0:01

Roudy protests, angry Republicans,

0:04

a contested election. On

0:06

this week's On the Media, we revisit

0:08

another make or break moment in American

0:10

democracy 24 years ago. Everybody

0:14

is starting to lose patience with this

0:16

election. The process seems doomed to work

0:18

its slow and painful way through a

0:21

series of courtrooms no matter what happens.

0:23

The punch hole is called a Chad.

0:25

It is attached to the ballot by

0:27

four threads. Two corners of a Chad had

0:29

to be pushed for a vote to be considered. Now

0:32

the standard's been relaxed to just one

0:34

or even just a dimple. Republican

0:40

demonstrators stormed the hallways and demanded access

0:43

to the recount room. It certainly leaves

0:45

Florida in a sort of legal state

0:47

of limbo. What can

0:49

the Gorvy Bush fiasco teach us about

0:51

partisan politics today? That's

0:54

coming up after this. On

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rates not available in all states or situations,

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prices vary based on how you buy. While

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some colleges ramped up police presence on

2:24

campus, others responded to protests against Israel's

2:26

war in Gaza by giving students a

2:28

seat at the table. I'm

2:31

Kai Wright and on the next Notes

2:33

from America, meet a young negotiator from

2:35

Brown University. We'll explore what divestment actually

2:37

means and how views of victory in

2:39

this movement vary depending on where you

2:42

sit. Listen wherever you

2:44

get your podcasts. NYC

2:57

Studios. From

3:01

WNYC in New York, this is On

3:03

the Media. Brooke Gladstone is out this

3:05

week. I'm Michael Lowinger. It's

3:07

mid-May. And as we head

3:10

towards November with the knowledge that at least one

3:12

of the candidates is a sore loser, the

3:14

fear of more post-election chaos

3:17

looms large. To

3:19

distract ourselves from all that, let's go

3:21

back in time to another make or

3:23

break moment for democracy. It

3:26

started on the night of the presidential election,

3:28

November 7th, 2000, when the national television

3:32

networks called Florida for Vice President

3:34

Al Gore. An important win for

3:36

Vice President Al Gore, NBC News

3:38

projects that he wins the 25

3:40

electoral votes in the

3:43

state of Florida. This was roughly

3:45

an hour after polls closed in

3:47

the more Democratic voting peninsula, but

3:49

10 minutes before they closed in

3:51

the Republican counties of the Panhandle.

3:54

So a reversal. What the networks give

3:56

us, the networks take it away. NBC

3:59

News is now... Taking Florida out

4:01

of Vice President Gore his column

4:03

and putting it back in the

4:05

to close to call carbon leader

4:07

the amount that the state had

4:10

gone be other ways. see it

4:12

as a class said. George Walker

4:14

Bush has one foreigners twenty five

4:16

electoral votes but leader still All

4:18

right. We're officially say with Florida

4:20

is too close to call because

4:23

of a recall in the early

4:25

hours of the next day. Good.

4:27

Called pushed to concede only to

4:29

call. Him back to retract the

4:31

concession when his advisors told him

4:34

how close the Count was in

4:36

Florida. That evenings drama put in

4:38

motion a series of events that

4:41

would leave the United States without

4:43

a name successor to Bill Clinton

4:45

until December thirteenth. To.

4:51

Tell the story of what happened

4:53

in the fraught intervening weeks We

4:55

turn to Fiasco, a podcast series

4:57

known for poking at the conventional

5:00

wisdom of a historical moment with

5:02

deep reporting and first hand accounts.

5:05

In. Season One Host Leon a Fox

5:07

tells the story of the Florida

5:10

recount. As. Maybach explains

5:12

Florida law mandates his feet wide

5:14

be seen recount whenever the margin

5:16

between two candidates is less than

5:19

one half of one percent. Boost.

5:22

His lead was just one thousand,

5:24

seven hundred and eighty four votes

5:26

out of almost six million cast.

5:28

That's. Three one hundredth of one

5:30

percent of the overall vote total.

5:35

After the recount was completed, George

5:37

Bush lead Al Gore by just

5:40

three hundred twenty seven votes. So

5:42

close. Gore's team demanded a hand

5:44

recount for votes that couldn't be

5:47

read by machines. The so

5:49

called under votes were voters ballot didn't

5:51

record who they voted for. as

5:53

the console is called it's sad it

5:55

is a cast a ballot like for

5:57

threat if it has ended only

6:00

one thread, it would not be counted

6:02

as a vote. Before, two corners

6:04

of a chat had to be pushed for a vote to

6:06

be considered. Now, the standard's been

6:08

relaxed to just one, or

6:11

even just a dimple. And

6:13

the overvotes, where more than one

6:15

candidate received votes on the same

6:17

ballot. The butterfly ballot had candidates

6:19

on the left and right side

6:21

columns, but only down the middle

6:23

were the punch holes. Al

6:26

Gore's name was second on the ballot

6:28

on the left-hand side, but to vote

6:30

for him, you punched the third hole.

6:32

And many voters said that it was

6:35

confusing, that they ended up voting for

6:37

two people instead of one. The recount

6:39

would take place in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm

6:41

Beach and Volusia, four of the biggest

6:43

counties in Florida with a total of

6:46

1.9 million ballots. Leon

6:49

picks up the story from here. In

6:51

the weeks after Election Day, an

6:53

overwhelming majority of Americans said they were

6:56

closely following the Florida recount. But

6:58

staying up on the latest developments could feel like cramming

7:00

for an exam. The procedural debates

7:02

between the two parties and the intricacies of

7:04

Florida law could be a bit much.

7:08

So the judge says the five o'clock deadline

7:10

stands, but it's not that simple, because the

7:12

judge also says if ballots... Natalie, all of

7:14

what John Zarella just explained was complicated, but

7:16

it did seem to be a little bit

7:18

consistent. But there was more, and

7:21

it was more clear. There

7:23

were just so many names and subplots to keep track

7:25

of. There are so many claims

7:27

and counterclaims, so many numbers flying through

7:29

the air. We hope you all

7:31

have your scorecards out, because this one's getting

7:33

more complicated all the time. And no one

7:35

knew how long it was going to take

7:38

to resolve. Everybody is starting to lose patience

7:40

with this election. The process seems doomed to

7:42

work its slow and painful way through a

7:44

series of courtrooms, no matter what happens. It

7:46

certainly leaves Florida in a sort of legal

7:48

state of limbo. The

7:52

worst part might have been how impossible it

7:54

was to talk about the recount without using

7:56

all these horrible, bureaucratic phrases, Like

7:58

certification deadline. Canvassing Board

8:01

and advisory opinion. This.

8:04

Deadening jargon was not just a problem for

8:06

journalists trying to make the recount story exciting

8:08

or at legible. It was

8:10

also problem for the two campaigns. Both.

8:13

Of them needed to frame the turn of the reach

8:15

out on their terms. And. To do so

8:17

in ways that had at least some emotional resonance?

