Comments from the Gore and Bush camps yesterday as the dispute over the Florida results continued:
Since Election Day we have had a single fundamental goal: to ensure a complete count of all of the votes cast in Florida. Not recount after recount, as some have charged, but a single full and accurate count. ...
I understand that this process needs to be completed in a way that is expeditious, as well as fair. We cannot jeopardize an orderly transition of power to the next administration, nor need we do so. ...
Let me repeat the essence of our proposal today: Seven days, starting tomorrow, for a full and accurate count of all the votes. Once we have that full and accurate count of the ballots cast, then we will know who our next president is and our country can move forward.
Unfortunately, just about an hour ago, Governor Bush's lawyers rejected this proposal. Instead, they have proposed two weeks of additional court proceedings and additional hearings, right up to the Dec. 12 deadline for seating electors. And under their plan, none of the thousands of votes that remain to be counted would be counted at all.
I believe this is a time to count every vote and not to run out the clock. This is not a time for delay, obstruction, and procedural roadblocks ...
What is wrong with counting the votes? I'll tell you what's wrong with not counting the votes. If you ignore the votes, you ignore democracy itself. You ignore the will of the people. You ignore the basic principle upon which our whole system of self-government is based.
That principle is the consent of the governed. And the consent of the governed is expressed in elections, through ballots, votes that are cast by the people.
Vice President Al Gore
Earlier this afternoon, Vice President Gore made some additional comments about his challenge to the outcome of the election in Florida. Having failed to make his case with the American people last night, he apparently felt the need to restate his arguments.
The vice president said today that he wants the process to arrive at, and I quote, ''a fair, expeditious, and truly democratic conclusion.'' As people across America are realizing, it already has.
We had a count of the votes in Florida, and then a complete recount of all those votes, and then a selective manual recount of some of those votes. We had one deadline for certification of the votes that was set by Florida law before the election, and then we had another deadline for certification of the votes that was ordered by the Florida Supreme Court after the election...
And now, having come up short in all those counts and all those times, Vice President Gore is proposing to make up yet another set of rules. He proposes yet another count and yet another deadline. Common sense does not allow it and the rights of the citizens of Florida to have their votes count do not allow it.
We have previously talked about attempts to change the rules in the middle of the game. Now, regrettably, it appears that the vice president wants to go back and change the rules after the counting is over. The vice president has now instructed his lawyers to go back to court to try to overturn the certified results of the Florida election. ...
The law allows up to 10 days for us to respond to the vice president's challenge to the outcome of the election. The judge, in his order yesterday, cut that time by more than half to four days. The judge set forth a timetable yesterday of having us come to court by Friday, and we will abide by that timetable.
Karen Hughes
Spokeswoman for George W. Bush
