PRESIDENT

• FLORIDA (25 electoral votes): Unofficial count: Bush leads by 930 votes (with 67 of 67 counties reporting). The absentee ballot tally is Bush 1380, Gore 750. Nearly 1,420 additional ballots were cast out. [The 14 November certified returns from all 67 Florida counties show that Bush leads by a 300 vote margin.]
• NEW MEXICO (5 electoral votes): Gore leads by 481 votes out of some 571,000 cast [0.07% of votes cast]. The results will be finalized on 28 November after which the parties have 6 days to request a recount. Current tally is Gore: 286,558; Bush: 286,077.
• OREGON (7 electoral votes) is reporting a 4,765 vote lead for Gore out of some 1.4 million cast [0.3% of votes cast]. No information on a recount.
• WISCONSIN (11 electoral votes) is reporting a 6,099 lead for Gore out of some 2.5 million cast [0.2% of votes cast]. The vote in Wisconsin will be certified Friday 17 November. The parties then have 3 business days to contest the results.

Popular vote (national margin 262,991 for Gore)
Gore: 49,921,267
Bush: 49,658,276

Uncontested States with close races:

• IOWA (7 electoral votes) is reporting a 4,047 vote lead for Gore out of some 1.3 million cast [0.3 % of votes cast]. Bush will NOT ask for a recount.
• NEW HAMPSHIRE (4 electoral votes) is reporting a 7,211 vote lead for Bush out of some 578,000 cast [1.2% of votes cast]. The deadline for requesting a recount has passed.

Close SENATE Races

• Washington - Republican Senator Slade Gorton holds and unofficial lead of 1,765 votes over Democrat Maria Cantwell.

Close HOUSE Races

• Florida CD 22 - Friday 17 November - Democrat Elaine Bloom conceded to Republican Congressman Clay Shaw. Shaw leads by 596 votes.
• Minnesota CD 2 - Friday 17 November - Republican Mark Kennedy leads Democratic Congressman David Minge by 150 votes. Reports state Minge will seek a recount.
• New Jersey CD 12 - Friday 17 November - Democrat Rush Holt holds and unofficial lead of 553 votes over Republican Dick Zimmer. Reports indicate Zimmer will request a recount.

FLORIDA

Constitutional provisions for the election of the President and Vice-President
Federal Law governing the election of a President and Vice-President
Florida General Election Statutes

Next week:

• Monday 21 November - County Circuit Court Judge Jorge LaBarga will rule on whether he has the Constitutional authority to order a new presidential election in Palm Beach County. This suit was filed by Democrats who claim the Palm Beach butterfly ballot confused voters.
• Monday 21 November 2 PM EST (1900 UTC) - Florida Supreme deadline for filing arguments over the validity of the hand vote recounts.

Florida ballot recount status. The numbers below are unofficial. There are ongoing disputes regarding punched but not perforated ballots and ballots where tape was applied to the holes.

• Broward: Gore +59 (210 of 609 precincts recounted)
• Miami-Date: Sunday- mechanical sorting to identify questionable ballots, Monday- hand recount of those ballots begins. There are 645,000 ballots to be recounted.
• Palm Beach: a member of the canvassing board reports that he is "not seeing much of a change" (about 130 of 531 precincts recounted)

Saturday 18 November - Florida overseas absentee ballots - The deadline has now passed for overseas absentee ballots to be accepted. Reports indicate that 39% (1,420 out of 3,626) of these ballots have been rejected because they lacked signatures, postmarks, or envelopes. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (Republican Virginia) has written a letter to Defense Secretary William Cohen expressing concern that military ballots may not be counted because they lacked postmarks. While military regulations require postmarks Warner stated "Fundamental principles of equity, long established in our jurisprudence, should be invoked to ensure that the ballots of our overseas military personnel are counted despite the absence of a postmark, or some other technicality".

Saturday 18 November - A Seminole County court heard but did not rule on a suit, filed by Democrats, that seeks to invalidate 4,700 (out of 15,000) absentee ballots cast in that county. The suit claims that Republican activists were allowed to write registration numbers on ballots from Registered Republicans which were mailed without those numbers.

Friday 17 November 6:30 PM EST (2330 UTC) - The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied a request by the Bush campaign for an injunction against manual recounts in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach Counties. In regards to an appeal on behalf of citizens of Brevard County (who feel their rights as citizens and voters have been violated by allowing manual recounts in primarily Democrat counties), the court said that the Florida state courts "will address and resolve" those Constitutional issues.

