Despite legal setbacks and a rapidly approaching deadline, Vice President Al Gore emerged Tuesday from the White House to dismiss suggestions that he concede defeat and to deliver an upbeat, even cheery, assessment of his chances to prevail in the presidential election.
“I don’t feel anything but optimistic, and the team down in Tallahassee feels that way also,” Gore said, referring to the lawyers representing him in Florida. Reminded that last week he characterized his chances of winning as 50-50, Gore said, “Yeah, I’ll stay with that.”
His best hopes, many Democrats believe, lie with the Florida Supreme Court, where arguments are scheduled for Thursday morning on Gore’s challenge to the election results. The court is likely to rule quickly because Florida’s 25 delegates to the Electoral College should be named by Tuesday. If the state’s seven justices rule against Gore, it could bring an end to the Democrat’s unprecedented, monthlong effort to reverse the election results.
Gore would not commit to conceding the election if the Florida Supreme Court rules against him. But he and his team have sent strong signals that they would accept as final the opinion of the state’s top court.
“I do think that it’s likely that all of the current controversies will end up being resolved one way or another in the Florida Supreme Court,” Gore said in his brief appearance outside the White House’s West Wing.
Two other cases are scheduled to be heard Wednesday in Florida’s Leon County, either with the potential to give Gore Florida’s 25 electoral votes, and with them, the presidency.
The most dramatic is a case from Seminole County, where a Democratic activist has challenged more than 4,700 Republican absentee ballot applications. The suit asks a judge to invalidate all of the county’s 15,000 absentee ballots, including thousands that Democrats concede were cast correctly.
A similar case from Martin County alleges that GOP workers improperly took incomplete ballot applications from the elections office there, filled them out and resubmitted them. That suit asks a judge to throw out more than 9,700 absentee votes.
Both cases present a political dilemma for Gore, who has not joined the lawsuits but is keeping track of them. The vice president has said throughout the recount process that he wants every vote counted, but the two suits seek to give him the presidency by invalidating thousands of ballots.
In his state’s capital of Austin, Texas Gov. George W. Bush continued to press ahead as though he were the unchallenged president-elect. He said he expects to announce key members of his administration shortly after the legal battle has concluded so he can show the public that he and his team are ready to “seize the moment.”
In an interview aired Tuesday night on CBS’ “60 Minutes II” program, Bush sought to strike a conciliatory note, vowing to reach out to Democrats if he becomes president.
Bush said he did “not at all” believe that Gore was being a sore loser. “We both put our heart and soul into the campaign. … And however it comes out, I’m confident that he will do the right thing for the country and I know I will as well,” Bush said.
Bush said he is ready to name a Cabinet but declined to reveal his choices, except to say that one of his brothers, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, would not be offered a post.
Asked if vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney’s work in overseeing the administrative transition might lead to confusion over who is in charge, the Texas governor said there “shouldn’t be.”
Meanwhile, lawyers for Gore and Bush prepared briefs to submit to the Florida Supreme Court by noon Wednesday, maintaining the rapid pace with which the Florida courts have considered most of the election challenges.
Both candidates dispatched their running mates to Capitol Hill, where Cheney and Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut met with members of their parties during the first day of the unusual lame-duck congressional session.
Over lunch, Lieberman told Senate Democrats of the legal strategy he and Gore were pursuing to the Florida Supreme Court. “My impression is that this is the last stop,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Many Democrats have begun to acknowledge that it would require a dramatic, unexpected turn of events for Gore to reverse a series of decisions that have gone against him in recent days.
In a sign of Republican confidence, the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature began backing off plans to call a special session to name a slate of pro-Bush delegates to the Electoral College. Leaders of the Florida House and Senate have said they would wait a day or two to see how matters play out in the courts.
In recent days, the court decisions have been almost entirely favorable to Bush.
Florida Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls on Monday ruled against Gore in every aspect of his election challenge, in which Gore is seeking manual recounts in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties. That case will be heard by the state Supreme Court on Thursday.
Also Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Florida Supreme Court to clarify its earlier decision to give the state’s counties additional time to conduct hand recounts. The Florida court may do that while it considers Gore’s appeal of Sauls’ decision.
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) said Democrats would remain solidly behind Gore at least through the Florida Supreme Court decision.
That prediction was echoed by Gore campaign chairman William Daley in an interview. “I think politically people are understanding and willing to support the appeal to the Supreme Court of Florida,” Daley said. “People are going to hang with us on that.”
Daley said Republicans are orchestrating public pressure on Democrats who serve in conservative-leaning districts through telephone banks and talk radio. “I’m sure some of the Texas Democrats and some of the so-called Blue Dogs are getting nervous,” Daley said. “The Republicans went after the same people during impeachment.”
But the battle may be over within days if the Florida Supreme Court rules in Bush’s favor.
Legal scholars said Gore will have a hard time persuading the court to set aside Sauls’ ruling, because the court cannot reverse his factual findings unless they are “clearly erroneous.” University of Florida law professor Joseph W. Little said Gore has “a high hurdle.”
Gore’s lawyers plan to argue that Sauls used the wrong legal standard in rejecting Gore’s challenge. Because that is a legal matter and not a factual one, the state Supreme Court is not required to defer to Sauls, but legal observers said even on that point it will be difficult for Gore to prevail.
In Atlanta, one other case was making its way through the courts Tuesday, as Bush supporters asked a federal appeals court to throw out the results of any Florida hand recounts. That case argues that such recounts create a two-tiered system, giving added weight to the wishes of voters in counties where the recounts are conducted.
Attorneys for Bush told the court that hand counts in predominantly Democratic counties are unconstitutional because they dilute the value of ballots cast in other counties. The rules for counting votes changed after the election and the criteria differed from county to county, the lawyers argued.
“There were no efforts to make any standards,” said Bush lawyer Ted Olson, who last week argued the Bush case before the U.S. Supreme Court. “They gave complete discretion to election officials, which leads to the possibility of subjective applications.”
Democrats argued that the case is moot because the manual recounts have been completed and Bush is the certified winner in Florida.
Attorney Teresa Roseborough, who represented the Florida Democratic Party, also argued that every voter has a right to have his vote counted. Furthermore, she said, voters who feel their rights were violated by the manual recount have the right to contest the election.
A separate but similar case brought by Bush supporters in Brevard County claimed that some voters were disenfranchised by a “two-tiered” system that allowed some votes to be included while some were not.
