WEBVTT - Bush v. Gore: Episode 4 – Spin-Off 0:00:16.311 --> 0:00:23.191 Pushkin. Hey Leon here, Before we get to this episode, 0:00:23.431 --> 0:00:25.191 I want to let you know that you can binge 0:00:25.231 --> 0:00:28.591 the entire season of Fiasco Bush v goor right now 0:00:28.791 --> 0:00:33.071 ad free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Sign up 0:00:33.111 --> 0:00:37.031 for Pushkin Plus on the Fiasco Apple podcast showpage, or 0:00:37.191 --> 0:00:44.470 visit Pushkin dot fm slash Plus. Now onto the episode 0:00:44.790 --> 0:00:46.990 previously on Fiasco. 0:00:48.071 --> 0:00:50.830 Some strange, unusual things happening in Florida. 0:00:50.991 --> 0:00:53.831 The Gore campaign is trying to lengthen out the timeline. 0:00:53.871 --> 0:00:58.071 Florida Democratic officials will be requesting a handcount of ballots 0:00:58.071 --> 0:01:00.671 of Palm Beach County as well as three other counties. 0:01:00.711 --> 0:01:03.911 It was unsettling to me that a candidate would cherry 0:01:03.951 --> 0:01:08.431 pick four counties out of sixty seven to recount fifty teams. 0:01:08.471 --> 0:01:11.390 We'll start to handcount more than four hundred and sixty 0:01:11.471 --> 0:01:12.671 thousand ballots. 0:01:12.751 --> 0:01:15.351 There's been a lot of discussion about the Hanging Chad 0:01:15.391 --> 0:01:16.391 and the dimple chat. 0:01:16.591 --> 0:01:20.231 The fundamental framework was to slow walk the count. 0:01:20.551 --> 0:01:24.711 Gore advisor accusing Florida's Republican Secretary of State just trying 0:01:24.711 --> 0:01:25.351 to ensure. 0:01:25.151 --> 0:01:25.950 A Bush victory. 0:01:26.111 --> 0:01:28.671 I had no idea to who benefit it would accrue. 0:01:28.751 --> 0:01:30.871 I just know I had had to follow the law. 0:01:30.951 --> 0:01:34.751 Florida's highest state court has blocked the Secretary of State. 0:01:34.911 --> 0:01:37.391 Voice wins one round, Gore wins the next. It is 0:01:37.431 --> 0:01:39.831 a legal slug fest that won't end soon. 0:01:43.231 --> 0:01:46.031 In the weeks after election day, an overwhelming majority of 0:01:46.071 --> 0:01:49.311 Americans between seventy seven and eighty seven percent, said they 0:01:49.311 --> 0:01:52.711 were closely following the Florida recount. But the Florida recount 0:01:52.831 --> 0:01:55.751 was not easy to follow. Staying up on the latest 0:01:55.751 --> 0:01:58.831 developments could feel a cramming for an exam the procedural 0:01:58.831 --> 0:02:01.591 debates between the two parties and intricacies of Florida law 0:02:02.111 --> 0:02:03.471 could be a bit much. 0:02:04.871 --> 0:02:04.991 So. 0:02:05.031 --> 0:02:07.631 The judge says, the five o'clock deadline stands. But it's 0:02:07.671 --> 0:02:10.191 not that simple, because the judge also says. 0:02:10.431 --> 0:02:13.471 Balance, Natalie, All of what John Zurella just explained was complicated, 0:02:13.471 --> 0:02:15.311 but it did seem to be a little bit consistent. 0:02:15.431 --> 0:02:19.871 But there was more, and it was murkier. There were 0:02:19.911 --> 0:02:22.191 just so many names and subplots to keep track of. 0:02:22.711 --> 0:02:25.391 There are so many claims and counter claims, so many 0:02:25.471 --> 0:02:26.791 numbers flying through the air. 0:02:27.071 --> 0:02:28.991 We hope you all have your scorecards out, because this 0:02:28.991 --> 0:02:30.710 one's getting more complicated. 0:02:30.231 --> 0:02:32.391 All the time, and no one knew how long it 0:02:32.431 --> 0:02:33.351 was going to take to resolve. 0:02:33.471 --> 0:02:35.991 Everybody is starting to lose patience with this election. 0:02:36.151 --> 0:02:39.591 The process seems doomed to work its slow and painful 0:02:39.631 --> 0:02:41.671 way through a series of court rooms. 0:02:41.751 --> 0:02:44.151 No matter what happens, it certainly leaves Florida in a 0:02:44.191 --> 0:02:45.711 sort of legal state of limbo. 0:02:48.511 --> 0:02:50.671 The worst part might have been how impossible it was 0:02:50.711 --> 0:02:53.231 to talk about the recount without using all these horrible 0:02:53.351 --> 0:02:58.871 bureaucratic phrases like certification deadline and canvassing board and advisory opinion. 