Whats going on today?
The Florida Secretary of State and the Gore campaign are both seeking a definitive ruling from the Florida Supreme Court on the permissibility of conducting and counting the results of the ongoing manual recounts. Meanwhile, Broward County plans to begin its manual recount this afternoon. Secretary of State Harris also has asked the Florida high court to centralize all of the election-related contests in Leon County (Tallahassee). A lower Florida court has told the Palm Beach County election officials that they should not automatically discount a “pregnant” punch, in which the chad is merely indented and not detached from the ballot. Several other suits are being heard that challenge other aspects of Palm Beach County’s vote-counting protocols. Counties in the midst of or considering recounts were under a 2 p.m. deadline to present to the Secretary of State grounds that would justify her considering a late-submitted vote tally. In Palm Beach County’s submission, officials asserted that