Friday 17 November 4:15 PM EST (2115 UTC) - The Florida Supreme Court ordered Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris NOT to certify vote tallies until it rules on the Gore campaign's motion to allow recounted votes to be counted. The hearing is planned for Monday 20 November 2 PM EST (1900 UTC). The ruling:

"In order to maintain the status quo, the Court, on its own motion, enjoins the Respondent, Secretary of State and Respondent, the Elections Canvassing Commission, from certifying the results of the November 7, 2000 presidential election, until further notice of this Court. It is NOT the intent of this Order to stop the counting and conveying to the Secretary of State the results of absentee ballots or any other ballots."

Friday 17 November 10 AM EST (1500 UTC) - Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis ruled that Secretary of State Katherine Harris used reasoned judgement in her decision not to accept tallies submitted after last Tuesday's deadline. The Democrats claimed the decision by the Secretary was "arbitrary" and did not take into account the due facts and circumstances as required by the court's 14 November ruling.

Thursday 16 November 5 PM EST (2200 UTC)- The Florida Supreme court unanimously ruled that the counties can continue conducting their manual recounts. The Gore campaign has urged counties to complete their recounts as soon a possible. However, this ruling did not order the Secretary of State to certify these latest recounts. Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties are now recounting their ballots.

Wednesday evening Al Gore proposed that the entire state of Florida undergo a recount. George Bush rejected this proposal.

Tuesday 14 November, 7:30 PM EST (0030 UTC, 15 November) - The Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, announced the following vote totals re: the certified returns from all 67 counties:

Bush: 2,910,492
Gore: 2,910,192
Bush: margin: 300

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

For those of you reading this- within the United States and especially outside of the USofA- who might not understand our judicial system, let me make this very clear:

this injunction sought by the Bush campaign is being brought in a FEDERAL Court (even though the legal argument involves a Florida STATE statute- the Bush campaign is arguing that the Florida statute allowing manual recounts violates the Constitution of the UNITED STATES [and, therefore, it is a FEDERAL- not a STATE- question]): the Federal Court that heard this case Monday 13 November was the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, Florida. Any appeal from the judge's ruling (whatever it might be- granting the injunction or no) is to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which covers the States of Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Any further appeals beyond the 11th Circuit can only go to one place- the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C. (the Nation's highest court of last resort) beyond which there IS no appeal!

meanwhile, those lawsuits being brought by those 8 Florida voters- whose actions are, of course, being supported by the Gore campaign- who are claiming they were, in effect, denied their right to vote by being confused by the controversial ballot used in Palm Beach County this past 7 November are bringing these cases in STATE court (NOT the Federal courts cited above: each of the 50 States of the American Union has its own court system- separate and independent from that of the Federal Government): the court that would hear these cases would be the Florida Circuit Court for Palm Beach County (Florida's 15th Judicial Circuit) sitting in West Palm Beach, Fla.- the county seat. Any appeals (by the losing party or parties) would be taken to the Florida District Court of Appeal for the 4th (Appellate) District which not only includes Palm Beach County but, by complete coincidence, that particular District Court of Appeal also sits in West Palm Beach, Fla. Any appeals from that court would go to the Florida Supreme Court (which is different from the U.S. Supreme Court) sitting in Tallahassee, the state capital.

If a ruling by the judge in the Palm Beach County Circuit Court should involve a question re: Florida's own State Constitution, a direct appeal could be taken to the Florida Supreme Court (bypassing the 4th District Court of Appeal). The Florida Supreme Court would be the end of the road for a STATE case (that is, no further appeal could be taken) UNLESS a state law is held to be constitutional under requirements of the Constitution of the UNITED STATES, in which case the legal matter COULD be taken up by- you guessed it!- the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C.

LAME DUCK 106^th CONGRESS

The lame duck session of the dying 106th Congress- which was to start on Monday 20 November- will now be pushed back to Tuesday 5 December... why is this important to Election 2000? Because many political observers were speculating as to whether or not this session might, in some way, alter- by a "one time only" statute- the date the Presidential Electors are supposed to meet in their respective States (currently Monday 18 December), which would also affect the last date an uncontestable (that is, not reviewable by Congress because the State has already made a determination) slate of Presidential Electors can be certified as "appointed" by the Governor of a State (6 days prior to the Electors' meeting- currently Tuesday 12 December), if the Presidential Election had not yet been decided by the end of November going into early December.

It is the considered opinion of "The Green Papers" (taking into account the trend of the recount) that, when the subsequent recount(s)- are completed and finally certified and announced, the final vote in FLORIDA will end up determining that Governor George W, Bush of Texas has, indeed, won the State of FLORIDA, will thereby gain 25 more Electoral Votes which will, in turn, give him 271 to Vice President Gore's 262 and, thus, make George W. Bush, Republican, the 43d President of the United States of America. Therefore, "The Green Papers" has once again posted FLORIDA as being in the Bush column but with the caveat that this is pending the outcome of any potential legal challenges to Governor Bush's victory in the State on behalf of the presidential candidacy of Vice President Gore.