Gore Again Pushes Statewide Florida Count
November 30, 2000 - 0:0
WASHINGTON -- Democratic White House hopeful Al Gore on Tuesday reiterated his call on Republican rival George W. Bush to agree to a statewide manual recount of presidential ballots in Florida that he said would be completed in seven days.
"This is a time to count every vote and not to run out the clock," AFP quoted the vice president as saying in a brief statement outside his official residence here, rebuking the Texas governor for rejecting the offer earlier in the day.
"Once we have that full and accurate count of the ballots cast, then we will know who our next president is and our country can move forward," he added.
Gore hopes recounts will help him overtake Bush's certified lead in Florida by just 537 votes out of some six million votes cast in the decisive state, whose 25 electoral college will decide who gets the 270 needed to win the White House.
"Let me repeat the essence of our proposal today: Seven days, starting tomorrow, for a full and accurate count of all the votes," he said before deploring that the Republican had rejected the proposal.
"Instead, they have proposed two weeks of additional court proceedings and additional hearings, right up to the December 12 deadline for seating electors," in the electoral college, which decides who becomes the U.S. president, said Gore.
The offer followed Gore's televised address late Monday in which he urged the U.S. public to be patient with his court challenges to the election in Florida in the face of national surveys showing roughly two in three Americans think he should concede defeat.
Asked about that apparent erosion in support, Gore replied: "I'm quite sure that the polls don't matter in this, because it's a legal question." And President Bill Clinton's designated heir also said that while he and Bush "in the interest of the nation, should both proceed with transition planning and activities," he would not be naming people to posts until the election is settled.
"I personally do not feel it is appropriate to announce the names of cabinet members or to formally offer positions," he told a reporter who asked whether he had offered U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers a cabinet post in a meeting earlier Tuesday.
"This is a time to count every vote and not to run out the clock," AFP quoted the vice president as saying in a brief statement outside his official residence here, rebuking the Texas governor for rejecting the offer earlier in the day.
"Once we have that full and accurate count of the ballots cast, then we will know who our next president is and our country can move forward," he added.
Gore hopes recounts will help him overtake Bush's certified lead in Florida by just 537 votes out of some six million votes cast in the decisive state, whose 25 electoral college will decide who gets the 270 needed to win the White House.
"Let me repeat the essence of our proposal today: Seven days, starting tomorrow, for a full and accurate count of all the votes," he said before deploring that the Republican had rejected the proposal.
"Instead, they have proposed two weeks of additional court proceedings and additional hearings, right up to the December 12 deadline for seating electors," in the electoral college, which decides who becomes the U.S. president, said Gore.
The offer followed Gore's televised address late Monday in which he urged the U.S. public to be patient with his court challenges to the election in Florida in the face of national surveys showing roughly two in three Americans think he should concede defeat.
Asked about that apparent erosion in support, Gore replied: "I'm quite sure that the polls don't matter in this, because it's a legal question." And President Bill Clinton's designated heir also said that while he and Bush "in the interest of the nation, should both proceed with transition planning and activities," he would not be naming people to posts until the election is settled.
"I personally do not feel it is appropriate to announce the names of cabinet members or to formally offer positions," he told a reporter who asked whether he had offered U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers a cabinet post in a meeting earlier Tuesday.