8:20

Democrats. Found that emotional resonance early with

8:22

the butterfly ballots and Palm Beach. It

8:25

was easy to comprehend how terrible it might feel to

8:27

know that you wasted your vote in such a close

8:29

race. But. About ten

8:31

days after the election. Republicans founded

8:33

emotional Rallying Point of their own. And

8:36

they found it in some he

8:39

exquisitely boring sounding called overseas Absentee

8:41

Ballots. Post marks

8:43

come from all over the world. full

8:45

of and usually overlooked. This near they

8:47

could determine the election. More than six

8:49

million Americans live overseas, which is roughly

8:52

the size of the population of the

8:54

Commonwealth of Virginia. Just how many of

8:56

those absentee ballots are? Other soda, Big

8:58

Honor and Google Gap: How many of

9:01

them overseas absentee ballots were used by

9:03

American citizens living abroad. In

9:05

recent presidential elections, the state of Florida had

9:08

received between fifteen hundred and three thousand of

9:10

them in a normal action. Now is

9:12

not a lot of votes. But.

9:14

In two thousand, when it became clear

9:16

that oversees absentee ballots could determine the

9:18

outcome of the race, they were thrust

9:21

into the center of a bitter confrontation

9:23

between the two campaigns that battle. Going

9:25

on in Cali offices all over the

9:27

state Police have report the county officials

9:29

screaming at each other as democrats and

9:31

republicans go to the map for every

9:33

overseas as he felt. The.

9:36

Process for tabulating overseas absentee ballots

9:38

in Florida followed it's own special

9:40

timeline. When. That was intended to compensate

9:43

for the fact that mail coming in from faraway.

9:45

Takes. A long time to get words gaming. Fears.

9:47

Mark Harem, a lawyer who became an expert

9:50

on overseas absentee ballots are working with the

9:52

Gore recounting. In Florida, you could

9:54

continue to receive and town to

9:56

overseas absentee ballots until ten days

9:58

after the election. if they

10:01

had been postmarked prior to

10:03

the close of Election Day. The

10:05

voters who used overseas absentee ballots

10:08

tended to belong to one of several distinct groups.

10:11

American diplomats working at foreign embassies, American

10:14

Jews living in Israel, expats

10:16

in general, and U.S. military

10:18

personnel stationed abroad. The

10:20

Gore team expected many of the overseas ballots to

10:22

come from this last group, and

10:25

that they would overwhelmingly favor Bush. The

10:27

military people were generally more conservative

10:30

in terms of their viewpoints on the

10:32

world than Democrats, and I guess the

10:34

thinking would be that the

10:37

military folks would vote for Bush as opposed

10:39

to Gore. As overseas absentee

10:41

ballots poured into Florida's 67 county

10:44

canvassing boards, the Gore team worried

10:46

that their opponents would try to take advantage of the

10:48

system. There were reports and

10:50

rumors that planes, military

10:53

planes, were flying into Panama City.

10:56

Stuff would oversee ballots that had

10:58

not been postmarked prior to Election

11:00

Day. No evidence of

11:02

such organized ballot stuffing ever emerged. But

11:05

at the time, anything seemed possible. So

11:08

higher-ups on the Gore recount team asked Herron to

11:10

do some research and write up a detailed memo.

11:13

Under what circumstances would it be appropriate,

11:15

according to Florida law, to challenge the

11:17

validity of an overseas absentee ballot? The

11:20

intended audience for Herron's memo was a network

11:22

of Democratic lawyers helping the Gore campaign around

11:24

the state. When Florida's 67

11:26

counties started going through their overseas

11:28

absentee ballots, these lawyers would

11:31

be responsible for challenging incomplete or illegal

11:33

ones. They could use

11:35

it when they appeared before the canvassing

11:38

boards and say, hey, this one

11:40

here can't be counted because it

11:42

isn't signed. This one here can't

11:44

be counted because there's no postmark

11:46

that indicates that it was mailed

11:48

or transmitted prior to the close

11:51

of Election Day. Or it has a postmark that's after

11:53

Election Day, and therefore it can't be accepted.

11:56

In its first paragraph, Herron's memo specifically mentioned

11:58

members of the state. of the armed forces,

12:01

along with other citizens of the United States

12:03

who are temporarily residing outside the country. The

12:06

memo went out to a group of Democratic Party

12:08

lawyers on November 15th, with the expectation that

12:10

it would stay among friends. But

12:13

less than 48 hours later, a copy

12:15

made its way to Bush headquarters in Tallahassee.

12:19

The Republicans instantly recognized it as a

12:21

major opportunity. Here

12:23

was a Gore lawyer providing instructions on

12:26

how to disqualify votes sent in by

12:28

American soldiers. The indignant

12:30

TV appearances practically booked themselves. The vice

12:32

presidents lawyers have gone to war in

12:35

my judgment against the men and women

12:37

who serve in our armed forces. I'm

12:39

tired of hearing Democrats saying, including out,

12:42

or out, every vote. And

12:44

yet they're all over the state of Florida

12:46

challenging thousands of our military votes. The Bush

12:48

team pushed the story to every news outlet

12:51

they could and organized press conferences to publicize

12:53

the issue. We are concerned that a

12:55

targeted effort by the Democratic Party

12:58

sought to throw out as many

13:00

as a third of the overseas

13:02

absentee ballots received since election day. Many

13:05

of them, the votes of the men and women

13:08

of our United States armed forces who

13:10

are serving the cause of freedom throughout

13:12

the world. The Heron memo,

13:14

as it came to be known, instantly

13:16

broke through the static of recount coverage.

13:19

And if you're wondering how the Bush

13:21

communications team turned a phrase as cumbersome

13:23

as overseas absentee ballots into a hot issue,

13:26

the answer is they didn't have to, because they could

13:28

call them military ballots instead. The

13:31

Democrats have launched a statewide effort to

13:34

throw out as many military ballots as they can.

13:37

Democratic lawyers have been given guidelines on how

13:39

to challenge military ballots and the wife of

13:41

one sailor spoke out. It was a first

13:44

that he had heard that his ballot was

13:47

one of the votes that did not count.

13:50

I don't think it's too cynical or unfair to

13:52

wonder how the Gore team didn't see this coming.

13:54

But Heron really thought that all he was doing

13:57

was summarizing this corner of Florida election law. Gore's

14:00

lawyers on the ground would know what they were dealing with. Now

14:03

the campaign was being accused of trying to

14:05

disenfranchise men and women in uniform. By

14:07

using the Heron memo as the basis for

14:09

a PR onslaught against Gore, the Bush team

14:11

wasn't just trying to score points on cable news

14:14

or win hearts and minds. They

14:16

were generating pressure that would make the law work to

14:19

their advantage. Believe

14:22

it or not, one of Al Gore's most

14:24

effective advocates in 2000 was his

14:26

running mate, Joe Lieberman. During

14:29

the recount, while Gore strategized with his lawyers

14:31

behind the scenes, Lieberman appeared on

14:33

TV as something between an attack dog and a

14:35

cheerleader. Day after day, he

14:38

defended the Democratic line and calmly predicted that

14:40

when all the votes were counted, he and

14:42

Gore would be victorious. We think

14:44

we won. If we think if all the votes

14:46

in Florida are counted, not only will we have

14:48

won the popular vote in America, Al Gore and

14:50

I would have won the election.