0:03:00.311 --> 0:03:03.071 This deadening jargon was not just a problem for journalists 0:03:03.071 --> 0:03:05.791 trying to make the recount story exciting or at least legible. 0:03:06.591 --> 0:03:09.751 It was also a problem for the two campaigns. Both 0:03:09.751 --> 0:03:11.871 of them needed to frame the churn of the recount 0:03:11.911 --> 0:03:14.151 on their terms, and to do so in ways that 0:03:14.151 --> 0:03:18.511 had at least some emotional residence. Democrats found that emotional 0:03:18.511 --> 0:03:21.831 residence early with the butterfly ballots in Palm Beach. It 0:03:21.871 --> 0:03:24.191 was easy to comprehend how terrible it might feel to 0:03:24.231 --> 0:03:26.311 know that you wasted your vote in such a close race. 0:03:27.471 --> 0:03:30.550 But about ten days after the election, the Republicans found 0:03:30.591 --> 0:03:33.551 an emotional rallying point of their own, and they found 0:03:33.591 --> 0:03:38.591 it in something exquisitely boring sounding called overseas absentee ballots. 0:03:38.991 --> 0:03:43.151 The postmarks come from all over the world, votes usually overlooked. 0:03:43.471 --> 0:03:45.391 This year, they could determine the election. 0:03:45.871 --> 0:03:48.431 More than six million Americans live overseas, which is. 0:03:48.431 --> 0:03:51.951 Roughly the size of the population of the Commonwealth of Virginia. 0:03:52.111 --> 0:03:54.271 Just how many of those absentee ballots are author are 0:03:54.271 --> 0:03:54.831 still to be. 0:03:54.751 --> 0:03:58.071 Counted, and who will get how many of them? Overseas 0:03:58.111 --> 0:04:02.191 absentee ballots were used by American citizens living abroad in 0:04:02.231 --> 0:04:05.471 recent presidential elections. The state of Florida had received between 0:04:05.551 --> 0:04:08.991 fifteen hundred and three thousand of them in a normal election. 0:04:09.191 --> 0:04:11.831 That was not a lot of votes. But in two thousand, 0:04:12.151 --> 0:04:15.111 when it became clear that overseas absentee ballots could determine 0:04:15.151 --> 0:04:17.590 the outcome of the race, they were thrust into the 0:04:17.591 --> 0:04:20.471 center of a bitter confrontation between the two campaigns. 0:04:20.871 --> 0:04:23.671 There are battles going on in county offices all over 0:04:23.711 --> 0:04:26.431 the state. We've heard reports of county officials screaming at 0:04:26.431 --> 0:04:29.431 each other as Democrats and Republicans go to the map 0:04:29.471 --> 0:04:32.911 for every overseas absentee vote. 0:04:32.991 --> 0:04:36.511 The process for tabulating overseas absentee ballots in Florida followed 0:04:36.511 --> 0:04:39.831 its own special timeline, one that was intended to compensate 0:04:39.871 --> 0:04:41.791 for the fact that mail coming in from far away 0:04:42.311 --> 0:04:45.071 takes a long time to get where it's going. Here's 0:04:45.071 --> 0:04:47.631 Mark Herron, a lawyer who became an expert on overseas 0:04:47.671 --> 0:04:50.111 absentee ballots while working with the Gore recount team. 0:04:50.511 --> 0:04:54.431 In Florida. You could continue to receive and count overseas 0:04:54.471 --> 0:04:57.871 absentee ballots until ten days after the election if they 0:04:57.871 --> 0:05:02.271 had been postmarked prior to the close of election day. 0:05:02.591 --> 0:05:06.391 The voters who used overseas absentee ballots tended to belong 0:05:06.431 --> 0:05:09.831 to one of several distinct groups American diplomats working at 0:05:09.831 --> 0:05:14.311 four or embassies, American Jews living in Israel, expats in general, 0:05:14.711 --> 0:05:19.111 and US military personnel stationed abroad. The Gore team expected 0:05:19.111 --> 0:05:21.551 many of the overseas ballots to come from this last group, 0:05:22.271 --> 0:05:24.231 and that they would overwhelmingly favor Bush. 0:05:24.551 --> 0:05:27.911 The military people were generally more conservative in terms of 0:05:27.951 --> 0:05:32.231 their viewpoints on the world than Democrats, and I guess 0:05:32.231 --> 0:05:35.871 the thinking would be that the military folks would vote 0:05:35.911 --> 0:05:37.551 for Bush. As opposed to Gore. 0:05:38.071 --> 0:05:41.590 As overseas absentee ballots poured into Florida's sixty seven county 0:05:41.631 --> 0:05:44.791 canvassing boards, the Gore team worried that their opponents would 0:05:44.831 --> 0:05:46.231 try to take advantage of the system. 