Those are absolutely meaningless.
Who's looking at the polls? I haven't read a poll in at least 15 minutes.
I'm telling you, it's looking good,
but we've got to keep hammering at the undecideds.
Between phone calls I'm praying.
We need to satellite Lieberman to Nevada and Arizona.
We can have it set up by 11:00 if we can talk him into it.
He's walking in right now. Hold on.
Fournier is waiting for you on line two.
Yeah, Fournier, what can I do for you?
Looks like voter turnout's gonna be at an all-time low. Any response?
As I keep saying and I'll continue to say,
the foundation of a democracy is based on its citizens' right to vote.
A.B.C. on three... winning electoral, losing popular.
- Hang on a sec. Yes. - Hi, Ron. A number of the polls
show that Gore will lose the popular vote, but win the electoral college.
What would the Gore response be if this occurred?
The Gore response would be that Governor Bush
is gonna have to respect the electoral process no matter what the outcome.
Fournier, the foundation of our democracy
is based upon the citizens' right to vote.
It is our duty as Americans to fulfill that responsibility.
- C.N.N. on one... the same. - Hang on. Yes.
Looks like you're gonna lose the popular vote...
I know the question. Here's the answer...
Governor Bush is gonna have to respect the electoral process
no matter what the outcome. Fournier...
"It is our duty as Americans to fulfill that responsibility
"because we must never forget that every vote counts."
You're the only liaison I know that actually sounds sincere
when you spew that shit.
- Background? - Yeah, go ahead.
Are you going to join the new administration?
That would depend on the position he offers,
but I don't think he's going to offer me anything.
He's barely spoken to me since I got back to campaign.
- But if he does? - No comment.
- Talk to you later. - Ron Klain's office.
I have a Lester Hyman on two.
Hey Lester, what can I do for you this morning?
If the 32nd precinct opens even one minute late, I swear to god,
I will fly down there with a crowbar and open the goddamn door myself.
Whouley?
Ron, you look like a fuckin' bolshevik.
I just got off the phone with Lester Hyman.
We may have a problem in Palm Beach County.
A bunch of older voters think they accidentally voted
for Pat Buchanan by mistake... and not just a few of 'em, a lot.
- Jeremy... Where is it again? - Palm Beach.
Get me what's-her-name, Theresa Lepore on the phone, please.
We wouldn't be having this problem if you were still running this show.
But since you're not, how about gettin' me a coffee and fuckin' Danish?
- But before I do that... - Yes?
- Are we going to win this thing? - No.
Yes, but it's gonna be a squeaker.
You always said it would come down to Florida.
Yes, I did. Jeremy, Theresa Lepore.
- It's busy. I'm trying. - Well, try harder, please.
- Thanks, man. - No problem.
- Hey, Morehouse. - Hey, Ron.
What happened to your leg?
Twisted my knee getting off air force two.
Did they upgrade you or are you still flying in luggage?
Put some ice on it.
Hey, Ron.
Hold on a sec.
Ron Klain.
- I'm sorry about this. - Hey, no worries.
- Thanks. - That's good.
- Complete this part right here. - Yes, sir.
I'll get it to the Vice President right away.
Good.
Okay.
Look, Ron, I don't want to bullshit you, so let me get right to it.
Roy Neel is putting out feelers for the transition team and
he told me al really wants you on board.
The Vice President wants to offer you the lead
in reviewing candidates for jobs beneath the cabinet.
Bill, that's the same job I had eight years ago.
I know it's not ideal,
but Al really wants you to do this.
And I don't think he's going to understand why you wouldn't.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact
that he didn't exactly back me when Coelho pushed me out of the campaign.
We all know Coelho was a big mistake. That's why he's gone and you're back.
Right, working under the people that used to work for me.
Everyone appreciates you coming back.
It's the first thing I did when I took over this campaign.
And I did it because I hate what happened to you. It was bullshit.
But this is a good opportunity for you to get back on the inside.
Tell the Vice President I have been delighted
to write press releases for the last three months and work on rapid response,
but I will not be able to accept his eight-year demotion at the current time.
Ron, would...
Would you think about it?
I'll keep you up to date on exit polls.
The Vice President and his wife voted this morning
at Forks River Elementary in Elmwood.
Chris called earlier.
He said if Gore wins, you can have the week off.
If he loses, he wants you in the office by noon tomorrow.
They don't call Warren Christopher the great negotiator for nothing.
So I take it you're not gonna be joining the Gore administration.
I understand what you're saying to me,
but I haven't heard anything about that.
The Governor promised to go to California,
and that's why the Governor went to California.
And he always keeps his promises. Absolutely.
I'm finally in the Governor's mansion, and it is pretty imposing.
Now we're all seated at dinner
and everybody bows their heads for prayer.
And I am sitting there thinking
"What's a nice jewish boy from Pennsylvania doing here
"praying with the Governor of Texas?"
And the Governor leans over and he whispers in my ear,
"It's about time we got some methodist blood in you."
And I got relaxed very very quickly.
It was a lovely lovely moment.
Are we gonna win, Mr. Ginsberg?
By tomorrow morning
the stains of Bill Clinton will be washed away
and honor and dignity will finally be restored to the White House.
Hey, Ben, did you hear about Palm Beach County?
Revote! The ballot is unfair!
It should be clearer where you're punching.
I understand. I want to talk to somebody.
Revote!
Is this what all the fuss is about?
Judge Burton, I've had three friends call me in a panic
because they think they voted for Pat Buchanan.
They're very upset.
Theresa, why did you list the candidates on both sides of the ballot?
The font that I had to use
to get all the candidates on one side was very small
and I was worried that the older voters would have trouble reading them.
We're going to need a lawyer.
The presidential race is crackling like a hickory fire here.
This promises to be one of the closest races in American presidential history.
The big prize, the brass ring for this evening... The state of Florida
A big call to make... CNN announces
that we call Florida in the Al Gore column.
Al Gore wins the state of Florida.
Florida was supposed to be George W. Bush country.
And you can bet that Governor Bush will be madder than a rained-on rooster
that his brother, the Governor, wasn't able to carry this state for him.
Stand by. Stand by.
What the networks giveth, the networks taketh away.
NBC news is now taking
Florida out of Vice President Gore's column.
Waiter, one order of crow, please.
Call the doctor, call the police, call a psychic.
In Florida, it's tightened up.
All eyes on Florida at this hour.
- This is the answer Florida. - What the heck is going on in Florida?
Whoever wins Florida won this election.
I apologize. We're going to make a projection now.
ABC news is now going to project
that Florida goes to Mr. Bush
Bush wins. Florida goes the presidency is Bush.
That's it. Sip it, savor it...
Unless there is a terrible calamity...
cup it, photostat it, underline it in red...
George W. Bush by our projection is going to be...
press it in a book, put it in an album, hang it on a wall...
- The 43rd president... - The 43rd president...
The 43rd President of the United States.
At 18 minutes past 2:00 eastern time,
CNN declares that George Walker Bush
has won Florida's 25 electoral votes
and this should put him over the top.
Ladies and gentlemen, listen up!
Al Gore has just called the Governor
and conceded!
You did a great job.
All of you, great job.
Area clear.
Are you okay?
We've learned that the Vice President is on his way
to deliver his concession speech
at the War Memorial Plaza here in Nashville.
Can't say enough about the race George Bush ran...
but let no person say
that Al Gore did not pour himself into this campaign...
- Ron Klain. - It's Fournier.
I've got no comment at this time, Ron.
Why did Gore concede?
Hang on a second.
Why did Gore concede? Because we lost the election, Ron.
Jeremy, get Nick Baldick.
Hurry up.
Ron, The Associated Press has different numbers than the networks.
What? The networks have all called it.
Gore conceded. He's on his way to the Plaza right now...
All I'm saying is the oldest news organization in the country
has not yet called this election. We still believe Florida's
too close to call. I don't understand what the hell you guys are doing
- What is it? - I'll call you back, Ron.
You have reached Bill Daley. Please leave a message.
Damn it.
- Ron Klain. - Ron, I think
the networks have the wrong numbers. It's gonna sound insane...
I just got off with Baldick... A machine in Volusia went crazy.
Get this... it actually added 3,000 votes to Bush's total
and subtracted thousands of votes from Gore. It went backwards.
Gore's count right now is negative 16,000 in that county.
- So what are the real numbers? - When you recalculate
the entire state, we're down by less than 15,000.
- So it's a machine recount. - We're still alive.
Wait, no. Gore conceded to Bush. He's on his way to the plaza.
- You're fuckin' kiddin' me - Didn't you see the news?
The networks all called it.
Jesus. Hang on.
Guys, what's happening? What's going on?
Two senior Gore campaign officials
that the Vice President placed a phone call to the Texas Governor.
The Vice President is now in his motorcade
due here in Downtown Nashville
in just a few minutes to deliver remarks...
Jesus Christ.
- Get me Bill Daley. - No no, I can't get him.
I've been trying. I can't reach anybody.
- What the hell is going on here? - Wait, Daley...
You can reach him through the white house signal office. Try that.
Yeah.
No word from the Gore campaign yet. We've tried king a few phone calls...
Fuck.
- Damn it. - Try Lehane, he might be there already.
