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Election 2000

Gore Supporter Ed Rendell and Bush Supporter Jim Nicholson on the latest on the recount in Florida

Gore, Bush, Whitehouse Photo November 10, 2000
8:05 p.m. EST

(CNN) – Ed Rendell, Democratic National Committee general chairman and Gore supporter, and Jim Nicholson, Republican National Committee chairman and Bush supporter joined the Crossfire Chat to discuss the latest on the voter recount in Florida.

Chat Moderator: Welcome back to the Crossfire chat room, Ed Rendell.

Ed Rendell: My pleasure.

Chat Moderator: Mr. Rendell, when should Gore consider conceding for the good of the country?

"If the hand count and the counting of the absentee ballots produce a plurality for Mr. Bush, I don't believe the vice president would pursue further action. However, understand that the individual voters have filed these lawsuits, and under Florida law, they must be heard and decided."
— Ed Rendell

Ed Rendell: Well, the Florida law says that the election cannot be certified until 10 days after the date of the election so that the overseas absentee ballots can all be counted. During that time, there will be sufficient opportunity for the hand count of precincts where the computer did not tally individual votes, and that should be completed by that time. Then the campaign will have to make a decision about pursuing a lawsuit involving Palm Beach County. However, since several individual citizens have filed lawsuits on the same issue, it is unlikely the campaign will file its own.

Question from JB: Mr. Rendell, shouldn't all ballots that didn’t record a presidential vote be hand counted across all the counties in Florida? Why do the Democrats want to restrict the hand count to their stronghold counties?

Ed Rendell: The law allows any party to ask for hand counting in any of the counties throughout the state. That's up to the Democrats and the Republicans to make those decisions. But I would not be against a statewide county-by-county hand count.

Question from DoublePunch: Why now! Why weren't these problems addressed when the outcome was not so important?

Ed Rendell: Well, that's a good question, and I think it was a mistake for party officials and campaign officials not to raise these questions. However, Florida law gives the right to individual voters to complain about ballots that are not in accordance with Florida law and are confusing and misleading.

Question from Joe: Will Gore concede even if the hand count doesn't go his way?

  MESSAGE BOARD
 

Ed Rendell: If the hand count and the counting of the absentee ballots produce a plurality for Mr. Bush, I don't believe the vice president would pursue further action. However, understand that the individual voters have filed these lawsuits, and under Florida law, they must be heard and decided. I must run. Thank you and goodbye.

Chat Moderator: Welcome back to the Crossfire chat room, Jim Nicholson.

Jim Nicholson: Good evening, nice to be with you.

Question from RustyM: Can the government stop Florida's Electoral College from voting, regardless of the voter count?

Jim Nicholson: When we're talking about this matter, we're talking about something for which there is no precedent -- in our history. I think that it would be very unlikely that the people of Florida would not be heard from at the Electoral College, and I think this whole situation is fraught with danger for our country.

We've had a vote, the votes have been counted twice in Florida and Governor Bush is the winner. And we think that Vice-President Gore should respect that and, in the interest of our country above all, concede the election so that we can avoid chaos, bring finality to this election and preserve our democracy and our Constitution.

Question from Dove: If the ballot is against Florida law, why did the Democrats not say something when they first saw it?

Jim Nicholson: That's a good question. This is a ballot that had been approved by the chief election officer in Palm Beach County, who is a Democrat. It had been published in the paper, and sample ballots had been distributed to people in the county, including the local congressman who is now objecting to it, but no one objected to it beforehand. Florida law states clearly that if you want to object to a ballot, you have to do it before it is used, not after, because you don't like the outcome.

Question from Pleasant: If Gore wins Florida with the absentee ballots, will Bush pursue the other four states that are close in the vote?

Jim Nicholson: That's a hypothetical question that I can't answer. It's unlikely that that will happen based on historical performance, which shows that Republicans usually always get more of the absentee votes than Democrats.

Question from DougU: Could this go all the way to the Supreme Court?

Jim Nicholson: I hope not. I don't think we should put the country through this; we should have mature, patriotic leadership that will prevail and not allow this to turn into chaos, because it will be too hard on our country and our democracy. And the elections should be decided by voters and not by lawyers and judges, and that is what Senator Torricelli, the Democrat senator from New Jersey, said himself yesterday.

Chat Moderator: How will this situation affect the next administration's ability to work with Congress?

Jim Nicholson: This is why we need Governor Bush as president, because he has a proven track record of bringing people together from both sides of the aisle to get things done for the people -- not worrying about who gets the credit.

Question from Zaydon: How could the exit polls show Gore as the winner of the state and only after the actual votes were counted, we find Bush the winner?

Jim Nicholson: The exit polls and the networks made a colossal mistake -- they predicted Gore the winner of Florida before the polls were even closed and caused a lot of people in northwest Florida to get out of line and go home, or not to go vote, because they were informed that Florida was already in the bag for Gore. This was a huge disservice to the people of Florida and to Governor Bush and to the cause of democracy.