0:05:46.711 --> 0:05:51.431 There were reports and rumors that planes military planes were 0:05:51.431 --> 0:05:56.351 flying into Panama City stuffed would oversee ballots that had 0:05:56.391 --> 0:05:58.751 not been postmarked prior to election day. 0:05:59.351 --> 0:06:02.831 No evidence of such organized ballots stuffing ever emerged, but 0:06:02.951 --> 0:06:06.271 at the time anything seemed possible, so higher ups on 0:06:06.311 --> 0:06:08.710 the Gore recount team asked Heron to do some research 0:06:08.791 --> 0:06:12.351 and write up a detailed memo under what circumstances would 0:06:12.351 --> 0:06:14.951 it be appropriate, according to Florida law, to challenge the 0:06:15.031 --> 0:06:19.271 validity of an overseas absentee ballot. The intended audience for 0:06:19.311 --> 0:06:22.311 Heron's memo was the network of Democratic lawyers helping the 0:06:22.311 --> 0:06:26.031 Gore campaign around the state. When Florida's sixty seven counties 0:06:26.031 --> 0:06:29.510 started going through their overseas absentee ballots, these lawyers would 0:06:29.511 --> 0:06:32.070 be responsible for challenging incomplete or legal ones. 0:06:32.871 --> 0:06:36.871 They could use it when they appeared before the canvassing 0:06:36.911 --> 0:06:39.351 boards and say, hey, this one here can't be counted 0:06:39.391 --> 0:06:42.471 because it isn't signed. This one here can't be counted 0:06:42.511 --> 0:06:45.551 because there's no postmark on it. There's no postmark that 0:06:45.631 --> 0:06:50.551 indicates that it was mailed or transmitted prior to the 0:06:50.591 --> 0:06:52.831 close of election day, or it has a postmark that's 0:06:52.871 --> 0:06:55.711 after election day, and therefore it can't be accepted. 0:06:56.591 --> 0:07:00.231 In its first paragraph, Heron's memo specifically mentioned members of 0:07:00.231 --> 0:07:03.031 the Armed forces, along with other citizens of the United 0:07:03.071 --> 0:07:06.871 States who are temporarily residing outside the country. The memo 0:07:06.911 --> 0:07:08.871 went out to a group of Democratic Party lawyers on 0:07:08.911 --> 0:07:12.151 November fifteenth, with the expectation that it would stay among friends, 0:07:13.191 --> 0:07:15.991 but less than forty eight hours later, a copy made 0:07:15.991 --> 0:07:21.151 its way to Bush headquarters in Tallahassee. The Republicans instantly 0:07:21.151 --> 0:07:24.591 recognized it as a major opportunity. Here was a Gore 0:07:24.671 --> 0:07:28.191 lawyer providing instructions on how to disqualify votes sent in 0:07:28.231 --> 0:07:33.111 by American soldiers. The indignant TV appearances practically booked themselves. 0:07:33.231 --> 0:07:37.191 The Vice President's lawyers have gone to war in my judgment, 0:07:37.231 --> 0:07:39.751 against the men and women who serve in our armed forces. 0:07:39.871 --> 0:07:43.191 I'm tired of hearing Democrats saying, including out Gore account 0:07:43.311 --> 0:07:45.871 every vote, and yet they're all over the state of Florida, 0:07:46.031 --> 0:07:48.791 challenging thousands of our military votes. 0:07:49.071 --> 0:07:51.311 The Bush team pushed the story to every news out 0:07:51.311 --> 0:07:54.431 what they could, and organized press conferences to publicize the issue. 0:07:54.471 --> 0:07:57.551 We are concerned that a targeted effort by the Democratic 0:07:57.671 --> 0:08:00.831 Party sought to throw out as many as a third 0:08:01.191 --> 0:08:05.671 of the overseas absentee ballots received since election day, many 0:08:05.711 --> 0:08:08.631 of them the votes of the men and women of 0:08:08.671 --> 0:08:11.590 our United States Armed Forces who are serving the cause 0:08:11.631 --> 0:08:13.391 of freedom throughout the world. 