14:53

Maybe our opponents think that too,

14:55

and that's why they don't want those votes

14:57

to be counted. With Gore facing intense criticism

14:59

over Mark Heron's memo, the campaign

15:01

looked to Lieberman to come in and play the

15:03

enforcer. On Saturday, November

15:06

18, Lieberman was briefed on the Heron memo

15:08

over the phone. In the next morning, he

15:10

appeared on Meet the Press with Tim Russert. Senator

15:12

Joseph Lieberman is with us. Welcome back. Morning,

15:15

Tim. Still a senator, not vice president. Russert

15:17

brought up the Heron memo almost immediately. And

15:20

people are very, very concerned. They point

15:22

to a memo written by Mark Heron,

15:25

a lawyer who assists the

15:27

Gore campaign, telling Democratic lawyers, this

15:29

is how you knock out ballots

15:31

from military people overseas. They don't

15:33

have a postmark right. To the

15:35

Gore operatives in Tallahassee, watching Lieberman's

15:37

appearance on TV, the answer was

15:39

obvious. He was getting pounded, and

15:42

the answer should have been, we're for

15:44

counting all votes that were cast on before election day.

15:47

This is Nick Baldic, one of Gore's top

15:49

lieutenants in Florida. There

15:51

are procedures to make sure that illegal votes

15:53

don't come in after, and those should be

15:55

upheld. That would have been roughly the response

15:57

I would have given. It was not the response he gave.

16:00

Instead. Lieberman. Took a trip

16:02

to Waffle City. He didn't even try

16:04

to defend the campaign. Or. Make the

16:07

argument for enforcing election law in the way

16:09

Herons memo at suggested or look as again

16:11

Albarn, I don't wanna is and don't ever

16:13

be part of anything that would put an

16:16

extra burden on the military personnel abroad. I

16:18

want a lot of Joe Lieberman said this

16:20

morning Council's Maldic watched in disbelief as Lieberman

16:23

through Mark Herring and the Gore campaign as

16:25

a whole under the bus. My and ten

16:27

of view. If I was there, I would

16:29

give the benefit of the doubt to Bell

16:32

coming in for military personnel generally, but particularly

16:34

in light of a letter in attendance. Payments

16:36

You've heard about that. but the. Peers

16:39

Baltic again army. I remembered

16:41

screaming at the television as

16:43

being very angry when lots

16:45

of people working with me

16:47

young people volunteers had been

16:50

across sixty seven counties trainer

16:52

uphold the law on makes

16:54

or the ballots from Maryland

16:56

and ones that were sent

16:58

out as after less than

17:00

they were not counted illegally

17:02

and they were screened dad

17:04

and called unpatriotic and. Had

17:06

batteries thrown at them and Sarah Lieberman

17:09

sold all those people out or just

17:11

caving on that morning. Harem,

17:13

who was also watching the interview from Gore

17:16

Headquarters, did not take it well. It was

17:18

like I'd been kicked in the stomach. I

17:20

was quite quite. Sick. So

17:22

to speak. And at that point in time

17:24

I had to leave the building and walk

17:27

around Tallahassee for a while. I.

17:29

Just couldn't believe what he had done. Lieberman

17:32

told me in an interview that he still remembers

17:34

meeting with Gore after his Tv appearance. And.

17:37

It was actually. As I recall,

17:39

the only time during the whole campaign where

17:41

now. Seems. To be disappearance of

17:43

the had done. But. Lieberman maintains

17:45

did the right thing. A

17:47

patriotic thing. The. Morally defensible thing.

17:50

By. Distancing the campaign from the Hair

17:52

and Memo, we democrats believe in

17:55

the franchise and and infected other

17:57

parts of Florida were fighting because

17:59

we. alleging that

18:01

the Republican officials prevented

18:04

some people from voting. Setting

18:06

aside the legal merits of the Heron memo, Lieberman

18:09

says that he was concerned about how the campaign would

18:11

look if he stood by it. What

18:14

if Democrats ended up winning the White House

18:16

and American soldiers believed that their own commander

18:18

in chief had tried to disenfranchise them? Lieberman

18:21

wanted the campaign to commit to its count

18:23

every vote mantra, even as he

18:25

saw Republicans making contradictory arguments of their own.

18:28

As both sides were being inconsistent,

18:31

the Republicans were calling for technical

18:33

adherence to the law in

18:35

some parts of the state about cutting ballots, but they

18:37

were saying, oh, you got to go a little easy

18:40

on these soldiers. We were saying in

18:42

some parts of the state, you got to go

18:44

a little easy on these

18:47

voters, particularly minority voters, and

18:50

not exclude them from voting. But

18:53

in this case, we were saying, this is the letter

18:55

of the law. So these

18:57

absentee ballots can't be counted. After

19:00

Lieberman's appearance on Meet the Press, other

19:02

Democrats joined him in calling for a lenient

19:04

standard on military ballots. That's

19:07

the order from Florida Attorney General Bob

19:09

Butterworth. Among them was

19:11

Bob Butterworth, the Democratic Attorney General of Florida.

19:13

Saying no man or woman in military

19:15

service to this nation should have his

19:17

or her vote rejected solely due to

19:20

the absence of a postmark. It

19:22

was not exactly a legal victory for Republicans,

19:25

since neither Lieberman nor Butterworth had authority over

19:27

any aspect of the recount. But

19:30

symbolically, it was devastating. The

19:32

public relations fight over rejected

19:34

overseas absentee ballots. On

19:36

NBC's Meet the Press, Joe Lieberman supports

19:39

giving them the benefit of the doubt.

19:43

While the Gore campaign tried to play defense

19:45

on overseas absentee ballots, the hand

19:47

recount of regular old domestic ballots was continuing

19:49

in fits and starts. The

19:51

four counties where Gore had requested recounts for all

19:53

at different stages of the process. Palm

19:56

Beach and Broward had been added for several days. Volusia

19:59

was already deemed. In Miami-Dade, on the

20:01

other hand, things were about to

20:03

get turbulent. Coming

20:07

up, Republican protesters stormed the offices

20:09

where the recount is taking place

20:11

in the now infamous Brooks Brothers

20:13

riot. This is

20:16

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new podcast, If This Hall Could Talk, we use

21:07

these items as touchstones to explore how the past

21:09

shaped the world we live in today. I'm

21:11

your host, Jessica Vosk, and I'll

21:14

be joined by historians, performers, cultural

21:16

critics, and others to look back

21:18

at the iconic venues, legendary and sometimes

21:20

quirky history. If This

21:22

Hall Could Talk from Carnegie Hall and

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distributed by WQXR. Listen wherever

21:27

you get podcasts. This

21:31

is On the Media. I'm Michael O'Lanjur. Before

21:34

the break, we heard that things were not

21:36

going well for the Miami-Dade recount. Here's

21:39

host, Leon Nayfok. The logistics

21:41

of the recount in Miami-Dade were pretty much the

21:43

same as in Palm Beach. After

21:45

going through a 1% sample of the overall vote,

21:48

approximately 6,000 ballots, the

21:50

canvassing board debated whether or not to conduct a

21:52

full manual recount. After

21:55

some hesitation, they decided to proceed. decided

22:00

that it too will recount ballots by

22:03

hand, meaning that heavily Democratic Florida counties

22:05

will be recounting more than $1.7 million.