Good idea. No, he's not in this book.
The networks got it wrong twice in the same night?
- We're going to a machine recount. - We need to stop him
before he goes on stage. Whatever happens, he can't make his speech.
- Who's gonna grab him? - Morehouse. We'll intercept at the car.
Get me David Morehouse.
We will hear from the Vice President, we're told, in about 15 minutes.
- Morehouse here. - Gore didn't lose.
You gotta stop him at the car.
Vice President Al Gore's motorcade has arrived.
Mr. Gore will likely make a very brief statement.
We want Gore!
No, Mr. Vice President,
Mr. Vice President.
Sir, Mr. Vice president.
Hold on a second. Hold it, pal.
We know the Vice President is backstage. We've been trying to reach more
of his senior aides to find out reasons for the delay.
We've been unsuccessful in doing so...
My people aren't seeing the same numbers as the networks.
Neither is Karl.
We want Gore!
Mr. Vice President.
Mr Vice President.
- Sir, sir. It's urgent. - What is it, David?
Daley needs to speak to you. He just needs five minutes.
I just spoke to Bush. He's waiting for me to give this speech.
- I'm not going to keep him waiting. - Please, Mr. Vice President,
there's a problem with the numbers in Florida.
The populare that looks like one of the closest...
Governor, Al Gore is on the phone.
Let me make sure I understand.
You are calling back to retract your concession?
Excuse me, but you don't have to get snippy about it.
My little brother has assured me I won the state of Florida.
Well, your little brother is not the ultimate authority on this.
Mr. Vice President, you do what you have to do.
Yes!
The Vice President has recalled the Governor
and retracted his concession.
This thing will be over in 24, 48 hours tops.
- Honey... - Yeah?
Be careful down there. They have alligators.
I'll see you friday.
Has called Governor Bush and retracted his concession.
What are these people yelling? Let's listen, turn our sound up here.
Recount!
"Recount." They are saying, "Recount."
Secretary of State Katherine Harris speaking.
What the hell is going on, Katherine? What are the final numbers?
This is the Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
You'll have to call Clay Roberts, director of...
Katherine, it's Jeb! What are the final numbers?
Who won Florida?
There she is!
We'll have a statement later.
Bush received 2,909,135 votes.
Gore received 2,907,351 votes.
- What's the difference, Clay? - Sorry.
Bush takes Florida by 1,784 votes.
Or.03%.
Any difference of less than.5 of 1%
triggers a mandatory machine recount.
Thank you Clay.
We will now proceed to a mandatory machine recount.
All that was needed was 30,000 to trigger an automatic recount.
We're only behind by 1,784.
They're going to run every ballot through the counting machines again.
The machines are not precise.
You'll get a slightly different total every time you run them through.
It's even possible we might pull ahead by tomorrow morning.
But if Bush maintains his lead,
I'm sure they're gonna want to move it fast
and Katherine Harris is gonna try to certify
a Bush victory right at the deadline, which is in six days.
Of course she will, she's co-chair of his Florida campaign.
She would have certified a month ago if she could have.
Anybody here ever heard of a "chad"?
One by one, each of Florida's 67 counties run their ballots
through the counting machines a second time.
This process is overseen by a three-person canvassing board
made up of county and local officials.
- All final tallies must be submitted... - Yeah, what is it, Joe?
Are you watching? Daley's on Channel 6.
Mr. Daley, what makes you think the results of the recount
will be any different than they are now?
Well, at this point nobody really knows, Matt,
whether it will be different or not.
His daddy stole it for J.F.K., and now he's gonna steal it for Gore.
I've asked Warren Christopher, the former Secretary of State,
to come in and oversee the recount for us...
Okay, they got Warren Christopher...
Secretary of State Warren Christopher will lead a Gore legal team...
Who were we thinking?
It's gonna be a litigation nightmare. Every lawyer from New York to Havana
is gonna be waving their briefcases up and down on the streets of Florida.
I'm tellin' ya, they're gonna be fallin' out of the sky.
Can you get back to the airport?
I can be there in an hour.
Hundreds of voters are lined up in Palm Beach County today
to sign affidavits stating that they were confused by the ballot.
A petition is being circulated demanding a revote.
These voters believed they mistakenly voted for Pat Buchanan...
I want my vote to count.
We're gonna do everything we can to make sure your votes get counted.
That's why we're here.
I feel like I'm stuck in "The night of the Living Bubbies."
Just stay calm. And whatever you do, don't yell "Bingo!"
Yeah, I promise.
Hey, Buchanan's on TV. I'll call you back.
I think and believe.
And it is my belief that some of those votes that were cast for me
probably were cast for me mistakenly in the belief
that people were casting their ballots for Al Gore.
Glen, new talking point... Buchanan just went on television.
Even he says he thinks people voted for him thinking they were voting for Gore.
Write it up. Get it to me as an email.
Reverend Jesse Jackson led a march of democrats
and unhappy voters through West Palm Beach.
At this point we do not know
who won the election
because our votes have not been counted.
Right.
It's insane.
Now all eyes on Florida watching this recount. A team of as many as 70 people
expected in the state within the next 24 hours,
we should note, many of them raising questions
as to whether the Gore campaign will try to sway...
The undervotes and the overvotes on a precinct level and...
Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary.
This is everyone... five lawyers and Joe Allbaugh?
Tell Austin I want operatives, P.R.
- and volunteers down here immediately. - Got it.
They have Jesse Jackson down there in Palm Beach
holding hands with those old jewish folks screaming, "Count all the votes!"
Who the hell is gonna argue with that?
I'm guessing that Mr. Jackson is going to keep his "hymietown" comments
down to a minimum this time around.
I want our protestors down there in Palm Beach, Tallahassee and Miami...
Call Roger Stone... Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa.
Karl wants protestors outside of Gore's home.
There you go.
Now listen, people,
this is a street fight for the presidency of the United States.
I'm told they have a well-oiled operation just waitin' to clobber us.
It ain't gonna get more political than this.
We want to proceed as if this
is a proper legal process,
not a political street fight.
Gore wants to pull Jesse Jackson out of Florida as quickly as possible.
When I spoke to the Vice President
he said he wanted to fight this with every possible...
There is concern that protestors might diminish
what should be an orderly process.
If a fight broke out and, let's say, the police overreacted...
Even worse, a riot...
No one wants that.
Chaos will not help our cause.
Okay, I'll ask Donna to talk to Jesse Jackson.
Our attorneys at Holland & Knight... I thought we had negotiated their fee.
We had, but they suddenly discovered a conflict of interest. Mitch?
It's pretty simple. Jeb Bush doles out a lot of business in this state.
His chief counsel has made clear the consequences
of taking us on as a client.
So there is not one major law firm in Florida that will represent Al Gore.
This is already a mess.
Our first step should be exploring this butterfly ballot situation.
The ballot was designed by a democrat
and approved by the democrats in Palm Beach before election day.
They don't have a leg to stand on.
I went through a ballot configuration dispute on the Connie Mack recount...
There are no legal remedies.
The constitution says presidential elections
must be held on a single day throughout the nation.
There isn't a court in the state that would be crazy enough
to grant them a revote.
Looks like Chris won't be able to negotiate his way out of this one.
I'm sure Jim will want to negotiate a fair method to settle this affair.
Some Palm Beach groups have already filed lawsuits.
- I think we should join them. - No, we don't want to go to court.
But if we're pursuing this as a legal process and not a political fight,
as Chris said, then we're gonna have to file lawsuits.
Gore doesn't want to send the message
that he's suing to be President of the United States.
Absolutely no lawsuits.
I want to file a lawsuit in Federal Court as quickly as possible.
It'd get thrown out immediately.
You bet,
but I want us on track for the U.S. Supreme Court.
I don't think they'd even hear it.
And we'd get crucified by our own people
for pushing a state issue into Federal Court.
Well, that's right,
but as some of you may know, I love to cull turkeys in the spring,
as did Lawton Chiles, the former governor of the great state of Florida,
though I contend I was the better shot.
Now there's no love lost between Chiles and the Bush family
ever since that dirty campaign he fought against Jebbie in '94,
but I always liked Lawton and every year before he passed on
we would have ourselves a pleasant time culling turkeys in the Spring.
- Could I have another soda, please? - Right away, sir.
Now as two-time governor,
Chiles appointed six of the 7 justices on the Florida Supreme Court.
And I can tell you positively
they are the most flaming liberals in the entire goddamn state.
If we end up in the Florida Supreme Court, we're dead.
Now the U.S. Supreme Court may be a long shot,
but Florida is a no shot.
Now we can sit here drinking tea and discussing the virtues of federalism
or we can start throwing punches.
And yes, we'll take a hit in the op-eds, but until this is over
I don't want to see a copy of "The New York Times"
unless it's to wrap garbage.
Johnny Apple says that we have a week to resolve this
before the American people will lose their patience.
I think we need to heed his advice.
I think we need to discuss hand recounts.
If we're trailing at the end of the machine recount,
we're gonna have to request a full statewide hand recount.
You guys are dreaming. It's not gonna happen,
- not in Florida. - Why not?
'Cause their election laws are completely ass backwards.
There's no mechanism to ask for a statewide recount.
