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Saturday Morning News

Florida's 25 Electoral Votes Still Holds Key to Election 2000

Aired November 11, 2000 - 7:00 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, ANCHOR: CNN's Bill Hemmer is in Tallahassee, and he has been watching in things very closely there.

Good morning, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles, Kyra, good morning to both of you back there in Atlanta.

You know, normally this time of the year on a crisp fall morning on the weekend, most Floridians are thinking only about college football, but not the case this year.

Listen, I know there are issues in other parts of the country, namely New Mexico and Iowa, Wisconsin, and Oregon, however, right now, based on the electoral map and electoral count, Florida still holds the key with 25 electoral votes.

It's a Saturday morning here, and again in four different parts of this state, Volusia County, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach, it is quite possible hand recounts at some point will take place in all four. However, today only, we know Volusia and Palm Beach County will indeed have recounts by hand, starting possibly anywhere from two to three hours from now.

Speaking of Palm Beach, down to West Palm and CNN's John Zarrella, who's tracking that part of the story this morning. John, good morning to you.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, today is going to be a big day. While it is quiet here right now, in just about a couple of hours, in the room you see behind me right there, the hand count of three precincts, about 4,600 votes, will begin here in Palm Beach County. As that hand count begins, there will also be going on in another room right next to that room a recount by machine of all of the ballots in Palm Beach County.

Now, it was the Democrats who requested the hand recount, and the county went ahead with that. It was the Republicans who requested the machine recount of all of the ballots, and the county agreed to do that.

Now, of course, as everyone knows by now, not only in the United States but in a good part of the world, it was the so-called butterfly ballot that has caused all of the controversy here in Palm Beach County. That's the ballot where the presidential names, the candidates, are listed on two sides of the paper. And when people were punching what they thought was a vote for Al Gore, many of them have said that what they ended up really punching was a vote for Pat Buchanan.

There were also 19,120 votes that were punched for two candidates, and those votes, those ballots, were thrown out.

Now, the Democratic Party is not taking any of this lightly here in Palm Beach County. They are very actively gathering evidence, they're in evidentiary stage, they say. At the Palm Beach County Democratic headquarters, many, many people were coming in yesterday, signing affidavits swearing that they in fact did punch two or they punched what they thought might have been Gore but weren't sure whose name they punched.

But all of this information being gathered now by the Democratic Committee here in Palm Beach County will eventually be turned over to the legal representation for the Gore committee, and they will have to make a determination as to whether there is grounds to go ahead and look for some legal relief here in Palm Beach County.

There will be some other legal action taking place here on Tuesday because a judge yesterday granted an injunction to two women who say that they were misled by the ballot. Those -- the court here, the circuit court, will hear those arguments on Tuesday. So for now, there will be no certification of any ballots here in Palm Beach County, despite what happens today, until the judge takes a look at that.

Now, the secretary of state of the state of Florida has issued a statement, and yesterday, late yesterday afternoon, said that, quote, she believes "it is the portia -- it is the opinion of the department of state that the form of the presidential ballot in Palm Beach County conforms in all aspects to the requirement of the Florida law."

Now, that doesn't mean that it's a definitive, it certainly could be challenged, and there is a good likelihood the way things are going right now, Bill, that there will be legal challenges ahead. Already some scheduled, and probably more to come -- Bill.

HEMMER: But as for today, John, will we get a finality when it comes to the hand-count itself, possibly that starts at 9:00 or 10:00 a.m., maybe by 6:00 tonight, that small percentage of recounts, will it be completed?

ZARRELLA: We are told that it should be completed sometime after dark here East Coast time, perhaps 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, even 8:00, they said, but they do say that they will come out and tell us what that recount has revealed, if it's still the same numbers, or if, once again, there are more changes. That could lead to a full hand recount, depending on what comes out today here -- Bill.

HEMMER: OK, all right, John Zarrella, live down there in West Palm Beach. John, we'll be in touch a bit later. Again, Florida still holds the key, based on the electoral map, 25 electoral votes is enough to either hand the presidency to George W. Bush or to Al Gore. We'll be here throughout the morning to bring you the latest.

Couple guests coming up shortly too, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party working here in Tallahassee, also we'll talk with a former secretary of state and former attorney general about all this as well, coming up shortly here live in Tallahassee.

Back to Miles now in Atlanta -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, we'll check in with you later.

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