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Bush News
November 10, 2000
http://www.georgewbush.com
AOL: <a href=http://www.georgewbush.com>GeorgeWBush.com</a>


Contents:
1  Statement from Secretary James A. Baker III
2  Statement from Karen Hughes
3  FL Papers: FL County Dems Try Filling in Blanks on Ballots;
   Buchanan Numbers Possible
4  Democrats Urge Gore to Quit Legal Wrangling
5  New York Times, Washington Post, Others: Revote or Court Remedy
   Politically Unsound and Legally Questionable

_________________________________________________________________

1
STATEMENT FROM SECRETARY JAMES A. BAKER III

The American people voted on November 7.  Governor George W.
Bush won 31 states with a total of 271 electoral votes.  The
vote in Florida was very close, but when it was counted,
Governor Bush was the winner.

Now, three days later, the vote in Florida has been recounted.
Over two-thirds of the state election supervisors overseeing
the recount are Democrats.

At the end of this recount, Governor Bush is still the winner,
subject only to counting the overseas ballots, which have
traditionally favored the Republican candidate.  No evidence of
vote fraud either in the original vote or in the recount has
been presented.

Now the Gore campaign is calling for yet another recount in
selective and predominantly Democratic counties where there
were unexplained large vote swings in their favor in the
recount.

It appears that the Gore campaign is attempting to unduly
prolong the country's national Presidential election through
endless challenges to the results of the vote here in Florida.

Furthermore, the more often ballots are recounted, especially
by hand, the more likely it is that human errors, like lost
ballots, and other risks, will be introduced.  This frustrates
the very reason why we have moved from hand counting to
machine counting.

Let me say a word specifically about the Palm Beach ballot.
There is a rule of law to be followed for elections.  The state
of Florida has established legal procedures to design, approve,
publish and, if need be, to protest ballots before the election.
The ballot was designed by a Democratic elections supervisor.
She approved it.  The Democratic Party did not question it
before the election.  This "butterfly"-type ballot was used in
recent elections in the same county under the same rules.  Again,
the Democrats did not complain.  The overwhelming majority of
voters who used the ballot understood it and cast valid votes.
Our lawyers have confirmed the legality of this ballot, and we
have copies of the relevant Florida statute available for you
to see.

The Gore campaign has also tried to make a lot of the fact that
double marked ballots are not counted.  A key principle in
America is one person, one vote.  If we have ballots with two
votes, of course we cannot count them or guess about them.
Ballots that are double-marked can't be evidence of the voter's
intent to vote one way or another.  No jurisdiction in the
United States would accept such a ballot as a valid vote, and
Florida law specifically does not.  It happens in every
precinct in every election.  And the procedure is clear:  These
ballots must be disregarded.

We understand, and I understand personally, that it is
frustrating to lose by a narrow margin.  But it happens.  It
happened to the Republican Presidential candidates in 1960 and
1976.  Both Vice President Nixon and President Ford put the
country's interest first.  They accepted the vote for the good
of the country.

It is important that there be some finality to the election
process.  What if we insisted on recounts in other states that
are very close?  For example, in Wisconsin, Iowa, (and if we
don't win) New Mexico.

Let the country step back a moment, pause, and think about
what's at stake.  This may be the last chance.  There is no
reasonable end to this process if it slips away.

The purpose of our national election is to establish a
"Constitutional government," not unending legal wrangling.  We
will therefore vigorously oppose the Gore campaign's efforts to
keep recounting until it likes the result.  For the good of the
country and the sake of our standing in the world, the
campaigning should end, and the business of an orderly
transition should begin.

_________________________________________________________________

2
STATEMENT FROM BUSH COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR KAREN HUGHES:

"The vote count on Tuesday night showed Governor Bush won
Florida's election, and a recount has now confirmed his victory.
The only votes left to be counted are the overseas absentee
ballots, which in the past have favored Republican candidates.
Bob Dole carried the overseas ballots in Florida in 1996 by a
margin of 54 to 40 percent, even though he lost the election in
Florida.  We hope Vice President Gore and his campaign will
reconsider their threats of lawsuits or still more recounts,
which could undermine the constitutional process of selecting a
President and has no foreseeable end."

_________________________________________________________________

3

Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
NORTH FLORIDA COUNTY TRIES TO FILL IN BLANKS ON BALLOTS
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/news_16.html

Palm Beach News
SUPPORTERS: BUCHANAN NUMBERS POSSIBLE
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbdailynews/11/1110buchanan.html

_________________________________________________________________

4
DEMOCRATS URGE GORE TO QUIT LEGAL WRANGLING

"Senator John B. Breaux, a Louisiana Democrat, questioned the
Gore campaign's wisdom in challenging the Palm Beach result.
The right thing, Mr. Breaux said, 'is to count the votes and
respect the decision,' without lengthy litigation. And Senator
Robert G. Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey, warned against
getting mired in the courts...

"'I want Al Gore to win the election,' Mr. Torricelli told
reporters, 'but more than that, I want somebody to win this
election. There is going to have to be a very compelling case
for anybody to take this into a court of law.'"
- The New York Times' R. W. Apple, Jr., 11/10/00

_________________________________________________________________

5
NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, OTHERS: REVOTE OR COURT REMEDY
POLITICALLY UNSOUND AND LEGALLY QUESTIONABLE

"The problem is that potential remedies, such as a new election
in Palm Beach County, seem politically unsound and legally
questionable. The sad reality is that ballot disputes and
imperfections are a feature of every election. It will poison
the political atmosphere if presidential elections, in
particular, come to be seen as merely a starting point for
litigation."
- New York Times, Editorial, 11/10/00
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/10/opinion/10FRI1.html


"We say yes to counting a little more, but the legal action
about which Mr. Daley spoke elliptically should be approached
with enormous caution and restraint. Absent more than is
currently known, our sense is that either a lawsuit or a repeat
vote would raise at least as many questions as it would likely
resolve; the courts in the end can't legitimize the results."
- Washington Post, Editorial, 11/10/00
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57302-2000Nov9.html


"Some folks are even calling for a rerun of the Florida
election.  It is important to decide this election by the rules
that 100 million Americans understood -- or should have
understood -- when they entered the voting booth Tuesday.  This
is not just about fair play for Al Gore and George W. Bush. It
is about defending a system that regards voting-day verdicts as
the final word, a concept that distinguishes this nation from
most others in the world."
- San Francisco Chronicle, Editorial, 11/9/00


"'You know, I don't think the ballot was a problem, Bill and
I'll tell you why-is that there's one section I don't know if
people are really looking at, which relates to electronic or
electromechanical voting.  And in that particular case, what
the law says down here, it says 'Voting squares may be placed
in front of or in back of the names of candidates and
statements.'"
- CNN's "Crossfire," Greta Van Susteren,  11/09/00


"If you start saying the ballot should be thrown out because
of confusion, I think that cases like that could be brought all
over the country."
- CNN's Larry King Live, Bill Schneider, 11/8/00

_________________________________________________________________


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