You have to go to each individual county. That's 67 separate hearings.
Jesus, Bill, it's recount theory 101...
If you're behind, you demand recounts, as many ballots as possible.
Okay, all right,
say by some sort of miracle we get all the counties to agree.
- How long do you think it will take? - Two to four weeks.
The certification deadline is in six days.
Look, if at the end of a machine recount we're trailing by 4,000 votes,
then we all should pack our bags, but at the moment we're only down by 1,800.
After winning the national popular vote by 500,000.
Lawton Chiles doesn't run this state anymore, Ron.
They control everything. The Governor's his brother.
Katherine Harris is co-chair of the Bush Florida campaign, for Christ's sake.
The entire legislature is republican.
What about some partial recounts, just a couple of counties?
- It is not gonna work. - Wait a minute. Palm Beach and Volusia
were the main source of problems on election day.
We'd be justified in asking for recounts those two counties.
All three member the Palm Beach canvassing board are democrats.
They'll probably agree to a hand recount.
We've got to start punching, Chris.
The Bush brothers are not gonna be so interested in a dignified process.
That may be true,
but the world is watching.
We are theoretically its last great democracy.
If we cannot resolve this in a way that is worthy of the office we seek,
what kind of hope do we give other countries that wish to share our values?
Jesus.
"Last great democracy"?
- Come on, don't start. - You gotta fuckin' be kiddin' me.
I love Warren Christopher, but I think the guy's so tight
he probably eats his M&Ms with a knife and a fork.
Listen, there's a giant scoreboard out there.
We can't play a gentleman's game or we're gonna lose.
Whoever has the ball when the clock runs out
- is gonna be declared the winner. - Gore also wants to win.
He just doesn't want to set the constitution on fire to do it.
Right now we're down by less than 2,000 votes.
Meanwhile, there's 175,000 ballots out there that the counting machines
have declared non-votes.
- So that's 175,000 uncounted ballots. - How does a thing like that happen?
Because punch-card ballots are fucked, okay? They're primitive.
You got cardboard chad
that get punched but don't go all the way through the holes
- so they're hanging off the ballot. - Hanging chads?
Chad.
What?
There's no "s."
The plural of chad is chad?
- "The last great democracy". - Jesus.
So when you take these ballots
and put them through the tabulating system, what happens is
the hanging chad get pushed back into the holes.
And the machines read it as if the holes were never actually punched
so then these are discarded as "undervotes."
But wait, sometimes hanging chad don't even hang,
- they're just dimpled. - Dimpled?
Which means that the voter didn't align the ballot properly in the machine
or just didn't push hard enough to get the chad to go through.
How hard is it to punch a paper ballot?
It's pretty goddamn hard when you're 80-something years old,
you're arthritic and blind as a fucking bat.
Unfortunately for us, blind fucking bats tend to vote democratic.
Not to mention the fact
that the votomatics sometimes don't get cleaned out
for years and years.
So they can get completely jammed up with chads...
- "Chad." - And the next...
Sorry.
The next thing you know, it's impossible for the voter to penetrate it at all.
So you just end up with dimpled chad.
This tends to happen in poorer neighborhoods where they don't have
up-to-date, brand-new voting equipment.
And I don't have to tell you who those people,
vote for, okay? All I'm saying, Ron, is
we have to have actual live human beings doing this recount.
What about Chris and Daley? They don't want a hand recount.
You know what? I get it. I get it, okay? I do.
When this is over, you can go back to Warren Christopher's law firm.
Listen. But right now fuck it...
You gotta get these guys to agree to get a hand recount.
Listen, everybody feels the same way about what happened to you
with the campaign, okay?
But Gore went with Coelho because he knew Tony was a fighter.
And Tony proved it when he pushed you out. All right?
Now it's time to prove to Al Gore who the real Ron fucking Klain really is.
It's time to show Al Gore that Ron Klain is a fucking brawler
and that's he not gonna back down from this particular fucking fight.
Anyone ever tell you you say "fuck" a lot?
Six counties have been reviewed so far. The total for Governor Bush...
2,909,153.
That's an increase of 18 votes for him.
Yes, I'm looking at your final tallies here,
and apparently you did not actually run the ballots through the machine again.
We have our own standards for a machine recount here.
That may be,
but you are supposed to put the ballots through the machine a second time.
Hello, it's Clay Roberts here. I'm sorry I had to call you back.
Things are very busy, as you might imagine.
Hi, Mr. Roberts.
Yes, you must put the ballots through the machine a second time.
Otherwise, you technically did not conduct a recount.
We rechecked the memory cards,
and as far as I'm concerned, that's all we're required to do.
I sent out guidelines for a machine recount procedure
several months ago...
Mr. Roberts, we're just going to retabulate the memory cards.
Thank you for calling.
The world is watching us, Jim.
This is a tremendous opportunity
to show how a nation of our power
can resolve a conflict as great as this
through diplomacy and compromise.
Compromise?
I thought we were here to discuss scheduling.
Well, yes,
but it was my feeling that
we should be able to agree on a method to settle this matter.
There's nothing to settle.
If we're ahead at the completion of this machine recount
our position is this... Governor Bush has won the election;
Katherine Harris will certify the election.
No negotiations, no compromises, no extensions.
Bush is President.
I go home. End of story.
It's always great to see you, Jim.
And you, Chris.
That's it?
For the present.
- You've got to be kidding. - What did you think was gonna happen?
A bit of a fight.
It is brass-knuckle time, Chris. It's time to take off the gloves
and I know Gore feels exactly the same way.
He says it in every conference call. He wants to fight.
We may be ill-equipped to fight.
We're working out of a strip mall.
And I'm worried about his future.
He's a young man. He can run again,
but not if he destroys his career with a prolonged legal battle.
But the fight is here, it's now.
Look,
Berger's moving us into his law firm tomorrow.
Whouley's setting up a base in Ft. Lauderdale,
and we've still got five more days before the 14th.
I agree that there is a battle to be had,
but we must also remember there is no shame
in placing country above party.
Chris,
you've been a mentor to me
and I will forever be grateful to you for that,
But I...
I can't do it like this.
We may well have won this election, Chris.
And we owe it to this country to find out the truth.
- Guys. - What?
The numbers are in on the machine recount. You gotta see this.
All the counties in Florida have now finished their initial recount,
and according to the Associated Press's numbers,
George W. Bush leads Al Gore in that state
by 327 votes.
Holy shit!
All right, Mr. Klain, all right.
We'll fight to count the two counties.
I want four.
We agreed on two.
I want to add Broward and Miami-Dade.
They're chock-full of democratic undervotes.
We won't be able to finish before Miss Harris's certification deadline.
It's physically impossible for all four counties
to finish a hand recount in five days.
If we get ahead of Bush, it will change the entire game.
She'll have to extend the deadline. But we've got to get ahead first.
We need to start placing pressure on her.
There's no logical reason for her
not to extend the deadline until all the votes have been counted.
The democrats in Florida, with the presidency at stake,
are asking for a so-called hand count
in four democratic counties.
How in the world can a cheap politician say,
"I know this guy intended to vote for Gore
"even though he didn't punch through the ballot"?
But Bob, first of all, this process
is specifically authorized by Florida election law.
Maybe we should ask for recounts too,
but from Republican-leaning counties to offset any gains they make.
Hell no.
Why do we need a recount?
We already won.
They gave up all their moral high ground when they only requested recounts
in the four most liberal counties in the state.
Al Gore is not interested in counting all the votes.
He's only interested in counting Al Gore votes.
Al Gore is not interested in counting all the votes.
He's only interested in counting Al Gore votes.
That's why he's cherry-picking votes
from the four most liberal counties in the state.
Now the votes have been counted and recounted
and in every case, George Bush is the winner.
Hand recounts are chaotic.
They're unreliable
and they lead to mischief.
That's why we've moved on to machines.
Katherine?
Katherine, there's a problem.
18 of the 67 counties didn't actually run their ballots
through the machines again.
They mostly did some sort of
retabulation of the memory cards.
That means that 1.5 million ballots weren't actually recounted.
I think we need to be very quiet about this...
Is somebody in my office?
It's Clay.
You never know where life is going to lead you, Clay.
I was just thinking, 10 years ago
I was teaching the chicken dance to seniors.
And now I've been thrust
into an electoral tempest of historical dimensions.
And the eyes of the world have landed on me.
The law states that I cannot accept returns
after the certification deadline unless... This is important...
There is some sort of natural disaster
which prevents counties
from turning in results on time,
such as a hurricane.
Secretary Harris, Secretary Harris...
My understanding is that the law
gives you the discretion to accept late returns for any reason,
that it's up to you.
The law says there has to be a hurricane.
Does her makeup count as a hurricane?
No, thank you for your question.
We've all been a little confused, glued to our TVs as well
and worried about the results some people have been giving. Sorry.
But no,
there will be absolutely no communication
with either campaign.
I've instructed my staff to place a firewall around my office.
This woman is hopeless.
We're gonna need some help on this.
Vincis
vincit...
Vincimus,
vincitis,
vincunt.
Again.
Vinco,
vincis...
Come on now, you know I don't like calls when I'm in my class.
I'm just curious, Mac, are you gonna sit around
and parse latin verbs all day or are you gonna get into this fight?
