-Caveat Lector- http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/11/politics/11REPU.html New York Times Saturday, November 11, 2000 Bush Team Questions Results of the Recounts in 2 Counties By JIM YARDLEY With Democrats focusing attention on the voting in Palm Beach County, Florida Republicans and the Bush campaign yesterday questioned the recounts in two counties where Vice President Al Gore saw his tallies increase by several hundred votes. But so far, the Republican challenges have come up empty. Lawyers for the Bush campaign spent yesterday examining envelopes used for mailing absentee ballots in Pinellas County, in western Florida, where the recount netted Mr. Gore an additional 478 votes, his second-biggest increase in the state. This is the first county in which the Bush team has challenged the vote and examined election materials. Paul J. Bedinghaus, the chairman of the Republican Party in Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, said early yesterday, "We found some things of interest, but we haven't found anything yet that I would say would be significant." By yesterday evening, Mr. Bedinghaus added, "We haven't drawn any conclusion, and we're still working." In rural Gadsden County, just west of Tallahassee, in northern Florida, the Bush campaign had not asked to examine ballots, but it did accuse local election officials of overstepping their authority during the recount by adding 187 ballots that had been disqualified in the Nov. 7 vote. All but 17 of those ballots went to Mr. Gore. "They were asked to do a recount and a recount only," said Ken Sukhia, a former United States attorney in Tallahassee working for the Bush campaign. "They did something more than a recount. They looked at ballots that had been rejected and then made guesses as to the voter's intent. We don't think that is appropriate." Mr. Sukhia said he objected during the Gadsden County recount when officials began examining the roughly 2,000 votes that had been disqualified on election night and began adding some of those votes to the count. Sterling Watson, a county commissioner who helped conduct the recount, said the canvassing board used common sense in reinstating the 187 ballots. In some cases, Mr. Watson said, voters had filled out the circle beside the name of one candidate, then crossed it out and filled in the circle for another candidate. "We made a judgment that somebody made a mistake and corrected their mistake, that's all," Mr. Watson said. He said officials followed the same practice for the primaries. Ray Sullivan, a Bush campaign spokesman working from Tallahassee, would not comment on whether the campaign was considering a legal challenge to the vote in Gadsden County, saying only, "When we feel there may be problems and violations, we've certainly raised questions and concerns." By this weekend, the Bush camp expects to have more than 200 people, most of them lawyers, working in Florida. The situation in Pinellas County brought a small platoon of Republican Party lawyers and officials early yesterday morning to Clearwater to challenge the results. According to county officials, one clerk had mistakenly not counted some 1,100 absentee ballots on election night, while another clerk had counted about 400 ballots twice. The mistakes were quickly discovered in a first recount on Wednesday, and the total from that count changed by only eight votes after a second recount on Thursday. "I am not exactly sure what they are looking for," said Betsy Steg, the assistant county attorney who represents the supervisor of elections, "but they're basically redoing what we've already done." George Jirotka, the lawyer for the local Republican Party, said the recount attracted Republicans' attention when nearly 400 votes were added in the recount in which Mr. Gore gained 417 votes and Gov. George W. Bush lost 61. Mr. Jirotka characterized Pinellas County as mostly Republican, though President Clinton won it in 1996. "We saw the results and said, `How did that happen?' " Mr. Jirotka said. On Wednesday night, he said the Bush campaign officially requested to re-examine the results. Mr. Bedinghaus said yesterday that campaign officials compared the names of people who had requested absentee ballots in Pinellas County with the signatures on the envelopes of those returned. But with no apparent discrepancies uncovered by the end of the day, he said campaign officials would return today to examine the absentee ballots that were disqualified. The challenge by the Bush campaign put Robert L. Shirer, the vice chairman of the county Democratic Party, in the unusual position of defending the county elections board, which is dominated by Republicans. "My experience of this elections office as a Democrat — and they are Republicans — is that they are squeaky clean and very careful," Mr. Shirer said. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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