22:10

The recount began on Monday, November 20th, two

22:13

days after the big Florida-Florida state football game. And

22:15

at first, it looked like they might actually get

22:17

it done. This was a

22:19

very happy development for Al Gore. As

22:22

long as ballots were being counted, it meant he

22:24

still had a chance of picking up new votes

22:26

and eating into Bush's lead. Al

22:28

Gore has picked up a net gain of 18 votes,

22:31

but there are 614 precincts

22:33

total that must be recounted.

22:36

The next night, just before 10 o'clock, the

22:39

Gore team received even more good news, this

22:42

time from Tallahassee, where the Florida Supreme Court

22:44

had just issued a ruling. Good

22:47

evening. My name is Craig Waters.

22:49

I'm the spokesman for the Florida Supreme Court. I'm

22:51

now gonna read to you a statement that was

22:54

authorized by the entire court. The

22:56

court holds that amended certifications from

22:59

the county county... At this point, the manual recount

23:01

Gore had requested were being threatened by the Florida

23:03

Secretary of State, who was refusing to accept what

23:05

she called late vote counts. A

23:07

few days earlier, the Florida Supreme Court

23:09

had stepped in and blocked Catherine Harris from certifying

23:11

the election results until they could weigh in. Oral

23:14

arguments had been held on Monday, November 20th. The

23:17

central question at hand was whether Catherine Harris

23:19

had acted improperly by refusing to accept late

23:21

vote totals from the three counties still conducting

23:24

hand counts. And now

23:26

the seven justices of the Florida Supreme Court had

23:28

handed down a unanimous ruling. They

23:30

were siding with Gore. The court

23:32

saying hand counts in three Florida

23:34

counties must be included in the

23:36

state vote totals. This was a

23:38

huge and potentially decisive victory for

23:40

the Gore campaign. The court holds

23:42

that amended certifications from the

23:44

county canvassing boards must be accepted by

23:47

the Election Cam Busing Commission. As

23:49

part of their ruling, the court set

23:51

a new certification deadline Sunday, November 26th at

23:53

5 p.m., thereby

23:56

giving the canvassing boards in Miami-Dade,

23:58

Palm Beach, and Broward five

24:00

more days to count ballots. The

24:02

ruling further specified that if the Secretary of State's

24:05

office was not open on that Sunday, the

24:07

counties could turn in their vote totals on the following Monday

24:09

morning at 9 a.m. Until 9

24:12

a.m. on November 27, the

24:14

opinion of the court... But that wasn't all. In

24:17

addition to granting the deadline extension, the

24:19

justices also ruled that hyper-technical adherence to

24:21

voting instructions was less important than the

24:24

intent of the voter. The fundamental

24:26

purpose of election laws, the court wrote in

24:28

its opinion, was to facilitate and safeguard the

24:30

right of each voter to express his or

24:32

her will. Gore celebrated the

24:35

ruling as a major victory. The

24:37

Florida Supreme Court has now spoken, and

24:39

we will move forward now

24:41

with a full, fair and accurate

24:43

count of the ballots in question.

24:46

Our democracy is the winner tonight.

24:50

The Bush side was apoplectic. As

24:52

they saw it, the Florida Supreme Court

24:54

had just retroactively changed Florida election law

24:56

by pushing back the certification deadline. To

24:59

the Republicans, that looked like a violation

25:01

of the U.S. Constitution, which said

25:03

that election laws had to be in place before the

25:05

voters went to the polls, and

25:08

that they were to be drafted by state

25:10

legislatures, not state courts. Just

25:12

before midnight on the night of the ruling, James

25:14

Baker, the head of the Bush recount effort, offered

25:16

some pointed thoughts at a press conference in Tallahassee.

25:20

It is not fair to change the

25:22

election laws of Florida by judicial fiat

25:25

after the election has been held. It

25:28

is simply not fair, ladies and gentlemen, to

25:31

change the rules, either

25:34

in the middle of the game or

25:36

after the game has been played. Bush's

25:39

supporters and media surrogates moved swiftly to paint

25:41

the Florida Supreme Court as a biased institution

25:43

run by Democrats who are trying to swing

25:46

the election toward Gore. Charles

25:49

Wells, the Chief Justice of the Florida

25:51

Supreme Court at the time, remembers Wondermark

25:53

especially vividly. I had

25:55

read a comment by a congressman

25:59

at the time. Joe

26:01

Scarborough from Pensacola and

26:03

his comment was, tonight

26:06

the Florida Supreme Court declared war on

26:08

the rule of law in Florida. Seven

26:11

radical democratic lawyers have chosen

26:13

to ignore the clear intent

26:16

of Florida's legislature and executive

26:18

branches. It's a political war

26:20

they want. It's a political war

26:22

they should get. Lost

26:24

amid all this heated rhetoric was that the

26:27

Florida Supreme Court ruling actually came with a

26:29

major silver lining for the Bush campaign. Specifically,

26:32

the part about how voter intent matters

26:34

more than strict adherence to technical requirements

26:36

provided Republicans with a perfect weapon with

26:38

which to attack the Democrats on the

26:41

issue of overseas absentee ballots. Prior

26:44

to the ruling, Bush's lawyers have

26:46

been having trouble persuading canvassing boards around

26:48

the state to accept overseas absentee ballots

26:50

that lacked signatures, proper postmarks, and so

26:52

on. A total of 1,420 ballots have

26:55

been thrown out as of November 17th. Now

26:59

it seemed possible that hundreds of those ballots would be

27:01

back on the table, and the

27:03

deadline extension for certifying the election results gave

27:06

the Bush lawyers time to make their case. To

27:12

the Gore campaign's chagrin, there

27:14

was another way the Florida Supreme Court ruling turned out

27:16

to benefit Bush. One that

27:18

had nothing to do with overseas absentee ballots, and

27:20

everything to do with the ongoing recount in Miami.