Quo me vis?
What the hell does that mean?
It means, "Where do you want me?"
Pink sugar.
Sorry.
Sorry, Mac.
Listen, Katherine, most people go through their lives
never having a chance to make a difference.
And those lucky enough to have that chance
don't recognize it when it comes. They think it's down the road,
or that it's going to be next year or the year after that.
But if you're a public official wanting to make history,
then today is your lucky day, darlin'.
You're about to pick the leader of the free world.
Don't you worry, Mac.
It's going to take a lot more than David Letterman
making fun of my hair and makeup to knock me down.
That is exactly why I backed your campaign when everyone else
ran over to Mortham... Because you are a woman of action.
A woman of action, like Queen Esther.
Queen Esther?
I have been reading my bible quite a bit here lately,
and I have been feeling
this unusually strong kinship with Queen Esther.
You recall Queen Esther...
She was willing to sacrifice herself
to save the lovely jewish people.
And that's exactly what I'm doing right now.
And if I perish,
I perish.
You have to stay strong, Katherine.
The world needs to see
that Katherine Harris is in charge.
You need to bring this election in for a landing.
Yeah.
Bring it in for a landing?
Bring it in for a landing with George W. Bush in the cockpit.
They're going to ask for extensions, for negotiations, for recounts.
We don't have to let that happen, Katherine.
Under the law,
when is a hand recount allowed
and when would it be denied?
It says, "Hand recounts are allowed
"if there is an error in vote tabulation
"which could affect the outcome of an election."
- It's vague. - No, it's really vague.
The key then is interpreting what
"error in vote tabulation" means, right?
If there are ballots that the machine did not count for whatever reason,
then that would be an "error in vote tabulation".
Just the existence of uncounted ballots justifies a hand recount, right?
Our position has got to be that "error in vote tabulation"
means how the systems tabulated them.
So the only way a hand recount can proceed
is if the hardware or the software broke down.
If there is no systems error, then they cannot conduct a hand recount.
Listen, Kerey, the election statutes are confusing.
We need you to go down to Palm Beach County
and offer them some guidance.
We have very little authority over the canvassing boards...
Unless they request an advisory opinion.
Sure thing, Clay.
Live from Palm Beach.
With three days left till the certification deadline
Palm Beach county will hand-recount 1% of their votes.
And based on the results of this 1% recount,
the canvassing board will then decide if they are to hand-recount
the remaing 99% of their ballots.
- That's exactly the reason... - Can we please count the votes that
- we have in the boxes? - Excuse me.
Judge Burton?
- Yes, can I help you? - Hi, I'm Kerey Carpenter, DOE.
Thank God.
This is a nightmare. We're under a microscope here.
The laws are vague and they contradic each other...
- Dimple, no dimples, sunshine standard. - I know.
The division's position is that dimpled chads should not be counted.
Ultimately, though, it's the canvassing board's decision.
You just need to remember that whatever you decide,
you're going to have to testify about it someday.
Listen, we can't offer help unsolicited, and you'll have to resolve
the dimple issue on your own, but the state can offer clear guidance
on almost everything else.
- Really? - Yeah.
All you have to do is ask us for an advisory opinion.
"Dear Judge Burton, this is in response to your request
for an advisory opinion.
"A 'vote tabulation error'
"is an error in which the vote tabulation system fails.
"Since no such error has occurred, county canvassing boards
"are not authorized to hand-recount their ballots.
"Sincerely yours, L. Clayton Roberts, Director of elections."
- What are Chris and Daley thinking? - Daley's gone back to D.C.
We're getting pressure from our people to concede. He's going to the hill
and shove the democrats back in line.
That's not gonna make any difference if we don't deal with this AO.
Wait a minute, why don't we get our own damn advisory opinion?
"Dear Judge Burton,
"since the DOE's advisory opinion is so clearly at variance
"with the existing Florida law, I am issuing this advisory opinion..."
The Palm Beach canvassing board
is listening to arguments from both parties
on how to proceed with two conflicting advisory opinions.
The ballots punched for both Gore and Buchanan
counted in the 1% recount
show that the butterfly ballot cost Al Gore a minimum
of 6,000 votes!
Under these circumstances, we feel Palm Beach County
must proceed with the hand recount.
I represent the people of Palm Beach County,
and I believe that hand-recounting our ballots
is the only way to find out who won this election.
The Secretary of State has told you that you cannot hold
a hand recount.
It would be illegal for you to disobey her advisory opinion.
What happens? Do we go to jail?
Because I am willing to go to jail.
All right, we'll have a vote.
All those in favor of suspending the recount
until we have received further clarification?
Aye.
All those opposed to suspending the recount?
Nay.
All right, the motion carries, two to one.
The canvassing board has voted to suspend the recount.
They've gotten an opinion from the director of elections...
The Secretary of State. Her opinion is that because there is no error
in vote tabulating system...
There's nothing wrong with the equipment...
This "tabulation systems" they've come up with
is complete bullshit, Chris.
It is... Thank you.
It has never been interpreted this way in the history of Florida law.
They made it up two days ago.
If we don't take Katherine Harris to court right now, it's killing us.
We've got to get this count up and running again.
I'm afraid I have some bad news.
- Chris is going back to L.A.? - His daughter is sick.
I don't blame him for bailing. This whole thing is rather hopeless.
And with Daley gone it means there isn't a senior Gore campaign official
in the entire state of Florida right now.
Bob Dole beat Bill Clinton in 1996.
- So what do you gonna do? - Honey, you gotta turn on "SNL."
It's on right now.
Bush took himself out of the Florida recount process noting,
"Look, I already threw out 19,000 ballots, hassled black voters
"and confused the old jews. My work here is done."
That's good.
Honey, if you want to leave, no one would blame you.
No, Monica, I'm not going anywhere, and you know why?
Because I think Gore won this thing, and I think he thinks so too.
He's like a changed guy.
He's got this fire in him now, like before the campaign even started.
He's even started calling me back.
- I'll have to call you back, honey. - Okay.
What the hell are you doing in Tallahassee?
Early Hanukkah gift.
- Good morning, team. - Good morning.
I want to read you something very interesting
from another state's election code, courtesy of Mr. Whouley.
"A hand recount shall be conducted in preference
"to a machine recount."
It also says that dimpled chads should be included in any hand recount.
That's great, Ron, but we can't use another state's election code.
I know we can't, but what if that state is Texas
and it was signed into law by its current governor,
George W. Bush?
Yes! All right, pass those out. This is talking point number one.
Point two... Donna Brazile is down in D.C.
following up on allegations of black-voter suppression.
Jeremy is gonna hit the streets on that same issue.
And point three...
As you can see, we've got some new lawyers in town.
I'd like to introduce my former colleague
at the Justice Department, Jeff Robinson.
Thanks, Ron. It's great to be on the team.
I've started with the difference between optiscan and punchcard ballots.
The punchcard failure rate is double that of optiscans.
And of course minority neighborhoods get stuck with the punchcards.
I am shocked.
And, everyone, this is Mark Herron, a Florida election law specialist.
He's going to write a memo detailing exact standards
by which absentee ballots can be counted. It's my gut feeling
that some of these were sent after election day.
- And maybe more than just a few. - I think so too.
And you should also know that Mark's law firm has fired him
- for coming on board with us. - On his birthday.
Another piece of decent news...
Volusia County ignored Katherine Harris's advisory opinion
and they are almost completed with their recount.
We should pick up about 100 votes there.
The bad news is that Madam Secretary is insisting on her deadline...
Unless, of course, there is a hurricane.
Which means that it's gonna be impossible for the counties
to complete their recounts in time. So our strategy is two fold:
One... we continue to insist that hand recounts are legal;
And two... we argue that regardless of any deadline
every votes has a right to be counted.
Where do we argue? On C.N.N.?
Volusia County is going to sue Katherine Harris to accept their late returns
and we are going to join that lawsuit.
I thought Gore was against lawsuits.
I spoke to the Vice President and he says
since Bush is dragging our ass into Federal Court,
we can drag his ass into state court.
And this is Volusia County, everything about it.
Get busy, boys and girls. I gotta call The New York Times.
Thank you.
Looks like Christopher just joined the lawsuit to extend the deadline.
Christopher went back to L.A.
Ron Klain is running Tallahassee now.
- Who's Ron klain? - Gore's former chief of staff.
Former?
Can someone please explain this to me?
I don't care what Judge Burton says.
If he doesn't count dimpled chads, we're gonna take him to court...
Baker on line one.
I gotta call you back.
What can I do for you, Mr. Baker?
I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Klain,
but I was surprised to hear you joined Volusia County's lawsuit.
Well, I figured that was the easiest way to get your autograph, sir.
Unfortunately, Mr. Klain, I shall not be attending the hearing.
That is a shame, sir, because I was going to put you
right between my Sandy Koufax and my Spiro Agnew.
I was sad to hear that Secretary Daley and Secretary Christopher
left Tallahassee. Will you be leaving too?
No, sir, I'll be here until the Vice President fires me again.
Then I should tell you you're probably gonna lose tomorrow.
That's certainly one of two possibilities.
All right, Mr. Klain. I just wanted to say hello.