0:08:14.071 --> 0:08:16.991 The Heron memo, as it came to be known, instantly 0:08:17.031 --> 0:08:20.271 broke through the static of recount coverage. And if you're 0:08:20.311 --> 0:08:22.911 wondering how the Bush communications team turned to phrase as 0:08:22.911 --> 0:08:27.151 cumbersome as oversees absentee ballots into a hot issue, the 0:08:27.191 --> 0:08:29.591 answer is they didn't have to because they could call 0:08:29.631 --> 0:08:31.271 them military ballots instead. 0:08:31.591 --> 0:08:35.471 The Democrats have launched a statewide effort throughout as many 0:08:35.550 --> 0:08:37.070 military ballots as they can. 0:08:37.191 --> 0:08:40.151 Democratic lawyers had been given guidelines on how to challenge 0:08:40.191 --> 0:08:43.470 military ballots, and the wife of one sailor spoke out. 0:08:43.511 --> 0:08:45.830 It was the first that he had heard that his 0:08:46.231 --> 0:08:51.231 ballot was one of the votes that did not count. 0:08:52.310 --> 0:08:54.631 I don't think it's too cynical or unfair to wonder 0:08:54.670 --> 0:08:57.711 how the Gore team didn't see this coming. But Heron 0:08:57.790 --> 0:09:00.351 really thought that all he was doing was summarizing this 0:09:00.430 --> 0:09:03.191 corner of Florida election law so that Gore's lawyers in 0:09:03.231 --> 0:09:05.670 the ground would know what they were dealing with. Now 0:09:05.751 --> 0:09:08.550 the campaign was being accused of trying to disenfranchise men 0:09:08.550 --> 0:09:09.670 and women in uniform. 0:09:10.111 --> 0:09:14.431 The military is a somewhat sacred thing, and these folks 0:09:14.430 --> 0:09:17.351 are giving up their lives, their family life, you know, 0:09:17.391 --> 0:09:19.471 to defend the country. And then to say that, hey, 0:09:19.830 --> 0:09:22.110 these Democrats are trying to take away their vote. It 0:09:22.190 --> 0:09:25.350 kind of all fits into the narrative of what democrats 0:09:25.351 --> 0:09:27.871 are all about, and it was very, very powerful. They 0:09:27.991 --> 0:09:31.511 do a great job with spin even when the reality 0:09:31.590 --> 0:09:34.151 is completely to the contrary, and this was one of 0:09:34.190 --> 0:09:34.950 those examples. 0:09:35.310 --> 0:09:37.950 You may recall that in our previous episode you heard 0:09:37.991 --> 0:09:40.151 a lot of people say repeatedly that all they did 0:09:40.271 --> 0:09:43.311 during the recount was follow the law. But as Mark 0:09:43.351 --> 0:09:46.311 Heron learned the hard way, the recount was about much 0:09:46.351 --> 0:09:49.391 more than the law. It was also about politics as 0:09:49.391 --> 0:09:52.470 a means of influencing how the law gets applied. By 0:09:52.550 --> 0:09:54.591 using the Heron memo as the basis for a pr 0:09:54.670 --> 0:09:57.391 onslaught against Gore. The Bush team wasn't just trying to 0:09:57.391 --> 0:10:00.310 score points on cable news or win hearts and minds. 0:10:00.871 --> 0:10:03.190 They were generating pressure that would make the law work 0:10:03.231 --> 0:10:08.271 to their advantage. I'm Leon Nafok from Prologue Projects and 0:10:08.351 --> 0:10:11.950 Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Bush v. 0:10:12.111 --> 0:10:12.351 Gore. 0:10:13.430 --> 0:10:16.151 Gore made a conscious decision that he would fight in 0:10:16.190 --> 0:10:18.151 the courts, but not on the streets. 0:10:18.950 --> 0:10:21.271 Republican demonstrators stormed the hallway. 0:10:21.391 --> 0:10:23.511 It sounds like you're in the middle of a prison riot. 0:10:25.910 --> 0:10:30.830 Episode four spinoff How the Bush campaign achieved crucial legal 0:10:30.910 --> 0:10:34.511 victories by burying Al Gore in the court of public opinion, 0:10:44.790 --> 0:10:47.711 Believe it or not. One of Al Gore's most effective 0:10:47.710 --> 0:10:50.751 advocates in two thousand was his running mate Joe Lieberman. 