27:24

Because while the intention of the Supreme Court had been

27:26

to give the counties more time, the

27:28

Miami-Dade canvassing board had been banking on getting

27:30

even more. In

27:32

their initial estimate, the board had figured that

27:34

the work of reviewing all 650,000 ballots

27:37

in the county was going to take

27:39

them until December 1st. The new deadline

27:41

of November 26th meant they had

27:43

five fewer days than they'd budgeted for. And

27:46

so, the morning after the Florida Supreme Court

27:48

ruling came down, the canvassing board

27:50

held a public meeting to review their options. The

27:53

supervisor of elections was audibly anxious about how the

27:55

recount process could be sped up. We

27:58

could not, given our best... The

28:00

board a dress up as the county. The

28:02

best efforts of other people sitting here. Some

28:05

sweet. The manual

28:07

week out The way we've been doing

28:09

as. Human adding more

28:11

tables at a more staff. After

28:13

some discussion with. One of the

28:15

board members proposed an idea. What? Did

28:18

instead of counting all the ballot by hand,

28:20

the boarded a recount of just the ambiguous

28:22

palace of the machines couldn't read. By.

28:24

Separating out the roughly ten thousand ballots

28:26

not officially recorded a vote for president

28:28

the so called under votes. The. Board

28:31

could focus their energies and or time

28:33

and ballots that required human attention And

28:35

so the board voted unanimously. To ditch

28:37

the results of their today county wide

28:39

recounts and focus on the one thousand

28:42

under those. Can count the undercounted ballots

28:44

Fox with ten thousand, seven hundred and

28:46

system but Republic. He was a little

28:48

before nine am when the board members

28:50

decided to give the plan a world

28:53

after explaining to everyone gathered and accounting

28:55

room what they were doing, The

28:57

three of them headed upstairs to private area on

28:59

the nineteenth floor. To. Separate out the

29:01

under votes and start examining them. The.

29:03

Republican observers who have been helping his account.

29:06

Reacted. To the boards announcement with

29:08

profound suspicion. There. were some grumbling

29:10

said l wait, what they're doing

29:12

why. This is Lena Mcconkey

29:15

Peltier. In. Two thousand. She was a

29:17

young lobbyist based in Washington, Dc. And.

29:19

Like many of her republican colleagues and Capitol hill.

29:22

She. Flew down to Florida to lend a hand

29:24

with the recount after the Bush Campaign put out

29:26

a call for volunteers. To. Take it

29:28

on behind closed doors and say they're

29:30

gonna finish the town. Just

29:32

said stunk. Word

29:35

spread quickly that the canvassing board

29:37

was throwing some kind of curveball

29:39

isn't other and only required by

29:41

the public. With i'm afraid that

29:43

attempt by the for people i'm

29:45

a Democrat machine and of bugs

29:47

in that building to hijack the

29:49

American Presidency Outside the Car Government

29:51

Center a crowd of Bush supporters

29:53

have been protesting the recount for

29:55

several days. They lead chance of

29:57

No More Gore Leaves American flags.

30:00

How find that said sore Loser man. Overseeing

30:05

the protest was Republican operative name Brad

30:07

Blade. When. He was huddle inside

30:09

a parked Rv in the plaza outside the Clark

30:11

Center. Previously. Blakeman had

30:13

worked for the Bush campaign is an advanced ma'am. Basically.

30:16

A high level event planner generally speaking

30:18

for of W's presents a campaign i

30:20

was in charge a major media events

30:22

thousand cards, a convention, probes in charge

30:25

of the debates or was in charge

30:27

of major rallies. Once. The

30:29

recount started. Blakeman. knew how to

30:31

make himself useful, We saw

30:33

three legged stool and we knew that

30:35

this battle would be fought in the

30:37

courts. We knew that this battle would

30:40

be fought in the recount centers, but

30:42

the leg that was missing was a

30:44

public relations. Although the voting had ended,

30:46

the campaign has not. When.

30:49

Blake been caught wind of what the canvassing board was

30:51

up to on the nineteenth floor. He got

30:53

worried. The. Recount in Miami had already

30:55

cut Bush's lead by about one hundred and fifty

30:57

votes. Who. Knew him a more gore

30:59

votes the board might find among the remaining under votes.

31:02

Blakeman. Decided to make a move. When

31:05

we found out that they were going

31:07

to go to an expedited system and

31:09

that we could very possibly lose the

31:11

momentum and for would be ahead we

31:13

had to figure out what are we

31:16

gonna do, what our options and when

31:18

the absence I thought of was why

31:20

don't we do a democrat still. As

31:23

others to some civil disobedience, Let's

31:25

have a citizen. Let's create a ruckus.

31:29

When the canvassing board when up to

31:31

the nineteenth floor, a procession republican protesters

31:33

mostly young men streamed into the Clark

31:35

Center and piled onto the elevators. Off

31:39

a little more drama that isn't so

31:42

a republican recount. observers. Or how a

31:44

couple with police this. Morning. Republican

31:47

demonstrators storm the hallway and demanded

31:49

access to the retail room and

31:52

first we have to get permission.

31:55

of the sheriff and the people that in a war

31:57

with as do live with her do it We're

32:00

not dangerous. A lot of us

32:02

are lawyers. We're not going to be arrested. We're not

32:04

there to be disrespectful. But

32:06

we feel like we're being taken advantage

32:08

of and that the system

32:10

is not working and that

32:12

this is something that we need to do, to

32:15

send a message. No!

32:17

No! No! No! Upstairs,

32:21

the protesters join McConkie Peltier and the

32:23

other Republican observers in demanding to be

32:25

let into the counting room. We're

32:28

joined now by our Frank Buckley. He's on the

32:30

phone with us. Frank, it sounds like you're in

32:32

the middle of a prison riot. I mean,

32:34

are you getting the feeling that this is out

32:37

of control? Clearly, this is

32:39

a raucous crowd. It was

32:41

a raucous and confined crowd on

32:43

the 19th floor with

32:45

people trying to get into the

32:48

room where the canvassing board was going to

32:50

commence operation. The

32:54

people who came out to

32:56

protest were wearing, button-down shirts

32:58

tucked into khaki pants

33:00

and got probably in those days braided

33:02

belts, if we could zoom

33:04

in enough on the photos. This is

33:07

Nicholas Kewish. He was covering

33:09

the Miami-Dade recount as a 25-year-old reporter for

33:11

the Wall Street Journal. And he

33:13

was on the 19th floor of the Clark Center when the

33:15

protesters arrived. You definitely had the

33:17

impression that these were the people who did

33:19

not protest in college and

33:22

that they didn't really necessarily know how

33:24

to protest. That

33:27

they're sort of winging it for

33:30

the very first time. No,

33:32

I don't think, no, I don't think. The

33:36

protesters pounded on the window leading to the tabulation

33:38

room. Kewish felt the atmosphere change.

33:41

And what I remember very vividly was they

33:45

were pounding on the glass. And

33:49

on the other side of the glass, there were

33:52

municipal workers and some deputies.