You call back anytime, Mr. Baker.
He's gloating. He thinks we're gonna lose tomorrow.
I think we're gonna lose tomorrow.
We are gonna lose tomorrow.
All right, so who's the best appellate lawyer in this country?
And if you're just joing us, to recap the major news of the day...
A Florida judge, Terry Lewis, coming out about an hour and a half ago
and through a statement read by a spokesperson saying that
the State of Florida does not have to accept those manual hand recounts
currently taking place in Broward and Palm Beach County
- and in other counties that might be... - Ron Klain's on the phone for you.
And if she believes it's the best thing for the State of Florida...
Hi, Ron, to what do I owe this pleasure?
This is not a final setback, but a big blow for the democrats and Al Gore.
Mr. Boies...
- Yes, ma'am. - Now that the deadline is here
and the absentee ballots have pushed Bush's lead to around 900 votes,
is Gore going to change his strategy?
The strategy is the same. Al Gore is just trying to get votes counted.
The very fact that Katherine Harris wasn't willing to accept ballots
counted after the deadline,
even though all the absentee ballots hadn't arrived yet
makes it crystal clear that she's trying to do everything she can
to stop new votes from being counted.
What do you think?
- He's tough. - You have to be tougher.
David Boies can destroy a witness
and make you think he's a great guy while he's doing it.
His 20-hour Bill Gates deposition is already legendary.
I heard he never uses notes.
He's dyslexic, so he has to memorize everything.
Let me be clear...
Judge Lewis's decision isn't the triumphant victory for Katherine Harris
that her people are claiming.
She stated that she can't accept ballots counted after the deadline
unless there was a hurricane
and Judge Lewis said that this was incorrect,
that regardless of the weather,
the law clearly states that she can accept late ballots,
that it's her decision.
And if she wants to reject legally counted votes,
she has to come up with an actual reason for doing so.
Shouldn't I just ignore Judge Lewis and certify tonight?
- No, Katherine. - This deadline is in a few hours.
Katherine, this is a court order.
- You must obey it. - He's right, Katherine.
The judge said you have to come up with a reason to reject late ballots,
so we have to come up with a reason...
You know, something that shows you didn't just reject them arbitrarily.
Why don't I just ask the counties to tell me why
I should give them more time?
Shit, Katherine, that's good.
We just ask 'em.
I like it.
In accordance with Judge Terry Lewis's ruling,
I have sent a letter to the counties
asking them to explain why I should allow ballots counted
after the deadline to be included in the final tallies.
The counties must respond in writing
by 2:00 tomorrow.
On the advice of legal counsel, I won't be answering any questions.
- You need to tell us what's going on. - We need to know the truth.
Has been made fun of on "Saturday Night Live,"
a lot of ridicule. Time Magazine referred to her as Cruella de Vil...
After careful consideration,
I am denying the counties' requests
to include ballots counted after the deadline.
The final tallies will be certified tomorrow evening.
On the advice of our legal counsel, I won't be answering any questions.
Well, that's not surprising.
So do we try to get the Florida Supreme Court to stop her from certifying?
I don't think they'll grant us a stay.
The Florida Supreme Court just issued a stay to stop the certification.
- Are you kidding me? - No, I'm not.
And get this... Al Gore didn't even ask for one.
The Florida Supreme just went on ahead and gave it to him.
All right, people, listen up. We got ourselves a fired chief of staff,
a lawyer who can't read his notes and seven Florida justices to face,
who I may have mentioned... I'm not sure if I did... Are all liberal democrats.
I think it's time for our supporters
to exercise their first amendment rights.
- If Gore does not receive the ruling... - Katherine Harris claims that
ballots counted after the deadline cannot be included...
Gore-inch, make sure you hold that sign up high.
Exactly.
Gore-nac, this is your bit. Hold that up to your head and say,
- "I call this vote..." - I call this vote for Gore!
Gore is a crybaby.
I want a recount!
Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw have bald spots!
The Gore campaign says further legal actions are still on the table,
but officials privately concede
an adverse ruling from the state supreme court
would deal a fatal blow to the Gore campaign.
At the completion of the machine recount,
the difference between the two candidates was 327 votes.
Under Florida law, the trailing candidate in a race this close
is entitled to request hand recounts in individual counties.
If they had completed the recount by the deadline, there would be no issue.
Unfortunately, they did not.
Therefore the recount cannot continue.
Who knows how many votes could've been counted
had Katherine Harris not mistakenly claimed
there had to be an error in the system?
The Secretary of State was just following the law.
We implore the court to set specific counting guidelines.
Voters are supposed to follow instructions
that are inside each and every voting booth.
They clearly state
that the ballot must be punched through completely.
Dimpled chads must be included in this standard
because they represent a voter's intent.
These issues of dimples and chads are exactly why
we believe hand recounts are inherently flawed.
Doesn't the current process in Texas, signed into law by your client,
state that hand recounts are preferred over machines,
and dimpled chads should be counted?
I really don't know what Texas law is.
Good evening. My name is Craig Waters.
I'm going to read the ruling that was issued by this court.
The Florida Supreme Court, in its unanimous opinion,
has reversed the circuit court ruling.
Ron, Ron, Ron.
Are you okay? I'm so sorry.
- No, we won. - I know, but...
We won!
It doesn't matter. We won.
- It does matter. - I'm so sorry.
The counties are to hand-recount their ballots,
and to achieve this goal, the final totals must be accepted by 5:00 p.m.,
November 26.
- They have five more days. - They just gave Gore the steal sign.
To disenfranchise electors, as Katherine Harris proposes,
is unreasonable,
unnecessary and violates long-standing law.
That is a personal attack.
Is this normal?
To reiterate,
there will be two counters at each table,
containing one member of each political party.
Disputed ballots will be referred to the canvassing board.
Now one republican and one democratic representative
will be observing the counters
and will be allowed to speak to those counters.
Contested ballots will then be referred
to the canvassing board for final review.
- There's a small victory here. - What's that?
They didn't set counting standards.
- We can still fight dimpled chads. - Dimpled chads is good,
but the real question is
what would happen if they didn't finish in five days?
I object to the ballot on the grounds it is not in the guidelines and criteria...
That ballot does not conform to the 1990 standards.
Bending the ballot can cause chad to improperly fall from the ballot.
- Gimme a break. - You can't be serious!
Number five, Gore.
I object to that vote on several counts.
- Number one, it's not... - Your honor,
he is intentionally trying to slow down the recount.
Got a five here, definitely a five.
This ballot does not have two corners detached.
- This woman is eating the chads. - That's ridiculous.
- I object. - I object to the ballot.
- I object. - I object.
A dimpled five. No-vote.
Dimple, number five. No-vote.
That dimple shows clear intent for Gore.
Chads don't indent themselves. Someone was trying to vote
and Miami-Dade and Broward are both counting dimpled chads.
Broward changed their standard in the middle of the recount.
It was biased, unethical and unfair.
Gentlemen, there will be no more discussion of the standard.
Palm Beach will not be counting dimpled chads.
What the hell is he doing? He's literally throwing people's votes away.
Whouley says this will cost us around 800 votes.
Look at this idiot. Wait till you see this.
The hand-counting of the ballots
that is ongoing is becoming completely untrustworthy.
Ballots have been used as fans.
Ballots have post-it notes stuck to them.
God damn it!
An elderly counter dropped 20 to 60 ballots.
You have a 70-year-old man at 2:00 a.m. in the morning...
How can he say it's fraud? There's television cameras everywhere.
There's observers from both parties.
They're working under a goddamn bell jar.
Any response to these allegations?
This characterization of hand recounts as chaotic and unreliable
is an attempt to discredit and delay the process
so that we'll miss the new deadline.
They're not counting votes. They're casting votes.
They're deciding somebody based on something
meant to vote for someone.
The republicans are the ones that are creating the chaos,
and they're doing it to prevent the votes from being counted.
The ballots being looked at here today have been counted.
They're been recounted.
And this process of once again recounting
is prone to human error. It's prone to mischief...
Carol, Carol, you need to see this.
It's all over the internet. Should we release a denial?
I really don't care if people think I'm a lesbian.
I just don't want them to think Suzanne is the best I could do.
Theresa, are you all right?
The election supervisor, she's had police protection for the last few days.
And Carol Roberts has gotten nearly 30 death threats.
Certainly, the issues here...
- No-vote. - Fall squarely on these three people.
- No-vote. - Objection.
Of course, of course.
No-vote.
Since Broward and Miami-Dade are counting dimpled chads
and Palm Beach is not,
we can claim the recount violates the equal protection clause
because all ballots aren't being evaluated with the same standard.
Rehnquist and Scalia won't go for it.
They've rarely ever ruled for an equal protection violation.
We'd have to find a victim.
The law is designed to prevent minorities
from having their voting rights taken away.
The victims are the people whose votes were disqualified in one county,
when the exact same vote would've been counted in another.
I kind of like it.
Maybe Scalia and Thomas will discover their inner liberal.
I'm sorry to interrupt,
but I wasn't sure if you could smell this.
What is it?
The pile of shit Al Gore just stepped in.
He's trying to throw out military ballots.
It's called the Herron memo.
My memo does not target military votes, Senator Lieberman.