0:10:51.631 --> 0:10:54.511 During the recount, while Gore strategized with his lawyers behind 0:10:54.550 --> 0:10:57.551 the scenes, Lieberman appeared on TV as something between an 0:10:57.590 --> 0:11:00.910 attack dog and a cheerleader. Day after day he defended 0:11:00.910 --> 0:11:03.630 the Democratic line and calmly predicted that when all the 0:11:03.710 --> 0:11:06.270 votes were counted, he and Gore would be victorious. 0:11:06.670 --> 0:11:08.550 We think we want if we think if all the 0:11:08.631 --> 0:11:11.271 votes in Florida. Aret it not only will we have 0:11:11.391 --> 0:11:14.630 won the popular vote in America, Al Gore and I 0:11:14.670 --> 0:11:17.671 would have won the election. Maybe our opponents think that too, 0:11:17.710 --> 0:11:20.271 and that's why they don't want those votes to be counted. 0:11:20.550 --> 0:11:24.071 With Gore facing intense criticism over Mark Heron's memo, the 0:11:24.151 --> 0:11:26.871 campaign looked to Liberman to come in and play the enforcer. 0:11:27.790 --> 0:11:31.070 On Saturday, November eighteenth, Lieberman was briefed on the Haroan 0:11:31.111 --> 0:11:34.030 memo over the phone, and the next morning he appeared 0:11:34.070 --> 0:11:35.471 on Meet the Press with Tim Russard. 0:11:35.590 --> 0:11:38.511 Senator Joseph Lieberman is with us, welcome back, warning Tim 0:11:38.550 --> 0:11:40.271 still a senator, not Vice president. 0:11:40.391 --> 0:11:43.991 Russert brought up the Heron memo almost immediately. 0:11:43.550 --> 0:11:45.271 And people are very, very concerned. 0:11:45.271 --> 0:11:47.751 They point to a memo written by. 0:11:47.590 --> 0:11:52.030 Mark Herron, a lawyer who assists the Gore campaign, telling 0:11:52.310 --> 0:11:55.511 Democratic lawyers, this is how you knock out balance from 0:11:55.590 --> 0:11:57.071 military people overseas. 0:11:57.351 --> 0:12:00.391 They don't have a postmark to the Gore operatives in Tallahassee. 0:12:00.511 --> 0:12:04.591 Watching Lieberman's appearance on TV, it was obvious how he 0:12:04.631 --> 0:12:05.711 should have responded. 0:12:06.151 --> 0:12:09.111 He was getting pounded, and the answers should have been 0:12:09.631 --> 0:12:11.790 we're for counting all votes that were cast on before 0:12:11.830 --> 0:12:12.511 election day. 0:12:12.751 --> 0:12:16.030 This is Nick Baldick, one of Gore's top lieutenants in Florida. 0:12:16.310 --> 0:12:18.791 You know there are proceedures to make sure that illegal 0:12:18.871 --> 0:12:21.670 votes don't come in after and those should be upheld. 0:12:22.070 --> 0:12:24.471 That would have been roughly the response I would have given. 0:12:24.670 --> 0:12:25.871 It was not the response he gave. 0:12:26.430 --> 0:12:30.471 Instead, Lieberman took a trip to Waffle City. He didn't 0:12:30.471 --> 0:12:33.191 even try to defend the campaign or make the argument 0:12:33.231 --> 0:12:36.030 for enforcing election law in the way Heron's memo had suggested. 0:12:36.550 --> 0:12:38.631 Again, Al Gore and I don't want to. I don't 0:12:38.670 --> 0:12:40.470 want to ever be part of anything that would put 0:12:40.471 --> 0:12:43.391 an extra burden on the military personnel abroad. 0:12:43.991 --> 0:12:46.030 If Joe Lieberman said this morning, count those. 0:12:45.790 --> 0:12:49.191 Baldick watched in disbelief as Lieberman threw Mark Herron and 0:12:49.231 --> 0:12:51.431 the Gore campaign as a whole under the bus. 0:12:51.830 --> 0:12:53.511 My own point of view, if I was there, I 0:12:53.511 --> 0:12:56.470 would give the benefit of the doubt to Bellot's coming 0:12:56.511 --> 0:13:01.191 in from a military personnel generally, but particularly in light 0:13:01.190 --> 0:13:03.070 of the letter and the kind of statements we've heard 0:13:03.070 --> 0:13:03.431 about it. 0:13:03.511 --> 0:13:06.070 But the here's Baldick again. 