33:54

I mean, people were really

33:56

fired up. The rhetoric

33:58

that they were using was very much. much

34:00

of a stolen election, of

34:02

democracy being undone. And

34:05

I couldn't judge to what extent it's sincere

34:07

or cynical, but there is something

34:09

that can happen where people can start

34:12

to fall under the spell

34:14

of their own rhetoric. The

34:17

demonstration reached a climax when one of

34:19

the Republicans on the 19th floor accused

34:21

a Democratic Party official of trying to

34:23

steal a ballot. At one point, they

34:25

charged a Democratic attorney. It turned out

34:27

to be a sample or practice ballot.

34:34

The three members of the canvassing board moved back

34:37

downstairs to get away from the chaos. Eventually,

34:39

the 19th floor quieted down.

34:42

Later, the incident at the Stephen P. Clark

34:44

Government Center was nicknamed the Brooks Brothers Riot.

34:47

And in its aftermath, there was a lot of debate

34:49

about how volatile and dangerous it had actually been.

34:52

One Bush lawyer claimed at a press conference that there

34:55

had been little kids and babies in the crowd, and

34:57

that there was, quote, in some ways, a holiday atmosphere.

34:59

Laina McConkie-Peltier didn't go quite that far when I

35:01

asked her about it. So I would

35:03

say that there was an element of anger, but

35:06

not violence. I mean, come on, I'm standing there

35:08

in the Liz Claiborne dress. I'm not going to

35:10

be taking anybody out. Regardless,

35:13

the three members of the canvassing board seemed

35:15

rattled by what happened, and they

35:17

halted the undervote plan in order to regroup. We've

35:20

been listening to a hearing down in

35:22

Miami Dade, canvassing board, this ongoing dispute

35:24

about the hand count, exactly what they

35:26

will count and what they will not.

35:28

But a few hours later, they reconvened

35:30

for another public meeting to make an

35:32

important announcement. I do not believe

35:34

that there is time to

35:37

carry out a complete

35:39

full manual recount that

35:42

is accurate and that will

35:44

count every vote because of the limitations

35:46

put on this board in terms of time.

35:49

I do agree with Judge King and Mr.

35:51

Leahy that it is not physically possible

35:53

to continue with this task. We

35:55

do want to... The Miami Dade recount was over.

35:59

None of the new Gore votes. that had been discovered would be

36:01

counted in the final vote tally. That

36:04

is the unanimous decision of this canvassing

36:06

board that we will not be proceeding

36:08

further with a manual recount and that

36:10

the certification of November 8, 2000 be

36:12

accepted by the Secretary of

36:16

State for the valid cast

36:19

votes of Miami-Dade County.

36:25

All right, the Miami-Dade County canvassing

36:27

board taking a vote to

36:30

end the recount there. There will

36:32

be no more counting of votes

36:34

in Miami-Dade County, the largest county

36:37

that was planned. The Gore team

36:39

watched in horror as the canvassing board announced their decision

36:41

on live television. The main reason

36:43

they gave for stopping was that there just wasn't

36:45

enough time to finish before the deadline. But

36:47

what was different at 1.30 p.m. compared to 8

36:50

that morning when completing the count had

36:52

still seemed feasible. Common sense

36:54

seemed to suggest that the protesters had intimidated

36:56

the canvassing board into abandoning the recount. The

36:58

whole tone of things had changed. And

37:01

it was certainly the biggest thing that happened between

37:03

when they were counting the ballots and when they

37:05

suddenly decided not to count the ballots. You

37:08

know, you're on an election board and

37:10

like your job is to ensure like

37:12

a free, fair, you know,

37:15

an impartial election. And

37:17

the idea that sort of people chanting

37:20

and chasing partisans from the

37:22

other side, you know, around

37:24

and threatening people causes

37:27

you to stop counting votes.

37:31

It seems like almost as undemocratic a thing

37:33

as you could imagine, right? After

37:38

the vote, one canvassing board member told

37:40

reporters that the protesters' concerns were a factor

37:42

in the decision. But

37:44

when it became clear that the board's workaround to the

37:46

deadline problem wasn't going to fly, they

37:48

were left with no other options. This

37:51

was perceived as not being an open and fair process,

37:53

the canvassing board member said. And

37:55

that weighed heavily on our minds. Once

37:58

again, the Republicans Americans appeared to have

38:01

outmatched the Gore team through raw political strength.

38:04

Brad Blakeman told me that he was astonished that it

38:06

had been so easy. Gore

38:08

made a conscious decision that he would

38:11

fight in the courts and the recount

38:13

centers, but not publicly on

38:15

the streets. And it was if it

38:18

was a total sterile environment and

38:21

that we were the only ones there who

38:23

seemed to fight

38:25

for what we believed in. We fully

38:27

expected to be overrun, quite frankly, because

38:30

we said the Democrats are going to be

38:32

out in force, and

38:35

they never showed up anywhere. In

38:38

fact, early in the recount, there were

38:40

some organized protests in Gore's favor, particularly

38:43

in Palm Beach, where Jesse Jackson

38:45

led rallies criticizing the butterfly ballot

38:47

and calling attention to the alleged

38:49

disenfranchisement of Haitian-American voters. But

38:51

Al Gore worried about the spectacle coming across

38:54

as unseemly, and he put out word

38:56

to Jackson that he'd prefer it if he left town. Coming

39:03

up in the final part of the

39:05

story of the Florida recount, the Democrats

39:07

fumbled the PR war. This

39:10

is On The Media. This

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podcasts. This

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is On the Media. I'm Michael Loehlinger.

40:21

We're listening to an excerpt from fiasco

40:23

Bush v. Gore. The story of the

40:26

Florida recount. Here's host

40:28

Leon Nayfach. While the battle

40:30

over hand recounts raged in South Florida, the Bush

40:32

campaign and their allies tried to gain an advantage

40:35

in other parts of the state by continuing

40:37

to hammer Gore on the issue

40:39

of military ballots. Those rejected absentee

40:42

military ballots, hundreds of servicemen ballots

40:44

were initially tossed out statewide for

40:46

among other things, missing or late

40:48

postmarks. Allets Republicans have been beating

40:50

the drum to have counted. As

40:52

you'll recall, the controversy around military

40:54

ballots initially played out at the level

40:56

of public relations. For the first

40:58

few days after Mark Haren's memo got leaked, Bush's

41:01

people seemed to be mostly focused on making Gore

41:03

look bad. They're having people like Senator

41:05

Bob Dole, military heroes speak

41:07

out. They went on TV, they gave

41:09

press conferences. If they're going to count a

41:11

dimple, then they need to

41:14

count a vet's vote. They even got retired

41:16

General Norman Schwarzkopf to issue a statement. Just

41:18

not fair. It's a sad day for this

41:20

country when our military people on the

41:22

front lines don't get their ballot counted when there's

41:24

selection of the commander in chief. But

41:27

then, on November 22nd, the same day

41:29

as the Brooks Brothers riot in Miami,

41:31

the Bush campaign raised the stakes by

41:33

bringing the issue into the legal realm.

