Gore to Contest Election Results

Nov. 24 -- Lawyers for Democrat Al Gore said Thursday the vice president will contest the close presidential election results in at least one Florida county, and that he will not concede the election, even after the final state vote tally is certified on Sunday.

The announcement followed bad news for Gore from the Florida Supreme Court, which conferred by conference call on the Thanksgiving holiday, and unanimously denied Gore’s request to order the Miami-Dade County to resume hand counting of presidential ballots it abandoned on Wednesday.

Also late Thursday, the lawyers filed papers in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the nation’s highest court to deny a request by Republican George W. Bush to bar any use of hand-counted presidential election ballots in the state.

The lawyers called Bush’s request a “bald attempt to federalize a state court dispute” and interfering in the Florida election.The Democratic filing claimed that Bush’s court brief containedfalse and “partisan accusations regarding the manner in which theFlorida recount is proceeding.”

Gore, who spent Thanksgiving Day at home in Washington, had asked the state’s highest court in an emergency appealto restart ballot counting in the county, which they said was“being frustrated by a deliberate campaign of delay andintimidation of local officials.”

The Florida Supreme Court ruling upholds the decision by an appeals court, which late Wednesday denied the Democrats’ bid to force the resumption of hand recounts. Earlier Wednesday, the Miami-Dade canvassing board voted 3-0 to call off its manual recount, saying it could not meet the Sunday deadline imposed by the Florida Supreme Court.

In Tallahassee, Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker insists Gore hadbeen trying to extend the deadline so he could get enough votes tochange the election result. Tucker calls the Gore’s tactics“a little questionable.”