0:13:06.830 --> 0:13:10.790 I mean, I remember screaming at the television, being very 0:13:10.830 --> 0:13:16.310 angry when lots of people working with me, young people volunteers, 0:13:17.111 --> 0:13:20.470 had been across sixty seven counties trying to uphold the 0:13:20.550 --> 0:13:24.710 law and make sure the ballots from Maryland and ones 0:13:24.710 --> 0:13:28.391 that were sent obviously after election day were not counted illegally, 0:13:28.430 --> 0:13:32.550 and they were screamed at and called unpatriotic and had 0:13:32.590 --> 0:13:36.030 batteries thrown at them, and Senator Lieberman sold all those 0:13:36.030 --> 0:13:38.631 people out by just caving on that morning. 0:13:39.471 --> 0:13:42.310 Heron, who was also watching the interview from gore headquarters, 0:13:42.471 --> 0:13:43.631 did not take it well. 0:13:43.751 --> 0:13:45.910 It was like I'd been kicked in the stomach. I 0:13:46.030 --> 0:13:49.910 was quite sick, so to speak, and at that point 0:13:49.950 --> 0:13:53.111 in time I had to leave the building and walk 0:13:53.151 --> 0:13:56.711 around Tallahassee for a while. I just couldn't believe what 0:13:56.751 --> 0:13:57.231 he had done. 0:13:58.790 --> 0:14:01.071 Lieberman told me in an interview that he still remembers 0:14:01.070 --> 0:14:03.430 meeting with Gore after his TV appearance. 0:14:03.670 --> 0:14:06.990 And it was actually, as I recall, the only time 0:14:07.070 --> 0:14:10.030 during the whole campaign when now seemed to be disappoint 0:14:10.070 --> 0:14:11.310 pointed in something I'd done. 0:14:11.910 --> 0:14:15.430 But Lieberman maintains he did the right thing, the patriotic thing, 0:14:15.871 --> 0:14:19.031 the morally defensible thing by distancing the campaign from the 0:14:19.071 --> 0:14:19.871 Haroan memo. 0:14:19.911 --> 0:14:23.511 We Democrats believe in the franchise, and in fact that 0:14:23.590 --> 0:14:27.551 other parts of Florida were fighting because we were alleging 0:14:28.271 --> 0:14:32.591 that the Republican officials prevented some people from voting. 0:14:33.231 --> 0:14:36.471 Setting aside the legal merits of the Haroan memo, Lieberman 0:14:36.511 --> 0:14:38.711 says that he was concerned about how the campaign would 0:14:38.751 --> 0:14:41.951 look if he stood by it. What if Democrats ended 0:14:42.031 --> 0:14:44.511 up winning the White House and American soldiers believed that 0:14:44.551 --> 0:14:47.591 their own commander in chief had tried to disenfranchise them. 0:14:47.871 --> 0:14:50.631 And I must say the other thing that swung into 0:14:50.710 --> 0:14:53.511 action as Tim Ruster to meet to Posess with this 0:14:53.590 --> 0:14:56.631 question was wait a second, I don't want al Gaar 0:14:56.951 --> 0:14:59.391 and me to be seen as people who are gonna 0:14:59.871 --> 0:15:03.191 do anything to stop We want so much to win 0:15:04.031 --> 0:15:07.751 that we're going to block the vote of a soldier 0:15:07.830 --> 0:15:12.231 who's overseas serving us because he made some technical mistake. 0:15:12.911 --> 0:15:15.631 Lieberman wanted the campaign to commit to its count every 0:15:15.671 --> 0:15:19.351 vote mantra, even if he saw Republicans making contradictory arguments 0:15:19.351 --> 0:15:19.671 of their. 0:15:19.590 --> 0:15:24.711 Own, because both sides were being inconsistent. The Republicans were 0:15:24.710 --> 0:15:28.110 calling for technical adherence to the law in some parts 0:15:28.151 --> 0:15:30.391 of the state about cutting ballots, but they were saying, oh, 0:15:30.431 --> 0:15:32.511 you got to go a little easy on these soldiers. 0:15:33.071 --> 0:15:36.391 We were saying, in some parts of the state, you 0:15:36.511 --> 0:15:40.591 got to be a little easy on these voters, particularly 0:15:40.631 --> 0:15:44.951 minority voters, and not exclude them from voting. But in 0:15:44.991 --> 0:15:47.391 this case, we were saying, this is the letter of 0:15:47.431 --> 0:15:51.111 the law, so that these absmptee ballots can't be count it. 0:15:52.111 --> 0:15:55.471 After Liberman's appearance on Meet the Press, other Democrats joined 0:15:55.511 --> 0:15:58.111 him in calling for lenient standard on military ballots. 0:15:58.351 --> 0:16:01.350 That's the order from Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth. 0:16:02.071 --> 0:16:05.591 Among them was Bob Butterworth, the Democratic Attorney General of Florida. 