41:35

Bush's lawyers filed suits in 13 Florida

41:38

counties seeking to have hundreds

41:41

of rejected overseas absentee ballots counted,

41:43

many of them from sailors and

41:45

soldiers serving abroad. Bush

41:47

filed suit against more than a dozen

41:49

Florida counties where overseas absentee ballots have

41:52

been disqualified because they lacked postmarks, signatures

41:54

or other elements required by law. The

41:57

lawsuit accused the Gore campaign of pressuring the candidate to

41:59

leave. boards into rejecting ballots that should

42:01

have been counted. Republicans sensing that Gore

42:03

is vulnerable on the issue of military

42:05

ballots. The lawsuit didn't end up having

42:07

legs. But it didn't need to. Before

42:11

a judge had even made a ruling, six

42:13

of the counties named as plaintiffs in the

42:15

suit agreed of their own volition to reevaluate

42:17

the overseas ballots that they had earlier rejected.

42:20

It was postcard to the United States, but I see

42:23

no reason not to include this suit. Here

42:25

again is Mark Herron. And

42:27

so all these canvassing boards decide they're

42:29

going to meet again and review what

42:32

they had done previously, okay? And

42:34

so they start accepting ballots

42:36

that do not have any postmarks on

42:39

them. To me, those ballots, from a

42:41

legal point of view, should not have

42:43

been accepted. But again, this furor over

42:45

the issue led some

42:47

people not to show that they had

42:49

backbone to follow the law. It

42:52

was a case of perfect synergy between legal

42:54

and political warfare. By creating public

42:56

pressure around the issue of military ballots, the

42:59

Republicans were able to shape how the law was

43:01

interpreted and applied. By the end

43:03

of the week, canvassing boards around the state had agreed

43:05

to accept 288 ballots

43:07

that had previously been rejected as illegal. Those

43:10

absentee ballots inched upward all afternoon

43:12

for Governor Bush, finally handing him

43:14

108 more overseas

43:17

votes at a time when, Peter,

43:19

every vote mattered. With

43:21

that, a PR misstep by the Gore team

43:24

had been converted into real gains for Bush.

43:27

It didn't matter that in order to make that happen, the

43:29

Republicans had been forced to stake out

43:31

two mutually inconsistent positions on ballot standards.

43:34

So what if they were calling for a looser approach to ballots

43:36

that were likely to benefit Bush while calling

43:39

for precise adherence to the law in counties that

43:41

went for Gore? Unlike the

43:43

Democrats, the Republicans weren't afraid of looking

43:45

like hypocrites. They were afraid of

43:47

losing. Let's

43:53

turn out of Palm Beach County, where the

43:55

canvassing board is trying to beat a deadline

43:57

of 5 p.m. today for completing its hand

43:59

recount. On Sunday, November 26, both

44:02

campaigns were bracing themselves for the arrival of

44:04

the new certification deadline for vote totals. Remember,

44:07

according to the Florida Supreme Court ruling, the

44:09

counties had until 5 p.m. to turn in

44:11

their numbers, if the Secretary of State's office was

44:14

open. If it wasn't, they'd have until

44:16

the following morning. In Palm Beach

44:18

County, the manual recount was still

44:20

furiously underway. It had been going well. Well

44:23

enough that Charles Burton and Teresa Lepore, two of

44:25

the Palm Beach canvassing board members, had decided it

44:27

would be okay to take a break for Thanksgiving.

44:30

This turned out to be a grave mistake. By

44:33

Sunday at noon, the prospect of finishing the

44:35

count on time no longer looked so good.

44:38

They're still counting in the emergency operations

44:40

center behind me, and time will tell.

44:43

And indeed, the clock is ticking away

44:45

here. They have been going now since

44:47

8 a.m. yesterday morning. And

44:49

they still now have about five hours to go. If

44:51

you do the math... Palm Beach canvassing board still had

44:54

about 5,400 ballots to get through. And

44:57

since the Secretary of State's office was open for business,

44:59

the deadline was 5 p.m. Katherine

45:02

Harris, the Secretary of State, is inside

45:04

the administrative building here, inside, at work

45:06

today on this Sunday afternoon. Around

45:09

half past noon, Judge Burton organized

45:12

a press conference and read a letter out

45:14

loud to Katherine Harris pleading for more time.

