The results of Florida's 25 coveted electoral votes will remain in limbo for at least another week as Florida officials are unable to give an official vote count, leaving the identity of the next U.S. president a mystery.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush's margin of victory over Vice President Al Gore in Florida was so small that election officials must wait until all overseas ballots have been counted before declaring which man captured the state. But these absentee ballots are not due until Nov. 17, leaving the 43rd presidency unfilled for at least another week.
An unoffical count by The Associated Press found Bush leading by 229 votes with 66 of 67 counties reporting at press time yesterday. Florida state officials, however, would only confirm that Bush was ahead by 1,784 votes with 53 of 67 counties reporting. The deadline for recounting is Tuesday.
As the Florida votes were re-tallied yesterday, hundreds of protestors hit the streets in Palm Beach, calling for a re-vote. Meanwhile, the Gore camp continued to raise questions about ballots and voting practices in the Sunshine State.
Many Democratic voters in Palm Beach County claim the election ballots were unclear, leading them to accidentally cast a vote for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan rather than for Gore. Buchanan surprisingly garnered a significant amount of votes in Palm Beach County.
"I think that there were some oddities that did occur," Gore deputy spokeswoman Devona Volliole said.
Gore campaign chairman Bill Daley and former Secretary of State Warren Christopher are conferring with other campaign officials to try to determine the Gore team's course of action, Vollile said.
Presently, the Gore camp has requested a hand count of close to 1.7 million votes in Palm Beach as well as in other Florida counties. So far, Palm Beach and Volusia agreed to the hand count.
Several lawsuits have already been filed questioning the legality of the disputed ballots, including 19,000 that were disqualified because of double-punching.
"We are allowing the legal process to continue," Vollile said. "Right now we are only in the first stage."
But some political analysts said they believe there is a very good possibility that Gore will take legal action.
Gore "has a very large strike force of lawyers on the ground at Florida," said Larry J. Sabato, government and foreign affairs professor.
The Bush camp remains confident that he has rightfully won the presidency and refutes the claims of unclear ballots in Palm Beach County.
In a press conference held yesterday afternoon, Don Evans, Bush campaign strategist, pointed out that "Reform Party labels in Palm Beach County increased by 110 percent" since the 1996 presidential election.
Since the Reform Party's voter registration increased, this may account for the increased pro-Buchanan votes in Palm Beach, Evans said.
Besides the ballot-punch controversy, the NAACP and civil rights leader Rev. Jessie Jackson have made accusations that blacks - who historically vote Democrat - had problems getting ballots in Florida.
The NAACP sent a letter regarding the matter to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who made a statement saying she would look into the matter.
Despite the controversy surrounding Florida's 25 electoral votes, Bush campaign officials insist they are confident the final results will give them the needed electoral votes.
The Bush team does not feel officials should wait to count overseas ballots regardless of the margin of victory.
"I think the Democrats have conceded that overseas ballots are likely to be Republican," Evans said. The Gore camp declined to comment on the issue.
In the midst of the controversy, many question the validity of a possible Bush win, since he has not received the majority of the national popular vote.
But Bush officials insist there still are votes being counted in states such as Iowa, Wisconsin and California that might put Bush in the lead for the popular vote. Evans pointed out that Bush has gained more popular votes than President Clinton did in either the 1992 or 1996 election.
As events continue to unfold, observers are debating the election's impact.
"No one can tell me that this is good for the country," Sabato said. "The truth is that we will never really know who won the election."
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