0:16:05.391 --> 0:16:08.191 Saying no man or woman in military service to this 0:16:08.311 --> 0:16:12.271 nation should have his or vote rejected solely due to 0:16:12.311 --> 0:16:13.591 the absence of a post bar. 0:16:14.511 --> 0:16:17.231 It was not exactly a legal victory for Republicans, since 0:16:17.271 --> 0:16:20.191 neither Lieberman nor Butterworth had authority over any aspect of 0:16:20.191 --> 0:16:23.231 the recount, but symbolically it was devastating. 0:16:23.671 --> 0:16:27.791 The public relations fight over rejected overseas absentee ballots. 0:16:28.231 --> 0:16:29.231 On NBC's Meet. 0:16:29.111 --> 0:16:32.631 The Press, Joe Lieberman supports giving them quote the benefit 0:16:32.671 --> 0:16:33.111 of the doubt. 0:16:36.871 --> 0:16:47.271 More after the break. While the Gore campaign tried to 0:16:47.271 --> 0:16:50.791 play defense on overseas absentee ballots, the hand recount of 0:16:50.830 --> 0:16:53.710 regular old domestic ballots was continuing in fits and starts. 0:16:54.391 --> 0:16:56.830 The four counties where Gore had requested recounts were all 0:16:56.871 --> 0:17:00.271 at different stages of the process. Palm Beach and Broward 0:17:00.271 --> 0:17:03.870 had been added for several days, Volusia was already done. 0:17:03.991 --> 0:17:08.511 In Miami Dade, they hadn't even started yet. Now this 0:17:08.511 --> 0:17:11.071 feels like a good moment to confess some thing, which 0:17:11.111 --> 0:17:13.991 is that here at Fiasco, our journalistic bias towards the 0:17:14.031 --> 0:17:17.231 dramatic and dysfunctional means that Volusia and Broward, where the 0:17:17.271 --> 0:17:20.590 hand recounts went relatively smoothly, are getting short tripped on 0:17:20.630 --> 0:17:24.390 this podcast. It's not exactly fair, but shout out to 0:17:24.431 --> 0:17:26.470 them for doing such a good job counting votes. That 0:17:26.551 --> 0:17:29.871 hearing about it is not all that interesting. In Miami Dada, 0:17:29.870 --> 0:17:33.191 on the other hand, things were about to get turbulent. 0:17:35.350 --> 0:17:38.231 To be fair, the task before the Miami Dade canvassing 0:17:38.231 --> 0:17:41.471 board was enormous. It was the biggest county in Florida 0:17:41.471 --> 0:17:43.951 by a huge margin, and they had about six hundred 0:17:43.951 --> 0:17:47.191 and fifty thousand votes. To get through a recount would 0:17:47.191 --> 0:17:49.311 require a lot of manpower and a lot of time, 0:17:50.150 --> 0:17:52.511 and because of how many votes were at stake, both 0:17:52.551 --> 0:17:55.350 the Bush campaign and the Gore campaign were watching the 0:17:55.390 --> 0:17:58.071 process like hawks and fighting over it. 0:17:58.390 --> 0:18:01.671 Also like hawks, Republicans in Miami tried one last time 0:18:01.711 --> 0:18:05.350 this morning to prevent a handcount in Florida's most populist county. 0:18:05.471 --> 0:18:08.350 The effort failed, opening the door to a recount that 0:18:08.431 --> 0:18:11.311 could add hundreds, maybe thous of new votes to the 0:18:11.350 --> 0:18:12.031 state's total. 0:18:12.951 --> 0:18:15.390 The logistics of the recount in Miami Dade were pretty 0:18:15.431 --> 0:18:18.111 much the same as in Palm Beach. After going through 0:18:18.110 --> 0:18:21.071 a one percent sample of the overall vote, approximately six 0:18:21.110 --> 0:18:23.951 thousand ballots, the Canvassing board debated whether or not to 0:18:23.991 --> 0:18:28.271 conduct a full manual recount. After some hesitation, they decided 0:18:28.311 --> 0:18:28.710 to proceed. 0:18:28.830 --> 0:18:32.551 Miami Dade County, under pressure from the Gore campaign, decided 0:18:32.590 --> 0:18:35.870 that it too, will recount ballots by hand, meaning that 0:18:35.911 --> 0:18:39.590 heavily democratic Florida counties will be recounting more than one 0:18:39.630 --> 0:18:41.391 point seven million ballots. 