It states the exact standards that all overseas absentee ballots
must meet in order to be counted.
These are ballots without postmarks,
without witness signatures or dates.
There's no way to tell if they were sent after election day.
Thus they shouldn't be counted.
I was told that military ballots without postmarks are common
because soldiers on tankers usually can't get postmarks.
That's correct, sir, which is why the memo also states
if a ballot is signed and dated on or before election day,
this would count the same as a postmark.
I'm not pulling this out of thin air, sir. This is what the law says.
This is the same issue the republicans were complaing about last week
when they were worried about absentee ballots from Israel.
They held a press conference, sir, in which they said
if absentee ballots are not properly postmarked
they should not be counted. That's their line.
That's our line. Nothing should change, sir.
- All right, I got it. - Thank you very much.
So democratic lawyers should drop any objections
to overseas ballots from armed services personnel?
I think the problem here...
My own point of view, if I was there, I would give the benefit of the doubt
to ballots coming in from military personnel...
- God damn it! - Particularly in light of the letter
and the kind of statements we've heard about that.
- But the problem here is... - Mark, I'm sorry.
I apologize. I...
- apologize to everyone. - It's not your fault, Mark.
If they have the capacity, I'd urge them to go back and take another look.
- Ron, Daley is on line two. - Of course he is.
Gore is going ballistic. What the hell just happened?
I think Joe Lieberman just entered the 2004 primaries.
The wise Senator Lieberman says we should take another look
at these military ballots and
I see no reason not to follow his sage advice.
I want to go back to every military county in the state to fight
to get these ballots counted. I'm talking Escambia,
Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Pasco.
They've had what I would call a break in the ranks, people.
- Let's get on it. - Yes, sir.
Hell's bells, folks, their own vice presidential candidate
has stated these ballots should not be discarded.
I think that speaks volumes. Don't you?
But this ballot does not have a postmark
or a witness signature and no date.
Therefore it's impossible to prove that it wasn't sent after election day
and it shouldn't be counted.
Your Honor, if a member of our military gets shot,
that bullet won't have a postmark on it either.
I'll count it.
Thank you, Joe Lieberman.
- May I help you? - Are you Mr. Willie Whiting?
I'm Pastor Whiting.
Pastor Whiting.
My name is Jeremy Bash. I work for the democratic party.
I understand you were turned away from the polls on election day.
Yeah, I was.
Do you have a minute to talk?
What's going on?
This is the official voter purge list.
What's that?
The reason people were turned away from the polls on election day.
These people were scrubbed from the voter rolls
because they were supposed to be convicted felons.
But there are a ton of people on this list
that never committed a crime in their lives.
- How does a thing like that happen? - The Secretary of State's office
paid database technologies $4.3 million
to compile a list of convicted felons who according to Florida law
would not be allowed to vote.
And then they instructed D.B.T. to, quote,
"Capture more names that possibly aren't matches."
This is an actual e-mail from her office.
So the list is comprised of felons
and anyone whose name happens to be similar to a felon.
I met Willie D. Whiting. He is a pastor,
but his name is similar to Willie J. Whiting,
so he was told he couldn't vote.
The supervisor in Leon County went through his purge list
person by person.
And of the 697 names that the state gave him,
he found that only 33 were actual felons.
And the supervisor in Miami-Dade,
he complained that his list had clear mismatches, but he was told,
"Look, even if the names don't match, go ahead, consider them felons."
Okay, so?
How many people were illegally disqualified from voting?
20,000 people.
Almost half of them were African-American.
So can we do anything with this?
You can't get votes back that were never cast.
All we can do is turn this over to the N.A.A.C.P.
and hope that they can stop it in 2002.
Remember Elian!
Cuban-Americans are out in force today to protest against the recount,
still enraged by Clinton's decision to send Elian Gonzales back to Cuba.
Congressman Sweeney, why are you here in Miami?
I'm here because Miami-Dade
has become ground zero for producing a manufactured vote.
Dimpled number six... Gore.
Dimple six... Gore.
- Dimple six... Gore. - I object.
Duly noted.
We're the new republican party! We're not gonna take this anymore!
Bush won!
Bush won twice!
- Bush won twice! - Everybody needs a t-shirt.
Let's go, pass them out!
Hello.
I just heard from our guys in the Miami-Dade counting room.
The board decided to count undervotes and they've moved to a backroom.
They're counting in secret.
Well, shut it down.
Number six for Gore.
Dimpled six... that's for Gore.
We want to have a small protest up near the canvassing board.
Nobody wants to get arrested. Nobody's gonna get hurt.
We just want to make our point.
After you've heard enough, you can tell us to leave.
What do you think's gonna happen?
Look at the way we're dressed.
Sit in here.
You can't go in. You can't go in.
Hey, hold on. Stay back.
Punched number seven... no-vote.
- Punched number seven hole... no-vote. - I object.
It's obvious...
Number five is for Bush, number seven is for Gore.
These voters clearly did not insert their ballots properly.
This is preposterous.
We can't guess who they intended to vote for
when they punched a blank hole.
Let's get a blank ballot and try to demonstrate this.
- Go. - All right.
Dimpled number four... Bush.
Could I have everybody's attention?
There is a full protest out in the lobby
and I think it could escalate out of control.
Let's keep going.
Let us in!
Cheaters, cheaters!
Hi, I'm a lawyer with the recount. I need a sample ballot, please.
Thank you.
- He's got a ballot! - No no, it's a sample.
He stole a ballot!
This guy...
He voted for Gore. He's a lawyer for Gore and he's stealing a ballot!
- Settle down. - I'm on official business.
I'm a lawyer with the recount. Just let me by.
- Let me by. - Stop kicking me!
Stop kicking me!
- Get away from me! - Don't let him get away.
Leave me alone.
Stop that man!
Cheaters!
The Colonel and I won't let you leave with that ballot.
Who the fuck is the Colonel?
He's going back! He has a ballot!
You're in big trouble, pal, all right?
Don't put your hands on me.
I'm gonna defend myself if you put your hands on me one more time!
It's against the law. He shoved and put his hands on me.
It's voter fraud!
Arrest him! He stole a ballot!
No justice! No peace!
Hold on.
Let us in!
We'd better take a break until this calms down.
- That's it. - Voter fraud!
We take Judge Burton to court,
we get the ruling we want: He still won't count dimpled chads.
- What the hell...? - Miami-Dade just stopped counting.
They're about to hold a hearing.
Miami-Dade? A hearing about what?
This morning I felt
we could count the undervotes in five days,
but we are in a very different situation than we were this morning.
A radically different situation.
I cannot sit here and tell you
that if we begin the process
that we can complete it by the November 26th deadline.
What the hell is going on? Why aren't they counting?
Therefore I am going to have to vote to abandon
the Miami-Dade recount.
I object!
This is for the presidency of the United States!
We have to at least try to finish this recount.
Mr. Young, I would like to tell you that we could get this done in time,
but I don't think we can.
- I'm gonna vote we stop counting. - Yes, yes!
- I am also going to vote to stop. - No, no, no, no. We can do this!
We can get these votes counted!
We have to get these votes counted!
A Gore lawyer Ron Klain said that a mob
stormed the counting facility to stop the count.
That's the myth. Here are the facts.
The demonstration was noisy
and peaceful and nothing else. There were babies in the crowd.
There were little kids there. There was, in some ways, a holiday atmosphere.
A holiday atmosphere? Yeah, like Bastille Day.
These kids were congressional aides flown in on the Enron jet.
By the Supreme Court.
Mr. Lakey and others said that they were not intimidated.
You know, I think I might owe you an apology for all this.
For what?
Because I'm afraid you might end up being famous as the lawyer
- who lost Al Gore the Presidency. - Monica's worried that if we do lose,
I'm never gonna get a job again in law or in politics.
Me too.
- You know what's funny about all this? - Nope.
I'm not even sure I like Al Gore.
And it really is time to tune back the hetoric.
Thank you.
Well,
I say
whoever stops fighting first always loses.
It's absurd.
It's completely absurd. I'm in the middle of a recount
where the votes aren't being recounted and nobody seems to care.
Not a single person seems to care.
You know what I'd like to know? Who actually won this election?
Who won this fucking election? Who won it?
Ladies and gentlemen,
unfortunately, we will not be able to complete
the Palm Beach County recount by today's deadline.
As you know,
the Florida SC has issued an opinion giving us until 5:00 pm. tonight,
assuming that the Secretary of State's office would be open on a sunday.
Now if they're not,
then we would have until 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.
I have just sent a letter to the division of elections
explaining that we are exhausting ourselves trying to get through this.
We are requesting an extension to that 9:00 a.m. deadline.
As we know, Katherine Harris
is interested in getting the most accurate results possible,
so we see no reason
why the Secretary of State should not grant our extension.
Thank you.
- I think we should let them have it. - Are you kidding me?!
They're almost finished anyway. Let them get done.
And then we'll accept any result by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.
God damn it, you stupid son of bitch, we're right on the goal line here.
We are so close, Katherine. Shut it down.
Just shut it down.
It's only a few more hours.
The Florida Supreme Court stated that if we're open on sunday,
the returns are due at 5:00 p.m.
It's sunday. We're open. And it's almost 5:00 p.m.
