Gore suffers further setback

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, DEC. 2. The U.S. presidential election, which has been dragging on for over three weeks, witnessed another turn on Friday when the Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore, suffered a setback in three Florida courts.

The State Supreme Court refused to agree to an expedited ballot count sought by Mr. Gore's lawyers and unanimously refused to order a re-election in Palm Beach county. Separately, a Circuit Court judge refused to order a manual recount of disputed ballots unless evidence is taken first.

``On the one hand we are disappointed that the Supreme Court (Florida) didn't take this up immediately. On the other hand we understand it would have been a very unusual step,'' said Mr. Gore' chief attorney, Mr. David Boies. The Florida Supreme Court which was asked to intervene dismissed the petition ``without prejudice'', meaning the petition could be filed again.

The Palm Beach county ``butterfly ballot'' case, which did not involve Mr. Gore formally, was being watched with active interest by all. The State Supreme Court rejected the petition from some voters who argued, among other things, that a confusing design of the ballot made them inadvertently vote for the Reform Party candidate, Mr. Patrick Buchanan.

Summarising the decision of the State Supreme Court, a spokesman said the courts had generally declined to void an election unless defects in the ballots ``clearly operate to prevent a free, fair and open choice.''

It may be recalled that it was the so-called butterfly ballot in the Palm Beach county which started the whole election controversy in the State.

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