0:18:42.271 --> 0:18:44.751 The eighteenth floor of the Stephen P. Clark Government Center 0:18:44.791 --> 0:18:48.870 in downtown Miami was converted into a publicly accessible recount room. 0:18:49.590 --> 0:18:51.350 Rows of tables and chairs were set up for the 0:18:51.350 --> 0:18:53.670 people doing the counting and the partisan volunteers who had 0:18:53.671 --> 0:18:56.590 been sent to watch over the proceedings. The three members 0:18:56.590 --> 0:18:58.590 of the canvassing board sat at a special table up 0:18:58.590 --> 0:19:01.551 front where they examined ballots that have been deemed ambiguous. 0:19:01.830 --> 0:19:04.551 It all began at nine to oh two. If you're counting, 0:19:04.671 --> 0:19:07.830 and these people certainly are to our Day County. 0:19:08.110 --> 0:19:11.231 The recount began on Monday, November twentieth, two days after 0:19:11.271 --> 0:19:13.071 the Big Florida Florida State football game. 0:19:13.471 --> 0:19:16.471 Four at each table in the highest stakes card game 0:19:16.511 --> 0:19:17.551 in the land, and. 0:19:18.071 --> 0:19:21.110 At first it looked like they might actually get it done. 0:19:21.150 --> 0:19:24.151 This was a very happy development for al Gore. As 0:19:24.191 --> 0:19:26.671 long as ballots were being counted, it meant he still 0:19:26.711 --> 0:19:28.751 had a chance of picking up new votes and eating 0:19:28.830 --> 0:19:29.671 into Bush's lead. 0:19:30.231 --> 0:19:33.551 Al Gore has picked up a net gain of eighteen votes, 0:19:33.590 --> 0:19:37.311 but there are six hundred and fourteen precincts total that 0:19:37.471 --> 0:19:38.471 must be recounted. 0:19:38.471 --> 0:19:41.671 In the next night, just before ten o'clock, the Gore 0:19:41.711 --> 0:19:45.631 team received even more good news, this time from Tallahassee, 0:19:45.791 --> 0:19:48.191 where the Florida Supreme Court had just issued a ruling. 0:19:49.390 --> 0:19:50.031 Good evening. 0:19:50.471 --> 0:19:52.390 My name is Craig Waters. I'm the spokesman for the 0:19:52.431 --> 0:19:54.710 Florida Supreme Court. I'm now going to read to you 0:19:54.711 --> 0:19:58.190 a statement that was authorized by the entire Court, the 0:19:58.231 --> 0:20:01.551 court halls that amended certifications from the county. 0:20:01.311 --> 0:20:04.190 Camp Remember, at this point, the manual recountscore had requested 0:20:04.271 --> 0:20:06.911 were being threatened by the Florida Secretary of State, who 0:20:06.991 --> 0:20:09.390 was refusing to accept what she called late vote counts. 0:20:10.350 --> 0:20:13.190 A few days earlier, the Florida Supreme Court had stepped 0:20:13.231 --> 0:20:15.791 in and blocked Catherine Harris from certifying the election results 0:20:15.830 --> 0:20:18.951 until they could weigh in. Oral arguments have been held 0:20:18.951 --> 0:20:22.711 on Monday, November twentieth. The central question at hand was 0:20:22.751 --> 0:20:25.710 whether Catherine Harris had acted improperly by refusing to accept 0:20:25.791 --> 0:20:28.870 late vote totals from the three counties still conducting handcounts. 0:20:29.590 --> 0:20:31.951 And now the seven justices of the Florida Supreme Court 0:20:32.071 --> 0:20:35.791 had handed down a unanimous ruling they were siding with Gore. 0:20:35.991 --> 0:20:39.231 The court saying hand counts in three Florida counties must 0:20:39.231 --> 0:20:41.791 be included in the state vote totals. 0:20:41.830 --> 0:20:44.991 This was a huge and potentially decisive victory for the 0:20:45.031 --> 0:20:45.631 Gore campaign. 0:20:45.751 --> 0:20:49.350 The court halls that amended certifications from the county canvassing 0:20:49.350 --> 0:20:53.071 boards must be accepted by the Election Canvassing Commission. 0:20:53.390 --> 0:20:55.871 As part of their ruling, the court set a new 0:20:55.951 --> 0:20:59.670 certification deadline of Sunday, November twenty sixth, at five pm, 0:21:00.271 --> 0:21:03.471 thereby giving the canvassing boards in Miami Dade, Palm Beach, 0:21:03.590 --> 0:21:07.791 and Broward five more days to count ballots. The ruling 0:21:07.830 --> 0:21:10.350 further specified that if the Secretary of State's officer was 0:21:10.390 --> 0:21:13.350