I have no choice but to follow the law.
Of course, it's your call, but I think you're right on the money here.
Ladies and gentlemen,
after counting 460,000 ballots
with approximately 1,000 ballots left to count,
the Secretary of State has decided to shut us down with two hours to go.
Apparently, that's how she has chosen to exercise her discretion.
Quit it.
Good evening.
On behalf of the state elections canvassing commission
and in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida,
I hereby declare Governor George W. Bush
the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes
for the President of the United States.
I wish to point out that our american democracy
has triumphed once again and this is a victory
in which we can all take a great deal of pride and comfort.
The true winner in the election is the rule of law.
- Nice touch. - Thank you.
Classy.
And may God bless America.
To candy crowley in Austin, Texas where the Bush people
have to be watching this very closely and very happily.
It may be close, but the Secretary of State
has pronounced them the winner
and they're gonna be hanging their hat on this.
She wishes it was over.
David Boies, the attorney for the Gore campaign, a few hours ago
said again they will contest Nassau and Miami-Dade for certain.
They're also gonna work on Palm Beach.
The two briefs for Miami-Dade and Nassau expected again to be filed possibly
at 9:00 a. m. local time here in Tallahassee.
It may slide to 10:00 a.m...
We'd like to contest the election for the Presidency of the United States.
Please, God, let it be Nikki Clark, judge Nikki Clark.
The wheel has given you... judge Sanders Sauls.
The Court finds and concludes
the evidence does not establish
any illegality, dishonesty,
improper influence,
coercion or fraud in the balloting and counting process.
Any comment on the verdict?
They won, we lost. We're going to appeal.
Mr. Baker, reaction, please.
We are grateful that judge Sauls
has upheld the rule of law by validating Governor Bush's victory.
It's time for the Vice President to do the right thing
and end our national uncertainty.
I think the american people are about ready to move on.
Perhaps Mr. Gore might finally be ready too.
I want to fight this thing as long as we've even got a glimmer, Ron,
but the country is already so divided.
I wonder when ending this is the right thing to do.
I believe we end this thing when all the votes
have been counted and we know who really won. Or...
When you can't win
even if you won.
I'm really glad we're working together again, Ron.
Me too, Mr. Vice President. Me too.
- Good luck in court tomorrow. - Have a good night, sir.
- I'll speak to you tomorrow. - Bye.
Today's showdown in Florida's Supreme Court is critical,
especially for Al Gore.
While he trails George W. Bush by 930 votes in Florida's official
but uncertified vote tally, today's decision
may make or break Gore's fight for the Presidency.
So someone who lost by 130,000 votes in Dade County
would say, "we want a recount,"
and then we would have to have the Court recount all those votes too?
We have pinpointed 215 votes in Palm Beach,
168 in Miami-Dade through hand recounts,
so we know that if you look at ballots, you can find intent
where a machine could not.
Sir, would you like a bulletproof vest?
No, thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Craig Waters.
The Florida Supreme Court today has issued its ruling
in the case of Albert Gore, Jr. V. Katherine Harris.
In the contest brief, Vice President Gore requested
that Miami-Dade complete its aborted recount
and for Palm Beach to recount their ballots
with a standard that includes dimpled chads.
He also requested the inclusion of 168 votes from Miami-Dade,
215 votes from Palm Beach and 51 votes from Nassau
all counted during the protest phase,
but not included in the final certification.
All right, come on, send me home.
In its four-to-three ruling,
the Court rejects Gore's request to recount Palm Beach County.
The Court also rejects the inclusion of the 51 votes from Nassau County.
However, the Court does order the inclusion
of the 215 legal votes in Palm Beach...
What?
And the 168 legal votes in Miami-Dade.
- The Court also orders an immediate - We're down 154 votes!
Hand recount of the 9,000 uncounted undervotes
in Miami-Dade.
They can't do this.
In addition, the Court orders
a hand recount of all uncounted undervotes
in the entire State of Florida.
Fantastic.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
The recount is to proceed immediately and must be completed by December 12th.
December 12th... three days. We have three days!
We can do it. Three more days.
They're going to count the whole state.
Thanks to you.
Obviously what happens here
is the V.P lives to fight another day.
But he's got several more big fights...
get me Gore.
As many as 58 counties are going back
to the ballot boxes recounting so-called undervotes
by order of the state Supreme Court.
More than 40,000 ballots are in play.
The Leon County judge charged with organizing the effort
has set a target deadline of 2:00 p.m. eastern, sunday,
for the recount to be complete.
The Illinois senate democrat Dick Durbin,
reacting to the Florida Supreme Court's victory for Al Gore, quote...
"two strikes, two outs in the bottom of the ninth,
"and Gore gets a hit" Unquote.
We know that spokesman Craig Waters at one point in his statement...
I want to request an immediate stay
in the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the recount.
We have to prove "irreparable harm".
On what grounds would the counting of votes cause irreparable harm to Bush?
Well, how about the fact that the Florida supremes
just gave Al Gore a statewide recount, and he didn't even ask for one?
They're not even trying to appear to be fair.
That's true, but it doesn't prove irreparable harm.
Wait a minute,
did you look at justice Wells's dissent?
I have a deep and abiding concern
that the prolonging of the judicial process
propels this state and this country
into an unprecedented and unnecessary constitutional crisis.
If this election is not resolved by December 12th,
a very interesting scenario arises.
According to the electoral count act of 1887,
if an election is not resolved by december 12th,
then statelegislators can decide
who to award their state's electoral votes to.
Wait a minute,
the Florida legislature could award its 25 electoral votes to Bush,
no matter what the results of the recount?
My people have talked to several constitutional scholars
and they all agree it would be a legal interpretation of the constitution.
We're calling it the "nuclear bomb" option.
If this election is not resolved by the safe-harbor deadline
of December 12th,
then it is the legislators' duty to ensure
that Florida's 25 electoral votes are not placed in jeopardy.
- Mr. Speaker! - Yes.
Any validity to allegations you're coordinating your efforts
with Bush lawyers?
I have not had any contact with any member of the Bush team
probably since...
In a good 24 hours.
I need more phones and whiteboards, guys.
Ron, they asked the United States Supreme Court for a stay.
I seriously doubt they'll grant it.
There's no way the counting of votes can cause irreparable harm.
Congress resolves presidential disputes, not the U.S. Supreme Court.
The protectors of the constitution know damn well
to stay the hell away from all of this.
If the current pace is maintained, they might be able to finish
by about 9:00 tonight.
Escambia County... plus three.
Michael, Okeechobee... plus 10.
Okeechobee... plus 10, guys.
Madison... plus two.
You've gotta come down four.
Madison... plus two.
- Jeremy - Yeah.
Down two more. Down two.
What are we at?
Osceola... up three.
That's just one. Just one.
We picked up three in Suwannee and three in Desoto.
We're minus three for Palm, okay?
Minus three.
Orange County... plus 18.
Jan, we got Manatee... Manatee's down one.
Down one, Manatee.
Clay's up two.
- What's that? - 98 votes.
98 votes. We're down by 98 votes.
- Wait, how many more counties? - 51.
- Madison... plus two. - Madison... plus two.
Hey, guys,
the U.S. Supreme Court just issued a stay.
All counting across the state has to stop immediately.
- You gotta be kidding. - On what grounds?
- How could they have...? - I don't know.
I'm getting Boies. Turn up the T.V. is that on?
The U.S. SC, one, stays the order of the Florida state Supreme Court
which seemed to stop the recount in its place;
And secondly, has agreed to a writ of certiorari,
will hear the case on monday...
It's terrific.
Dissents were over the fact that they did stop.
They say "to stop the counting of legal votes,
the majority today departs from three venerable rules of judicial restraint
that have guided the Court throughout its history."
So the dissent is based on the fact
that they shouldn't have acted so quickly.
Guys, just got this from Al Gore.
He says, quote, "make sure no one trashes the Supreme Court",
end quote.
Preventing the recount from being completed
will inevitably cast a cloud over the legitimacy of the election.
The Florida Court's ruling reflects the basic principle
that every legal vote should be counted.
The majority has acted unwisely.
I believe a brief response is necessary to justice Stevens's dissent.
The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view
threaten irreparable harm to the petitioner, George W. Bush,
and to the country,
by casting a cloud upon what he claims
to be the legitimacy of his election.
Mr. Boies, Mr. Boies.
Since the United States Supreme Court set the hearing for December 11th,
won't this prevent you from completing the recount
by the December 12th deadline?
It's the single most disappointing thing
that the five justices have done.
To put it simply, they ran out our clock.
How counting votes could have caused irreparable harm to Bush
is mind-boggling.
Mr. Boies, Mr. Boies.
Second row.
Do you have a strategy for the hearing?
Yes. Excuse me.
Our strategy begins with one fundamental truth...
every vote from every citizen deserves to be counted.
And we believe that is what will prevail in the courts. Thank you.
It is the decisive moment in this election
and the crowds who surround the Supreme Court today know it.
Demonstrators have been here on the steps of the SC for hours,
awaiting the beginning of today's arguments.
The justices inside this building are the ultimate arbiters.
So Olson's primary argument is that the Florida Supreme Court
changed the law when they extended the deadline.
