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Sunday Morning News

The Florida Recount: Palm Beach County Agrees to Start Over; Volusia County Begins Counting Ballots

Aired November 12, 2000 - 8:32 a.m. ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And with more on everything that's going on in Florida, let's give it over to our Bill Hemmer in Tallahassee, also, CNN's Brian Cabell is also in Florida there.

Bill, you take it from here.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Daryn, thank you very much.

We went to bed last night, late last night, trying to get word from West Palm Beach as to what was going to be the latest from that county. We woke up early this morning only to find out that, indeed, Palm Beach County will count all the votes over one more time starting tomorrow, on Monday morning.

It got rather heated and rather contentious last night. The canvassing commission, a three member board, did meet with reporters late last night to announce their decision. A small sample, now, of what was happening in West Palm from last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CANVASSING BOARD MEMBER: This is obviously very unprecedented and under normal conditions, I would automatically reject the idea. But due to the fact that this is something of national importance, I feel that it is something to consider and that it's something we should do.

BURTON: All right, my only thought was not that we shouldn't do it or should do it, but we, before proceeding and because of the importance, we ought to seek those, at least the opinion of those with the expertise to advise us. I'm not...

ROBERTS: Well, I, I, again, I'm sorry that I...

BURTON: I would simply feel better making a more informed opinion rather than a rash opinion.

ROBERTS: I don't believe this is an -- I'm not giving an opinion. I'm asking for a vote. I don't believe we need an opinion on what we should do because we are here in Palm Beach County. I represent the people of Palm Beach County and I believe the people of Palm Beach County deserve -- I represent all the people in Palm Beach County and I believe all the people in Palm Beach County deserve to have, as well as the people in the United States, deserve to have an answer and this is the way I see best fit to get that answer. I'd like to call the vote, since I made the motion.

BURTON: Are, well, just a last comment on the motion and it is the Chair's opinion, and the Chair has indicated all along that this board has worked long and hard to be fair, to be open, to try and determine the true intent of the voters in this election. As I indicated, this canvassing board serves as a neutral body.

ROBERTS: Absolutely.

BURTON: Its function is ministerial in nature and you are calling the vote and that's fine. I've made my point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: That's the canvassing commission late last night in Palm Beach County and certainly while a lot of us get a whole new education on American civics, there is a lot of attention being given to Palm Beach County. However, it is not the only part of Florida that needs to be talked about.

In Volusia County, that's near Daytona Beach on the Atlantic side, CNN's Brian Cabell tracking things from there. They will start a recount today on this Sunday. Brian, good morning to you.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

In fact, they are starting at this hour, 184,000 votes to be hand counted in this building behind me starting about now. They'll go about 14 hours today, 14 hours tomorrow and probably eight or 10 hours the following day on Tuesday. They have about 100 counters that are coming in on overtime. They will have Democrats and Republicans looking at each team to make sure everything goes smoothly. They have law enforcement, all together about 250 people involved.

Now, they were supposed to have started this yesterday, but it was delayed because the canvassing board was counting for the very first time the write-in votes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE MICHAEL MCDERMOTT, CHAIRMAN, CANVASSING BOARD: The only thing we talk about is for United States president, the only oval filled in is for a write-in and the voter has written in Cheney- Lieberman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: Some of the votes, as you can see, were rather peculiar, to say the least. In any case, after all these write-in votes were tallied, six more came up for Vice President Gore, one more for Mr. Bush. So the margin has been cut by another five.

Democrats and Republicans were watching this procedure the whole time. The Republicans, in fact, had a camera. Also, a camera was in a room adjacent to this, watching the 184,000 ballots to make sure that they stayed secure.

Now, the reason this recount has come about is because Democrats were concerned about some irregularities. On election night, on Tuesday night, the computer suddenly subtracted 16,000 votes from Vice President Gore. Those were quickly restored. But that raised some question. That was some damaged software. Also, the day after the election, a precinct worker brought in a bag with a few votes. Those should have been turned in the day before. And then on Friday when they opened the vault, some bags were found to be open, not entirely secure.

So again, some questions, but officials say the vote here has not been compromised in any way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BYRON, VOLUSIA COUNTY SPOKESMAN: At the end of the day, what's really important is did we count all the votes and did we count them accurately and I believe that we have at this point and I believe that when the manual recount takes place and that's completed, I believe that's what the conclusion is going to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: So again, Bill, 184,000 votes to be counted. They hope, they expect, they have to have it done by Tuesday afternoon at five o'clock.

Back to you.

HEMMER: Yeah, Brian, pretty interesting history in your part of the state, in Volusia County, given their election history, and again, we want to point out there is no evidence of fraud in the state right now, but clearly there are questions about the system and how it works. Are officials going to many lengths right now to explain to people how, indeed, they're going to try and make up for those system errors?

CABELL: Yeah, they are, and the very fact that each voting team of two counters will have a Democrat and Republican watching all day long, and they've had yesterday with the canvassing board they had three Democrats on one side, three Republicans on the other. So they are trying to make certain this is out in the open, this is entirely fair and any questions that will be raised will be recorded by these Democrats and Republicans.

So this doesn't mean there will be no lawsuits, but no objections will be raised during the counting procedure right now, but they may be raised later on.

One other thing, Bill...

HEMMER: All right, Brian. Brian, yeah, please. Go ahead.

CABELL: This all could be stopped, of course, on Monday. They could be stopped in midcount if the Republicans are granted an injection against this recount. So they could get halfway through this recount and stop on Monday.

HEMMER: All right, Brian Cabell. Watch it for us. We'll be in touch, Brian. Thanks to you.

And one other note from overnight, the Associated Press is reporting in Polk County, that's in the center part of Florida near Orlando, they have conducted their own recount. They went through about 50 percent of their precincts. They find that George W. Bush gains 104 votes in that county.

Where does this all go? Where does it all end? We'll follow it, certainly, hour by hour here in the Sunshine State.

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