Jeff Flock on the race to recount in Palm Beach County

Jeff Flock

CNN Correspondent Jeff Flock has been covering events at the Palm Beach County, Florida, courthouse, which became the center of attention Sunday as county canvassing board members tabulated results from thousands of ballots during an exhaustive vote-counting session that lasted more than 24 hours.

Q: Is there a feeling among voting officials there that they have participated in a historic moment?

Flock: Yes, all week long the gravity of the situation seemed to be apparent to them, but today they appeared to be overwhelmed by the task at hand and making the 5 p.m. deadline.

Q: What is your feeling about how much or how little canvassing board members have welcomed the crucial position the election deadlock has put them in?

Flock: I don't think they have shied away from the task before them. In fact, board member Carol Roberts earlier in the process said she was willing to go to jail after another board member suggested that continuing the canvassing process at that time might violate the law.

Q: How has the protester turnout been today?

Flock: A comparatively small number of protesters today. Yesterday they blocked off the two northbound lanes of Military Trail, the road the operations center sits on. A largely Republican group of protesters carried signs, chatted and sang songs. Today there is a much smaller group of Republican protesters who have been joined by a number of Gore supporters.

Q: Have canvassing board members expressed any fear that results from their marathon vote-counting session will be nullified in a courtroom and therefore be a wasted effort?

Flock: All along they have believed that it was important to go through this exercise. They realize they don't control the final disposition of these votes while faced with the prospect that the court would rule that the votes would not count even before they were finished. Many counters and observers said they thought it would be important to finish their work anyway.