Kennedy has never seemed impressed with the "new law" argument.
What about the equal protection argument?
I don't think Olson has much faith in it.
It's buried in the last five pages of their brief.
I'm only eating the red ones today.
I think Kennedy is our only shot.
This is it, isn't it?
Yes, Ron, this is it.
Oyez, all persons having business
before the honorable Supreme Court of the United States
are admonished to draw near and give their attention,
for this Court is now sitting.
God save the United States and this honorable Court.
I understand you think that the system that's set up now is very unfair,
because it's different standards in different places.
But what in your opinion would be a fair standard?
Certainly, at minimum, Justice Breyer,
a penetration of the ballot card would be required.
Well, would the starting point be what the Secretary of State
Katherine Harris decided was the uniform standard?
I would agree with that, Justice O'Connor.
I'd still like to get your view as to what would be the fair standard.
A reasonable standard would have to be, at minimum,
a penetration of the chad in the ballot,
because dimples or indentations are no standard at all.
I think there is a uniform standard.
The standard is whether or not the intent of the voter
is reflected by the ballot.
That's very general.
Even a dog knows the difference between being stumbled over and being kicked.
So would you say from the standpoint of the equal protection clause,
each county could give its own interpretation
as to what "intent" means?
I think what's bothering justice Kennedy
is the rule to counting dimpled chads varies from county to county.
Broward and Miami-Dade were counting them, Palm Beach was not.
What would you tell them to do about it?
Well, I think that's a very hard question.
You'd tell them to count every vote, Mr. Boies.
Yes, I would tell them to count every vote.
I think I would say, if you're looking for a standard,
then the Texas standard, if you wanted to specify something,
gives you a pretty good standard.
It says dimpled chads should be counted.
Why isn't the standard the one
that voters are instructed to follow, for goodness' sake?
I mean, it couldn't be clearer. Why don't we go to that standard?
Well, your honor, because in Florida law since 1917,
Darby v. State, the Florida Supreme Court has held
that where the intent of the voter can be discerned,
even if they don't do what they're told,
their vote is supposed to be counted.
For the last 80 years the Florida Court has always ruled
that the right to participate in the democratic process
is more important than a voter's ability to follow instructions.
Mr. Boies, let's assume that at the end of the day
counties used different standards for making their count.
At that point, in your judgment,
would it be a violation of the Constitution to say,
"I don't care that they used different standards as long
as they purported to follow voter's intent, that's good enough?"
Can we do that?
I'll extend your time by two minutes, Mr. Boies.
I do not believe that violates the equal protection clause.
It is impossible to have uniform standards
when different types of voting machines
and different types of ballots are used from county to county.
Hand-counting and recounting of ballots
under the "intent of the voter" standard has been the rule,
not the exception, in this country for generations...
indeed, since its founding.
It is the moment of truth. The Supreme Court may
use this moment to determine who is the next President of The United States.
There are many ways this decision could go.
The two most commonly discussed are that the Supreme Court could send...
it could ask Florida to resume the recount...
Does anyone want to play cards?
It's in! It's in.
Our long wait is over.
Greta Van Susteren, another CNN legal analyst, is on the telephone. Greta.
Bernie, what it seems to say at this point is
that we don't know for sure.
"The closeness of this election and the multitude of legal
"challenges which..."
- What's that mean? - Just one moment, Mr. Vice President.
I'm gonna put you on speakerphone, Mr. Vice President.
- Are you still there, sir? - Yeah, I'm here.
There are two rulings in this decision, sir...
the first is a seven-to-two ruling
that there is an equal protection violation;
And the second ruling is the remedy to that violation,
which is five-to-four.
Yes, I need to speak to the Governor, please.
The majority has ruled that since we missed the December 12th deadline
set by the Florida Supreme Court...
then there isn't time to resolve the equal protection violation
and therefore the recount must end.
The S.C shuts down the recount 'causing us to miss the deadline.
Then they say that we can't start up again because we missed the deadline?
That's pretty much it, sir.
What you got, Jim? Seems like nobody can make sense of this thing.
Congratulations, Mr. President-elect.
- Did you hear that? - That sounds good.
Ron, you gotta read this.
Right there.
What is it, Ron?
The Court has ruled
that this decision is, quote,
"limited
"to the present circumstances".
Unbelievable.
The Supreme Court has declared that Bush v. Gore only counts once,
and then it never counts again.
Have they ever done that before?
Never once in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
What do you think, David?
I think the ruling is intellectually dishonest,
but the point is crystal clear... the recount is over.
Mr. Vice President, our battle is not yet done.
The majority ruled that there is an equal protection violation
because different counties are counting with different standards.
So let's petition the Florida Supreme Court
and get them to set exact counting standards.
Under these circumstances, they might finally do it.
David?
I think Ron's lost his mind,
but I'll drink the kool-aid.
The Florida House has already voted to award the state's electors to Bush.
Yeah, but then we just file two lawsuits...
one to set standards, the other to halt the legislature.
We can do this, sir.
Ron, nobody can fault you for not trying...
No, Mr. Vice President. Please, sir, listen to me.
You cannot concede. Not yet, sir.
I beg of you, sir, just give me one more shot.
Klain is gonna petition the Florida supremes to set standards.
Sometimes a soldier just can't stop fighting
even when he knows the war is done.
I've run over 25 recounts and it never ceases to amaze me...
the extent that democrats will lie, cheat and steal to win an election.
I mean, if we hadn't played hardball, they would've stolen this one too.
Now, Ben, I was a democrat till I was 40 years old.
I have always wondered why you switched parties.
My wife passed away... cancer.
I'm so sorry.
Thank you. Yes, she was...
she was too young.
A very close friend of mine, who happened to be a republican,
was running for senate and told me to come work on his campaign
to take my mind off the grief.
I told him I had never worked in politics before,
and I was a democrat to boot, but he didn't care. He just...
he just didn't want to see me sad all the time.
That's a good friend.
He sure is.
The Vice President's on the phone.
- Good morning, Mr. Vice President. - Hey, Ron.
What can I do for you, sir?
I couldn't sleep last night. I just couldn't stop thinking,
but then I remembered what a wise man once said to me.
He said that I have to end this war
when I know I can't win.
Ron,
I can't win.
Even if I win,
I can't win.
I'm sorry, sir. I...
I just...
I just couldn't get them counted.
I'll never forget what you did for me, Ron.
I will never forget.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
Ron, we should still file the petitions.
Let's just see if it works.
We've come this far, Ron. We can't quit now.
Yeah, we can keep fighting this thing, man.
I want to tell you all what an honor it's been to work
with such a dedicated and focused group as you have all proved to be.
I'm enormously grateful for everything you did.
But it's time for us to stop.
People are going to say all kinds of things about this election...
That it was down to 154 votes, that Bush's brother was the Governor,
that the U.S. Supreme Court gave it to us,
but I want you to remember that we won every single recount.
Never once did we trail Gore.
And who knows how many votes we lost
when the networks called Florida for Gore
before all the polls were closed on election night?
But more important than all that
is that the system worked.
There were no tanks on the streets.
This peaceful transfer of power
in the most emotional and trying of times
is a testament to the strength of the Constitution
and to our faith
in the rule of law.
It took a long time getting here...
but here's to George W. Bush,
the 43rd President of The United States.
Hear hear!
We should have asked for a statewide from the get-go.
That was our biggest mistake.
And Ralph Nader should've pulled his head out of his ass.
And Elian Gonzales should've never left Miami.
And Gore should've campaigned with Clinton.
And Clinton should've got caught getting a blow job
from Sharon Stone instead of Monica Lewinsky 'cause then his approval
would have shot through the roof.
And Katherine Harris should've thought twice about purging 20,000 voters
from the rolls. And George Bush, jr.,
should have never quit drinking, but he did.
It is what it is, pal. Four years from now we'll come back,
gather our information and go right back at 'em.
Even after all the mistakes and all the corruption,
we still had about half a day there when the entire state was counting.
Do you think if W. had asked for a recount
the Supreme Court would have stopped it?
Good question.
Would you get this on board? I'll be right back.
Mr. Secretary.
Good to see you, Mr. Klain.
So did the best man win then?
You bet.
Are you sure about that?
As sure as you are about your man.
I hope you're right, Mr. Secretary. I do hope you're right.
You have a safe trip, Mr. Klain.
Thank you, sir.
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
I appreciate so very much the opportunity
to speak with you tonight.
Tonight I want to thank all the thousands of volunteers
and campaign workers who worked so hard on my behalf.
Republicans want the best for our nation, and so do democrats.
I was not elected to serve one party, but to serve one nation.
The President of the United States
is the President of every single American
of every race and every background.
Whether you voted for me or not,
I will do my best to serve your interests
and I will work to earn your respect.
Just moments ago, I spoke with George W. Bush
and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd President of the U.S.
and I promised him that I wouldn't call him back this time.
I know that many of my supporters are disappointed. I am too.
But our disappointment must be overcome by our love of country.
This is America, and we put country before party.
We will stand together behind our new president.
As for the battle that ends tonight,
I do believe, as my father once said, that no matter how hard the loss,
defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.
- Thank you and good night. - Thank you very much.
And God bless America.