45:16

It says, dear Secretary Harris, we

45:19

have been working diligently, including

45:22

the last 20 or 24-hour period,

45:24

to complete this critical portion of

45:26

the hand count. Your

45:28

consideration of our request to extend

45:31

the deadline for final submission of this

45:33

hand count until Monday, November

45:36

27th, at 9 o'clock a.m.,

45:38

would be greatly appreciated. As

45:41

we know, you are interested... Harris's office

45:43

informed Burton that the 5 p.m. deadline

45:46

was non-negotiable. The Florida Supreme

45:48

Court had said that if they were open on Sunday,

45:50

then 5 p.m. was the deadline. Well,

45:52

they were open. And that meant

45:54

5 p.m. was the deadline. vote

46:00

counters down in Palm Beach that the extension

46:02

to that deadline will not happen. Quite a

46:04

blow to Judge Charles Burton,

46:06

to Commissioner Carol Roberts and Theresa Lapour,

46:08

the three members of this canvassing board

46:11

here who have been working now since

46:13

eight o'clock yesterday morning with maybe just

46:15

a two hour... Burton was devastated. And

46:19

at 4.15 p.m., he held another press

46:21

conference, this time to announce that

46:23

after 10 grueling days, the recount

46:25

in Palm Beach had failed. So

46:28

the Secretary of State has apparently decided

46:30

to shut us down with approximately two

46:32

hours perhaps left to go. We

46:35

believe there are approximately 800 to 1,000 ballots

46:37

left to count. So

46:41

unfortunately, at this time we

46:44

have no other choice but

46:46

then to shut down the

46:48

supervised elections. Back

46:52

to that point, Palm Beach had discovered

46:54

a net of around 200 new votes for

46:56

Gore. But now that

46:58

no longer mattered. None of those votes would

47:00

be counted. And there was nothing anyone in

47:02

Palm Beach could do about it. Ladies

47:06

and gentlemen, hours after the 5

47:08

p.m. deadline passed, Catherine Harris

47:10

presided over a certification ceremony at the

47:12

state capitol. As the state

47:14

elections canvassing commission, we

47:16

are here today to certify the result

47:18

of the election that occurred November 7th,

47:21

2000. Because

47:23

of the great interest in our

47:26

actions, we are meeting publicly. The

47:28

ceremony was just that, a ceremony,

47:31

because everyone knew that it wasn't actually going to end

47:33

the election. Gore and

47:35

his team had already indicated that they would be

47:37

filing a lawsuit to contest the official results. And

47:40

that meant the beginning of a whole new stage in the

47:42

process. For

47:45

now, the final tally stood at 2,912,253 votes for Gore and 2,912,790

47:47

votes for Bush. Gore

47:55

would be entering the so-called contest phase of the

47:57

recount, trailing by just 5,000 I

48:07

have to admit, I was pretty flabbergasted when

48:09

I learned about how the hand recount in

48:11

Palm Beach ended. And for

48:13

the record, I went into this project not knowing anything

48:15

about what the Secretary of State's office really did or

48:18

didn't do during the recount. I

48:20

was aware of Harris's reputation, and

48:22

I understood that Democrats generally believed that she

48:24

made decisions to benefit Bush, but

48:26

I was prepared to find out that the truth was

48:28

more complicated. And then I read about

48:30

this thing with Palm Beach, about how

48:32

Charles Burton begged Katherine Harris for a few more

48:35

hours so they could finish counting, and

48:37

how she wouldn't allow it no matter what. And

48:39

what I saw in this story was

48:41

Harris making a decision that was transparently and

48:44

unambiguously motivated by a desire to stop

48:46

the recount. Yes, the

48:48

canvassing board had made a truly short-sighted decision

48:50

to take time off for Thanksgiving. But

48:52

the Florida Supreme Court had said that having vote totals

48:55

come in on Monday at 9am would have been fine.

48:58

Why couldn't Harris have just given Palm Beach the extra

49:00

couple hours? What possible reason could

49:02

she have had other than wanting to protect

49:04

Bush's lead? I asked

49:06

Harris about this during our interview last spring, and

49:09

to my bewilderment, she remembered the

49:11

story completely differently. In

49:14

Harris's mind, she didn't cut the Palm Beach

49:16

recount short. She thinks she

49:18

actually extended the time they had. They

49:20

said originally Friday, and we

49:22

said we'd stay open until Sunday to give people more

49:24

time. No, I think they said

49:26

Sunday or Monday. That was the beginning of a pretty

49:28

drawn-out debate. No, they

49:31

said that the votes have to be in

49:33

by Sunday at 5pm if the Secretary of

49:35

State's office is open. Or if

49:38

the Secretary of State's office is not open on Sunday, they can

49:40

come in at 9am on Monday. I remember

49:42

the 9am on Monday, but I also clearly remember that because

49:45

we wanted it to be finished, everybody argued, let's do

49:47

it Friday, let's do it Friday. And

49:50

we said no, we're going to stay open. So

49:53

I'm not, maybe I'm not remembering

49:55

that. Exactly, I do know about the 9,

49:57

but I thought that we had to certify. at

50:00

five. It's that you shall certify. If

50:03

you're open. Yeah, and we chose to stay open

50:05

so that they would have the time. So

50:08

you and I disagree on that, but I

50:10

can go back, you know, we can both go back and check. But I

50:12

clearly, in my mind, it

50:15

was my understanding that we had a choice of

50:17

Friday or Sunday. I don't know

50:19

what to make of this exactly. Other

50:22

than Harris really truly remembers doing

50:24

everything right. Right according

50:26

to the law, right according to

50:28

the principles of democracy, right

50:30

according to the duties of her office. And

50:33

to be honest, that's true of pretty much all the people I

50:35

interviewed for this show. Everyone

50:37

remembers acting impartially and honorably and

50:39

fairly. But that

50:42

doesn't mean they remember it correctly. Good

50:50

evening. From

50:53

the beginning of this extraordinary period

50:55

of time, seven minutes after

50:57

Catherine Harris presided over the vote certification

50:59

in Florida, Joe Lieberman was

51:01

once again asked to go on television to represent

51:03

the campaign. Lieberman

51:06

addressed reporters at the Hay Adams Hotel in

51:08

Washington. It was three days

51:10

after Thanksgiving and the interior of the hotel

51:12

was already decorated for Christmas. This

51:15

time, the would be BP said exactly what he was

51:17

supposed to. This

51:20

evening, the Secretary of State

51:22

of Florida has

51:24

decided to certify what by

51:27

any reasonable standard is

51:30

an incomplete and

51:32

inaccurate count of

51:34

the votes cast in the state of Florida.

51:38

We have an opportunity here and

51:41

we have a responsibility to

51:44

ensure that this election lifts

51:47

up our democracy and

51:50

respects every voter and every

51:52

vote no matter

51:54

what the outcome. And

51:56

that is precisely what

51:59

Vice President President Gore and I

52:02

will seek to do in

52:04

the days ahead. George

52:09

W. Bush gave a speech that night too. He

52:12

called on Gore to drop his plan to contest

52:14

the election and to concede instead. He

52:17

also asked President Clinton to formally open a

52:19

transition office for his new administration. Good

52:22

evening. The

52:24

last 19 days have

52:26

been extraordinary once. But

52:29

now that the votes are counted, it is

52:31

time for the votes to count. I've

52:35

asked Secretary Cheney to work with President

52:37

Clinton's administration to open a

52:39

transition office in Washington. And

52:41

we look forward to a constructive working

52:43

relationship throughout this transition. Together,

52:48

we can make this a positive day of hope

52:51

and opportunity for all of

52:53

us who are blessed to be Americans. Thank

52:56

you very much, and God

52:58

bless America. Just

53:05

after Catherine Harris' certification ceremony,

53:08

lawyers from the governor's office rushed to

53:10

prepare the documents that would officially seat

53:12

Florida's 25 Republican electors. The

53:14

Bush camp was concerned that the Democrats would

53:16

try to subpoena the documents and prevent them

53:18

from getting filed. So,

53:21

out of an abundance of caution, the lawyers

53:23

transported the documents in an unmarked police car

53:26

and mailed them to Washington from an out-of-the-way post office

53:28

where no one would be expecting them. In

53:31

the end, none of it turned out to be necessary. The

53:35

Democrats didn't even try to interfere. After

53:38

an appeal by the Bush team, it was

53:41

the United States Supreme Court that finally called

53:43

a halt to the Florida recount, handing

53:46

the 25 electoral votes and

53:48

the presidency to George

53:50

W. Bush. Good evening. Just

53:53

moments ago, I spoke with George W.

53:55

Bush and congratulated him on becoming the

53:57

43rd president of the United States. And

54:00

I promised him that I wouldn't call him back to

54:02

this. The rest,

54:04

as they say, is history. This

54:10

hour of On the Media has

54:12

been an excerpt from the excellent

54:14

fiasco Bush v. Gore. Go

54:17

listen to the rest of the series on

54:19

the Luminary channel of Apple Podcasts, and

54:21

you can find more fiasco on Audible.

54:26

That's it for this week's show.

54:28

On the Media is produced by

54:30

Eloise Blondio, Molly Rosen, Rebecca Clark

54:32

Callender, and Candace Wong. Our

54:34

technical director is Jennifer Munson. Our

54:37

engineer this week was Brendan Dalton.

54:39

Katya Rogers is our executive producer.

54:42

On the Media is a production of

54:44

WNYC Studios. I'm Michael Loehlinger.