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Saturday Morning News

Doug Hattaway Discusses the Latest Florida Recount

Aired December 9, 2000 - 8:32 a.m. ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Here's the latest from Florida. Canvassing boards across Florida are on high alert today after the State Supreme Court yesterday ordered a hand count of all so-called under votes in the state, more than 43,000 ballots that machines could not read as a vote for president.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures there at the Leon County Library where that hand count of those Miami-Dade under counts, those disputed ballots, some 9,000 in all set to begin. We're going to be watching it all day. As we said about 9,000 of them. And this laborious task is set to begin shortly. The judge who is overseeing it all would like to have it done by 2:00 P.M. tomorrow. He says he wants all counties to have finished counting, in fact, by 2:00 P.M. tomorrow.

PHILLIPS: Now, the matter may yet return to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has already vacated an earlier ruling by the Florida high court. Attorneys for George W. Bush have filed a motion seeking an immediate halt to the hand count. The Bush team has also appealed yesterday's Florida Supreme Court decision to a federal appeals court in Atlanta.

O'BRIEN: Well, let's go back to Tallahassee. We're not going to be in the library just yet, otherwise Bill Hemmer would have to whisper. He is standing at his post in front of the Supreme Court where all the action took place yesterday.

Bill, good morning again, sir.

HEMMER: Hey, Miles, Kyra, good morning to you, as well. Just about 8:33 local time, already 33 minutes past that deadline that Judge Lewis ordered late last night for that county to begin. We'll keep an eye on that. Also want to keep an eye on what the Gore folks are talking about today and the Bush folks.

Doug Hattaway, a Gore spokesperson, now with us here in Tallahassee. Good morning to you again, Doug.

DOUG HATTAWAY, GORE SPOKESMAN: Good morning.

HEMMER: Let's, first of all, talk about this ruling from yesterday. Is it fair to say even at the highest level of Democratic officials involved here that even they were a bit stunned and surprised by what came out yesterday? HATTAWAY: I don't think so. All the Supreme Court of Florida did was uphold the principle that every vote counts and they ruled that every vote that has not been counted should be counted. We knew the law was on our side. Their ruling was based on the Florida statues that govern elections. I think we were obviously ecstatic about it, but I don't think anybody should be surprised they upheld that principle.

HEMMER: Take it one step further, then, did you expect that, though?

HATTAWAY: We're not in the business of predicting what the courts are going to do. I think those who said it was over were wrong and I think rather than predicting we're always trying to make our best case. I think right now what we're focused on is trying to do whatever we can to help facilitate the counting of the votes, get it done quickly. It can be over in the next two days. I think we're already seeing the Bush campaign doing what they have for the past month, is doing everything they can to stop the counting of the votes. I think what we've seen now is that the highest court in the state of Florida, which ought to be the final word on this, has said let the counting begin.

HEMMER: Okay, now, the Bush attorneys, just about 30 minutes ago, stopped by here. They're filing with Judge Lewis in Circuit Court today their concerns about the standards, their concerns about the people who will actually will be going through these ballots, and they believe that it's possible the American people will not be convinced that this recount is legitimate, which would, in effect, produce an illegitimate presidency.

HATTAWAY: Well, thus far, the Bush campaign over the past month has failed to get the state courts or the federal courts to stop the counting of the votes. It's taken a while, it's taken a month to get here, but they have failed and I think, and last night we saw already they filed four federal actions once again to try to stop the votes from being counted. We think they should stop filing their lawsuits, stop trying to disrupt the process.

This couldn't be more fair. The Supreme Court said count all the votes that haven't been counted all over the whole state. We don't know how it's going to turn out, but Al Gore is going to abide by the count. George Bush should do the same. They should stop filing lawsuits.

HEMMER: Okay, let's talk more about the courts that oversee Florida, the Circuit Court in Atlanta, the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. The counting has not begun yet. Are you concerned that a court may come in and say don't do it, we want to look at these matters first?

HATTAWAY: Well, certainly. We think the votes ought to be counted, they ought to be counted right away, they should have been counted a month ago. We think the federal courts are certainly not the place to step in and say, you know, don't count the votes. We think that the counting of votes is constitutional -- I think that's a no-brainer -- that the Supreme Court decision here was based on the Florida statutes that govern elections. That's rock solid and there is no excuse for the federal courts to stop, step in now and say don't count the votes.

HEMMER: It was an amazing afternoon yesterday and it continues to be the same today.

Doug Hattaway, thanks again, the Gore team here in Tallahassee.

Rob Portman, the Congressman from Ohio, will be our guest. He is also in Tallahassee. We'll get the Bush perspective on all this coming up shortly here but for now back to Atlanta. More with Miles and Kyra.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Bill. We will be checking in with you.

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