Anxious wait for Gore, Bush

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, DEC. 8. The Bush and Gore campaigns, on Friday morning, were anxiously awaiting the decisions of the courts in Florida which would hopefully help determine the next President of the United States.

Much of the attention was on the Florida Supreme Court, whose verdict was to have come on Thursday itself. The seven justices went into a conference after the hearing and the standard refrain was that a ruling was expected ``anytime''.

The focus was also on two circuit courts in the State where lawyers representing the Texas Governor, Mr. George W. Bush, and independent Democratic voters presented arguments on the fate of some 25,000 absentee ballots in the Seminole and Martin counties.

If there was a consensus, it was that time was ticking away, a fact take note of by the judges of the State Supreme Court while hearing arguments from both sides. ``We are now here on December 7 with December 12 fast approaching. How can we resolve an issue like that at this late date?'' wondered a judge, Mr. Harry Lee Anstead.

On the question of jurisdiction, Mr. Bush's lawyer, Mr. Barry Richard, admitted that the State Supreme Court had the right to review the ruling of a trial court, but said there was very little merit in the case brought by the Gore campaign. ``There is nothing more than a garden variety appeal from a final judgment by a lower court that conducted an entire, full evidentiary hearing. We had an absolute failure on the part of the plaintiffs here.''

Lawyers for the Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore, pointed out that they had a purpose in seeking a recount of the votes rejected by the machine and which not been counted previously. ``There are two issues here. One is whether or not you demonstrated you were entitled to a recount of those 9,000 votes. And the other is whether or not you would actually win the contest,'' said another judge, Ms. Peggy Quince.

The court was also reminded of the fine line between interpreting existing law and writing a new law. ``There is just so much baggage the word interpretation can carry on its back before it becomes more of a change than it is an interpretation,'' said Mr. Joseph Klock, representing Florida's Secretary of State. ``Going from seven days to 19 days - that's a lot of baggage for the word to carry,'' he said referring to the court's earlier ruling changing the deadline of certification of the November 7 election from November 14 to November 26.

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