Lawsuit Filed Over Overseas Ballots

Nov. 24, 2000 -- A judge says he is unlikely to grant a Bush campaign request to order local elections officials to reconsider hundreds of overseas military ballots they ruled invalid last weekend.

“Without any proof that any of these canvassing boards have notcomplied with the law, this court is very hard-pressed to grant anyrelief,” Leon County Circuit Judge L. Ralph Smith Jr. said.

However, Smith said he wouldnot rule until after additional briefs were submitted onSaturday.

A Republican lawsuit, which covers at least a dozen predominantly Republican counties in Florida, asks Smith to declare ballots from armed forces personnel valid — even if they were disqualified for lacking valid signatures, dates or postmarks.

Republicans hope the court action will prompt county canvassing boards to reconsider perhaps 500 rejected military ballots statewide. Even without a ruling by the judge, some counties already have begun to do just that, unofficially netting at least 45 votes for George W. Bush.

Point of Controversy

Overseas and military absentee ballots have been a point of controversy in the Florida vote, in which Bush leads Democrat Al Gore by 930 votes in an unofficial tally by the Florida Secretary of State. That total includes votes cast on Election Day and overseas absentee ballot totals submitted to the state by last Friday, but doesn’t include the votes still being recounted.

Republicans have charged that Democrats unfairly sought to disqualify as many overseas absentee ballots from the military as possible, thinking the votes in question would favor Bush.

Democrats insist they only attempted to prevent illegal ballots from being counted, with no focus on the military.

Roughly 3,600 overseas ballots were received. Of those, 2,200 were accepted, while 1,400 were thrown out last week due to irregularities, including the absence of a postmark or signature. Of the total, about two-thirds were from civilians and one-third from the military.

Re-evaluations Favor Bush

At least five counties are already reconsidering disqualified overseas absentee ballots, and such assessments in Okaloosa, Clay, Nassau and Bay counties already have resulted in a net gain of 17 votes for Bush, Republicans told reporters in a conference call today.

Duval County, which was not named in the suit, re-evaluated its 76 overseas ballots it had previously rejected. Eight were again rejected, while 44 were for Bush and 24 were for Gore.

Other counties also may be re-evaluating overseas ballots. For example, Brevard County reports a net gain of eight votes for Bush.

While such reassessment of military ballots seems to be helping Bush, ongoing hand recounts of votes cast on Election Day in Palm Beach and Broward counties are expected to add to Gore’s vote total.

Postmarks, Dates and Signatures

Republicans are seeking to have military ballots counted in some cases if postmarks are missing, smudged or late, or if they have a domestic postmark.

Republican party lawyers said Florida’s law requiring thepostmarks is superseded by federal rules specifying thatmilitary ballots should be delivered expeditiously and free ofpostage.

Republicans also seek reconsideration for some undated ballots, ballots with signature discrepancies and ballots that were not formally requested in advance. Republicans believe about 500 military ballots statewide would have to be reconsidered if the judge were to side with them on all their arguments.

Opposing Argument

Mike Chesser, a lawyer for Okaloosa County’s electionsupervisor, urged the judge to deny the request, saying countyofficials there had diligently performed the task of examiningthe military ballots as they saw fit under the law.

“In Okaloosa County, all the votes that could be countedwere counted,” Chesser said. “We think we have done everythingthat we were required to do.”

Democrats were not represented in the hearing before Judge Smith, and were largely silent on the issue today. However, the Gore camp has maintained overseas ballots should be counted if they comply with Florida election law.

On that basis, Gore campaign chairman William Daley said Wednesday the campaign is “strongly committed to seeing that all the votes are fully and fairly counted within the law, and that of course includes all military ballots that are legally cast as well.”

Republicans Protest

All week, Republicans have been taking their protests over the military ballots beyond the courtroom to the court of public opinion.

This morning in Fort Lauderdale, where Bush supporters were protesting hand recounts at the Broward County courthouse, Republican officials once again attacked on the military ballot issue.

“Let’s count their votes,” former Sen. Bob Dole demanded repeatedly of the disputed military ballots. “We’re throwing out military votes on technicalities, and we’re over here [in Broward County’s hand recount] divining votes on what somebody intended to do when they have no idea what they intended to do.”

Gore has offered to meet personally with Bush in an effort to reach common ground on election turmoil. In a televised statement on Wednesday, Bush did not directly address Gore’s proposal to meet, but suggested compromise on military ballots might be a point of conciliation.

“If Vice President Gore is seeking some common ground, I propose agood place to start: He should join me in calling upon all appropriate authorities in Florida to make sure that overseas military ballots that were signed and received on time count in this election,” Bush said. “Our men and women in uniform overseas should not lose their right to vote. I hope the vice president will personally support me in thiscall.”

Dems Deny Anti-Military Bias

On Sunday, Gore’s running mate, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, said the Democrats had not targeted military voters.

“Al Gore and I would never tolerate a systemic effort to disqualify votes from our service people, our military personnel abroad,” Lieberman said on ABCNEWS’ This Week. “We want every vote counted honestly and fairly among the absentee ballots.”

Speaking in Florida on Tuesday, retiring Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, a decorated Vietnam veteran, elaborated on the Gore campaign’s position.

“We should not be playing politics with our military,” Kerrey said, calling for military voters to be held to the same standard as everybody else. “If they have a legal ballot, it should be counted. If it’s not a legal ballot, it should not be counted.”

Kerrey added he was in Florida to counteract “irresponsible things being said by the Bush campaign that the vice president was stealing votes, that there’s election fraud, that somehow that he’s incompetent to be commander in chief,” adding that such comments were “reckless, they’re irresponsible and they’re wrong.”

Butterworth: Count Them All

Kerrey’s comments represented a change from the more defensive tone struck on Monday by the Democrats when Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a co-chair of Gore’s campaign in the state, issued a letter urging election officials to count absentee ballots from overseas that do not bear a postmark.

“No man or woman in military service to this nation should have his or her vote rejected solely due to the absence of a postmark,” Butterworth said in a letter to the state’s 67 county elections supervisors and other canvassing board members.

Butterworth’s letter said his office “urges supervisors and canvassing boards to seek a clarifying opinion from the secretary of state if they have any questions on this matter after review of the authorities cited in this letter.”

However, Butterworth’s letter is not binding.

ABCNEWS’ Mark Halperin and Erin Hayes, ABCNEWS.com’s Michael James, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.