Electoral Votes

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Vice President Al Gore urgently appealed to the Florida Supreme Court yesterday to order an immediate judicial count of about 13,000 contested ballots, which he believes will overcome George W. Bush's 537-vote lead and swing the state and its vital 25 electoral votes to him. In a race against time, lawyers for Gore argued that a lower court's rulings have effectively "cut short" Gore's right to contest election results here and made...

WITH VICE PRESIDENT Al Gore yesterday challenging election returns in Florida state court, and the U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments over aspects of the tally Friday, the judges could yet have the final word on this year's presidential election. Yet the election without end had seemed to move a step closer to finality Sunday with the official certification of Texas Gov. George W. Bush as the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes, enough to give him an apparent victory. We understand why many Americans want to get this election behind us. But there is an established procedure that must be followed.

WASHINGTON - Casting his fight for the presidency as a defense of America's democratic values, Vice President Al Gore said in a nationally televised appeal last night that he is contesting the Florida election to guarantee that "the people's will" is heard. Fighting opinion polls which show that even some of his own voters believe that it is time to give up, Gore warned that democracy would suffer if all of the votes cast three weeks ago in Florida are not properly tallied. "This is America," he said in a five-minute speech from his official residence in Washington.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Taking their cue from Texas Gov. George W. Bush's elections emissary, Florida lawmakers yesterday discussed ways for the Republican-controlled state Legislature to intervene in the elections process and control Florida's crucial 25 electoral votes. The top two legislative leaders said they were researching options that could include convening a special legislative session in which lawmakers would choose a method for selecting representatives to the Electoral College, a right they can exercise under federal law in the absence of a state-certified vote count.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Players in the presidential stakes games in Florida took a timeout yesterday for a little pomp and circumstance before last night's eagerly awaited Supreme Court opinion. Florida legislators arrived in the state capitol to swear in new members, elect their leaders and attend a "meet-and-greet" at the governor's mansion. The ceremonies took place amid calls for election reform and questions over the role of state lawmakers in deciding who wins the state's 25 electoral votes - and the presidency.

WASHINGTON - Finding itself caught between federal law and state law, the Florida Supreme Court left the impression yesterday that it is prepared to act boldly to help end the presidential election dispute if it can find a formula that would work swiftly. The court seemed unfazed by stern warnings from a lawyer for George W. Bush that the court would be violating federal law if it changed the legal ground rules now that the election is past. In fact, the justices did not shy from openly exploring ways to do just that.

A new way to select a leader? I agree with the concerns about the Electoral College expressed by Steven Hill and Rob Richie ("Time to abolish electors' votes for president," Opinion Commentary, Nov. 13). This anachronism causes some votes to carry far more weight than others in a presidential election, which negates the idea of equality among citizens. Look at the voting results: California, the most populous state, has 54 electors and cast 9,310,000 votes, or one elector for each 172,000 votes.

NOW THAT THE liberal Democrat - Maryland's 7th District Rep. Elijah E. Cummings - has had his turn at bat regarding the Electoral College (he's against it), it's the conservative Republican's turn. Enter Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Maryland's 2nd District, recently re-elected to Congress, as was Cummings. But unlike Cummings, who wants to see the Electoral College abolished and have our presidents elected by popular vote, Ehrlich sees no reason to fix a system that isn't broken. "The Electoral College came about to protect the interests of all people, particularly the people of smaller states," Ehrlich said this week, adding that there is no "serious discussion" in Congress of doing away with the current system.

The time has come for Gore to accept defeat graciously It is time for Vice President Al Gore to stop whining and accept defeat graciously. Mr. Gore is doing our country a great disservice by dividing us and pitting groups of citizens against each other. The fairness of the Palm Beach County ballots is a non-issue. If anyone had problems or questions about how to use the butterfly ballots, he or she should have inquired how to use them before voting, not after the election. This is not the first election that has used such ballots.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris refused to accept any newly recounted Florida presidential ballots last night and declared Texas Gov. George W. Bush the leader for the state's 25 electoral votes - a decision she acknowledged is certain to be reviewed by the state's courts. Harris, a Republican who was co-chairman of the Bush campaign in Florida, took action just hours after the Florida Supreme Court unanimously turned aside a request she filed yesterday morning to stop manual vote recounts in several Florida counties and to consolidate all election-related legal challenges in a local trial court in Tallahassee.