for him but - if the hand count resumes - bad for Bush, since Brevard's 277 undervoted ballots probably contain few votes. By contrast, Pinellas County's 4,226 undervoted punch-card ballots could contain hundreds of votes, and Gore won Pinellas. Across the state, undervoted ballots tend to be concentrated in Democratic areas. One explanation: Elderly...
...that why Bush's lawyers have fought hand counts of undervotes so doggedly? Yes, but they have valid reasons for opposing the counts - chiefly that there is no single standard for them. They also say handling the ballots "spoliates" them, a lawyerly way of saying counters can push chads through accidentally. Bush lawyer Phil Beck wanted Lewis to rule that only a chad with a stylus imprint could count, not one pushed through, say, by a finger. Lewis dismissed that request for now, but in the end his decision may not matter...
...Baker wouldn't declare victory. Instead, he's free to get behind hand counts, with a standard and only if it's truly statewide. New Republican diversion: The overvotes. "There were 175,000 ballots rejected in the state of Florida," Baker declared. "They have to be counted too." He's not sure the vote-reading machines are reliable. But between Wells and Scalia, he figures he's got enough blockers to get Bush in the end zone, and plenty of legal experts say he's correct...
...Supreme Court to stay the mandate of the Florida Supreme Court... This means that the partial manual system created yesterday by the FSC will not now proceed." As for why, Baker went on to quote the suddenly wise minority that had tried to save his candidate from the hand counts Friday, and tossed in some "changing the rules in the middle of the game" shots at the ruling Florida four. But Baker wouldn't go any further - he'd had had the rug pulled out from under him too many times over the past 32 days to ascribe any intent...