Word: palme
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...Even Palm Beach County may be getting its act together. After County Circuit Judge Jorge Labarge (the sixth judge in line after five recused themselves) dissolved the injunction preventing the county from certifying election results while the "butterfly ballot" lawsuits proceed, the board sent their tallies off to Tallahassee to be included in the final tally. That was about 30 minutes before the deadline...
...Miami-Dade County is moving ahead; Volusia County may ask for more time too. Broward County, after ditching a proposed hand count Monday, is considering reconsidering. Palm Beach will start its own manual recount 7 a.m. Wednesday morning, with little chance of completing it on time for Friday night; partial returns may be an option. Said a frustrated canvassing board member: "We've wasted three days of counting, basically...
...they're quietly celebrating their successful defense (to whatever extent it turns out to be successful) of the 5 p.m. deadline. At the very least, they see the Friday final tally emerging at decision time, and they hope that recounts in populous Democratic enclaves like Dade and Palm Beach won't have turned up enough Gore votes by then to beat them. In the meantime, they're intent on being the side that stops the insanity, so expect to hear more disarmament offers from James Baker and other Bush surrogates in the morning...
...Could it really be over on Saturday morning? Al Gore's lawyers can best answer that question, but for now they're ceding nothing. (An encouraging sign: Lately, sound bites about the "terrible injustice" of Palm beach's butterfly ballot have dropped off to nothing.) Gore's people continue to loudly push not for litigation, not for "partisan politics," but merely that all the votes be counted. So far, polls still show Americans are willing to wait. (And certainly the markets were cheerful enough Tuesday...
...then again, Boies' last clear statement was that the Gore campaign's goal wasn't litigation, but "making sure every vote is counted." And with Palm Beach County still paralyzed by its own lawsuits (a seventh judge is finally looking at lifting the injunction to let the county send its results in) and sitting on all those double-punched Gore votes just yearning to breathe free, the road ahead could be long and winding indeed...