Question from Ou22: I think we can reasonably assume that if Palm Beach County revoted, Gore would win Florida. Doesn't it make Bush's campaign look bad to try to deny these voters the right to revote?

Jim Nicholson: That's a faulty assumption. By counting votes and ballots that were not properly voted, we cannot determine what the intent of the voter was. We can only count the way they voted. Additionally, there were a lot of people in Florida who were misinformed by the television networks in very strong Republican counties, saying that Gore had won Florida. And they did not go vote as a result, because they were told that their vote wouldn't count.

Ed Rendell: I agree with Jim's last point. I think that what the networks did with the premature call on Election Night was irresponsible and unfair to voters in the Florida panhandle who are in a different time zone. The networks should enter an agreement to call no election over until at least 75 percent of the precincts have reported.

Question from Alan: Is it true that the Florida ballots and the Illinois ballets were very similar?

It certainly should. They have acted irresponsibly, and there needs to be more accountability with respect to the media and the potential effect that it can have on our democratic processes -- witness last Tuesday night.
— Jim Nicholson

Jim Nicholson: I know that the Cook County ballot, which is the home of Gore's campaign manager, Bill Daley, used a ballot very similar to that used in Palm Beach County and is referred to as a "butterfly ballot."

Ed Rendell: Jim is incorrect; the butterfly ballot in Cook County is only used in judicial elections, and if you examine it and the Palm Beach County ballot, they are not alike at all.

Question from MDinMD: Wouldn't that early call have hurt Gore at least as much as Bush by giving the go-ahead for liberals to vote Nader?

Ed Rendell: I think it's hard to say whom it hurt the most. The caller makes a good point, but the real conclusion is the networks should restrain themselves from making these early calls. There is just too much rush to be first, and it's irresponsible.

Jim Nicholson: Ed Rendell is incorrect. It hurt Governor Bush the most, because it was the solidly Republican counties in the panhandle of Florida who were still voting when the call was made, and there aren't many liberals up there who would've voted for Ralph Nader. That was solidly Bush country, and they were still voting when they made the call that Florida had gone for Gore.

And moreover, it had a tremendous effect on people west and north of Florida in the rest of the country in earlier time zones, because they too were told that Florida had gone for Gore. So, how many of them did not vote either or got out of line as a result of that?

Question from TXDEM: How can Bush want to be declared winner under this cloud?

Jim Nicholson: The cloud was put there by Gore. The votes have been counted and recounted in Florida, and Mr. Bush has the most votes. And in the entire previous history of our country, the person who doesn't have the most votes concedes to the person who does, and there are examples of close elections and irregularities.

For example, in 1960 Richard Nixon lost to John Kennedy by one vote per precinct in Illinois, and it was known that there had been voter irregularities in Illinois. And many people urged Richard Nixon to fight the outcome, but he said he was not going to do that, even though he agreed with them, that he was going to follow an honorable tradition and put patriotism over partisanship. We now ask Vice-President Gore to step up and do the same.

Ed Rendell: Jim is wrong on several counts. First of all, the cloud was put there, not by Vice President Gore, but by an illegal ballot in Palm Beach County that caused mass confusion among 30,000 voters. Secondly, Vice-President Gore did not ask for the recount; in an election this close, it is mandatory under Florida law.

Thirdly, Jim's analogy to President Nixon is also not on point, because a reversal of the electoral votes in Illinois would not have been enough to throw the election to Mr. Nixon, and Mr. Nixon had not won the popular vote, as Vice-President Gore has.

Question from They: Do you think that media’s negative effects on this election will affect how they will handle the next election?

Jim Nicholson: It certainly should. They have acted irresponsibly, and there needs to be more accountability with respect to the media and the potential effect that it can have on our democratic processes -- witness last Tuesday night.

Ed Rendell: I agree with Jim. He is 100 percent correct. Unfortunately, we are probably powerless to hold the media accountable, because of the First Amendment, but they, in the name of what's fair and right, should police themselves and refrain from this type of activity, which can produce such unfortunate results.

Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us, Jim Nicholson.

Jim Nicholson: Good evening, and good evening to you, Ed.

Ed Rendell: Goodnight to everyone, and I'll see Jim in a little while on TV.

Ed Rendell joined the Crossfire Chat via telephone from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jim Nicholson joined the Crossfire Chat via telephone from Washington, D.C. CNN.com provided a typist for Mr. Rendell and Mr. Nicholson. The above is an edited transcript of that chat, which took place on Friday, November 10, 2000.



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Presidential race 2000

RELATED STORIES:
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RELATED SITES:
CNN's Election 2000
Battleground States
Ed Rendell's Biography
Jim Nicholson
Al Gore's Web Site
George W. Bush's Website

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